Unique Solution Allows Companies to Move Communications to the Cloud However They Wish
ShoreTel® , the leading provider brilliantly simple phone systems and unified communications (UC) solutions, has rolled out ShoreTel Connect™ HYBRID Sites in North America, which enables companies to mix-and-match Connect ONSITE and Connect CLOUD services and applications across multiple locations.
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites provides a flexible 
communications solution that allows companies to move at their own pace and as their business needs dictate to full and mixed cloud deployments, while protecting existing communications investments. ShoreTel Connect can be configured multiple ways and across multiple geographies to fit with individual company growth and business models; ensuring that what companies select today will grow with them as their needs change in the future.
ShoreTel is offering its customers maximum flexibility in consuming Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS). “Many customers want to take advantage of UCaaS capabilities, and at the same time they want to leverage their existing assets and business processes,” said Eugenia Corrales, senior vice president of product at ShoreTel. “Businesses now have the flexibility to optimize communications services and applications while migrating payments to a subscription-based model.”
ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites provides automated directory synchronization, a common dial plan that allows extension-to-extension dialing, and feature parity for the mixed deployment model, all in a highly secure manner.
UC Strategies analyst Dave Michels discussed a new Hybrid 2.0 approach in a recent whitepaper that matches the unique benefit of ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites. Michels notes, “Hybrid 2.0 represents a cloud-onsite combination designed from the get-go to work together” from a single solution. With this approach, he adds, “The hybrid architecture is a destination, instead of a transitional strategy,” enabling companies to take an incremental path to the cloud.
Long-time channel partner Harbor Networks is excited about Connect HYBRID Sites as a product as well as its ease of set-up and installation. “Connect HYBRID Sites is impressive technology, with extremely simple set-up and supportability, and a thoroughly clever design,” says Jeremy Vignaux, vice president of technology at Harbor Networks. “Specifically, the fact the SIP trunk TIE line doesn’t require an SBC at the customer site, firewall modifications or practically any network configuration is a refreshing change in the SIP world. And the automated configuration of the Connect ONSITE system via cloud provisioning is also impressive.”
Benefits of ShoreTel Connect HYBRID Sites include the ability to:
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Add new cloud remote office locations to a company network without capital expense.
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Add new accounts, including seasonal teleworkers, without IT operational impact.
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Deploy a single communications solution across a global business, deploying onsite in locations where cloud services are not available.
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Give all employees the same intuitive ShoreTel Connect user experience at all locations, no matter whether call control is in the cloud or onsite.
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Control the financial strategy of transitioning from capital to operational expense models.
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Grow the communications system as the business needs change with the greatest deployment flexibility and investment protection.
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Protect sensitive communications using highly secure signaling protocols and 100 percent encrypted voice traffic.
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Provide a clear migration path from an onsite deployment to an all-cloud or mixed onsite/cloud hybrid deployment if the business is ready for this change.
