Understanding the Difference between a Cloud-native and a Hosted

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frost.com

Understanding the Difference between a Cloud-native and a Hosted Solution Frost & Sullivan defines a cloud-based contact center as a flexible, scalable and shared environment in which the solution is deployed as-a-service and is optimized to run over public networks (i.e., the internet). Our research consistently shows that the vast majority of organizations have moved some or all of their IT applications and infrastructure to the cloud. Companies are embracing the delivery system for a wide variety of reasons, including faster time to deployment, the Op-Ex vs. Cap-ex cost model, scalability, flexibility, streamlined management “ A lot of vendors say they’re and support, and the ability to roll out new applications as soon as mangers cloud, but when you look under are ready to do so. Most organizations are initially attracted to the cost savings the covers, they aren’t, really.” and scalability, followed by management efficiencies and faster adoption of – Bruce Westenskow, CTO at Clearlink. new products and services. However, it’s important to understand the difference between a hosted solution and a cloud-native solution. Many hosted providers base their offerings on applications that were originally designed to run on premises; because they were purpose-built to operate as a single instance for a single business, they are more resource-heavy on the back end than cloud-native apps, which are built from the ground up to operate in a multi-tenant environment. It is also typically easier to automate the provisioning process and service management, and more effectively employ e-commerce, with a cloud-native architecture. Most on-premises solutions required heavy, custom engineering, which usually carries over into their hosted versions. In comparison, most cloud-native solutions leverage flexible, intuitive user portals that greatly facilitate provisioning, admin and management. Providers can then pass those savings onto their customers, while ensuring they receive the most streamlined experience possible. Resource-wise (compute, storage, memory), hosted software is usually more expensive to operate, since it was not originally optimized for a cloud environment. Finally, cloud-native apps are typically built on an agile development model, which makes it easier to add new features and functionality. Updates come more often and are essentially automatic—when the new version is ready, the user sees it on her log-in screen, without any need for IT involvement or end-user action. That gets agents up and running on new capabilities faster—and lets companies benefit from an even better return on investment.

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