Read this article to find out how CBTS-managed on-premises private cloud helped improve a world-leading aviation manufacturer and service provider’s flight safety.

In the modern business environment, speed is of the essence. Whether you are in high finance, medical research, or industrial manufacturing, being first to market is a huge competitive advantage.

This need for speed extends all the way down the business chain, of course: from the primary business to the most mundane support services. Everything needs to move fast—otherwise, lost business could be the price.

The challenge: Improve flight safety through accelerated engine analytics

Recently, CBTS was contacted by a world-leading aviation manufacturer and service provider that services some of the most powerful commercial jet engines in the world. They needed to accelerate their analysis of engine flight health and safety data in order to respond more quickly to mechanical incidents and enhance their proactive preventative maintenance capabilities. At the same time, they needed to cut costs by reducing the number of workstations on the factory floor and centralize data management under a single repository that would support a general-purpose analytics engine.

Ideally, the company was looking for improved timing of analytics of each engine it serviced upon landing. This could translate into thousands of health checks every day, coupled with rapid response procedures, should any mechanical maintenance issues be detected.

The solution: A CBTS-managed on-premises private cloud

In its initial assessment of the project, CBTS determined that two key factors were the massive amount of data involved and the need for stringent security.

The solution was to deploy an on-premises private cloud featuring Kubernetes-based clustered microservices. This, in turn, supported a full DevOps environment that dramatically reduced the time needed to run complex analytics while also providing the agility to implement continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) of new services.

CBTS does more than simply design and implement solutions, however. We provide long-term, end-to-end management and monitoring in the infrastructure, as well as a 24×7 incident response program. Additionally, we implement an automated failover process in the event of, say, a Master or Worker node impairment. In such a case, the environment will kill the node and rebuild it from scratch utilizing the automation capabilities of the Kubernetes control plane. This process, along with a redundant network and computer infrastructure, eliminates the single point of failure that hampers most analytics architectures. At the same time, the system’s AI-based monitoring and predictive analysis tools provide deep insight and forecasting of maintenance issues and strive to continuously reduce costs, streamline processes and resource consumption, and improve operations.

The result: A state-of-the-art next-gen analytics ecosystem

Today, the client is outfitted with a state-of-the-art analytics ecosystem that supports next-generation agile workflows and processes. After some application refactoring, the company’s predictive analytics on engine flight data are now being delivered in a fraction of the time compared to the previous infrastructure. In addition, a digital twin of the flight engine is created within the CBTS managed private cloud, allowing engineers to rapidly assess engine health before take-off to improve safety and lessen ground time.

Meanwhile, CBTS provides full-time monitoring, management, and maintenance of the entire system, allowing the client to offload daily responsibilities to our expert management team. In addition to cutting down the time it takes to identify problems with the system from 24 plus hours down to three, it allows internal IT staff to focus more on strategic, mission-critical initiatives that produce a direct benefit to the company’s bottom line.

Summary: Implementing a private cloud improves business processes

Improving the speed of core business processes is a priority in the digital age, but this must not come at the expense of reliability and availability. Through a private cloud equipped with advanced automation, organizations are finding that they can become better, faster, and more flexible, all at a lower cost point than under existing infrastructure.

To find out how CBTS can help you with your digital transformation, contact us.

Time is growing short for the enterprise to begin the process of transforming traditional data infrastructure and business models to more flexible constructs tailored to the delivery of digital services. The service economy is preparing to kick into high gear in 2020 with the introduction of 5G wireless and advanced technologies like machine learning, which means organizations that cling to legacy static infrastructure and processes will find it difficult, if not impossible, to compete for new digital-savvy customers.

A key element in this transition is the cloud. By implementing public and private architectures quickly and thoroughly, the enterprise gains a huge advantage when it comes to tailoring environments to key applications and workloads. In both the development stage and during ongoing production environments, the cloud provides broad flexibility needed to push new product functionality to market faster, while at the same time controlling overall IT costs through dynamic scaling, automated management and other orchestration capabilities.

The best way to go about this, of course, is to partner with leaders in the field. While it is important to select a top cloud platform, it is also crucial to align with a leading technology consultant with expertise in other mission critical applications that support voice, data, networking, managed services, and the plethora of other elements that make up a well-rounded digital enterprise.

Forward-looking cloud

In this light, more and more enterprises are coming to the conclusion that a managed public cloud powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the best way forward. Not only does Amazon serve more businesses than any other provider, it offers a wide range of architectures for small, mid-sized and large enterprises, and it has a proven track-record of providing cutting edge technologies.

For organizations that lack the in-house expertise in cloud infrastructure, engaging with a cloud provider with a myriad of optional services can be daunting. This is why a solid partner like CBTS is vital, both during and after the crucial transition phase. With CBTS, enterprise executives gain instant access to years of experience designing, developing, and managing complex cloud architectures, including the ability to tailor this new environment to the unique legacy infrastructure and forward-looking business objectives. As a certified partner in AWS’ Well-Architected Framework program, CBTS has devoted significant effort and resources to mastering the five pillars of cloud development:

• Operational excellence. The ability to run and monitor systems to deliver business value and continually improve supporting processes and procedures
• Security. The ability to protect information, systems, and assets while delivering business value through risk assessments and mitigation strategies
• Reliability. The ability of a system to recover from infrastructure or service disruptions, dynamically acquire computing resources to meet demand, and mitigate disruptions caused by misconfigurations, transient network issues, or other causes.
• Performance efficiency. The ability to use computing resources efficiently to meet system requirements, and to maintain that efficiency as demand changes and technologies evolve.
• Cost optimization. The ability to run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point.

Experience, Skills, and Certifications

A successful Well-Architected Framework environment requires more than just good design and execution; it also requires experienced management on an ongoing basis. Again, CBTS has invested substantial time and effort to ensure our customers are not left high and dry once the data and application migrations are complete. We provide a fully managed service across public and private architectures, employing the latest in intelligent management and automation systems, to ensure the cloud functions at peak performance and efficiency at all times.

By partnering with CBTS as managed cloud provider and a leading specialist in application digital transformation, enterprise executives can rest assured that the transition to a digital business model will take place in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

To learn more about CBTS cloud solutions powered by AWS, download the e-book.

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Delivering the promise of Microsoft Workloads on AWS

This article provides a brief synopsis of how serverless technology transformed the Greater Cleveland RTA’s Short Message Service system. To learn more about this real-world serverless example, download the full case study.

Mass transit authorities are facing a wealth of challenges as they head into a new decade.

From the cost of maintaining infrastructure to keep up with growing populations to ensuring public safety and security, transportation officials find themselves caught between the rock of municipal budget limitations and the hard place of increasingly demanding consumers.

A prime example is the Greater Cleveland Regional Transportation Authority (RTA). The Greater Cleveland RTA serves upwards of 44 million people in the city of Cleveland and its surrounding suburbs.

Primary problem – antiquated Engagement System unable to sustain growth

The organization employs a state-of-the-art emergency communications system. Its antiquated Engagement System was used to relay general safety messages to riders and to report their concerns. This system was struggling to keep up with expanding workloads.

One of the problems was an inability to quickly develop, and ultimately support, cloud-native applications. This is crucial in the transition from traditional IT architectures toward a more service-driven strategy.

In the digital economy, applications require far less latency than what is available from traditional on-premises infrastructure, particularly when the data environment scales to multiple geographically distributed data centers.

Clearly, Cleveland RTA needed a next-generation solution to solve a next-generation problem.

Solution – a serverless cloud architecture

Ultimately, the organization chose to deploy a serverless cloud architecture backed by CBTS cloud management and support. This change opened a wealth of new tools to create a modern communications framework, including:

• AI from IBM Watson
• Text messaging technology from Twilio
• AWS Lambda services
• LiveChat capabilities

Even at this early stage of the deployment, the results have been impressive.

Safety improved with direct to dispatch short message service application

The RTA has been able to field a state-of-the-art Short Message Service (SMS) texting application. This application allows riders to transmit safety concerns and other issues directly to dispatchers from their cell phones.

This service is designed for non-emergency issues such as helping a lost child, reporting vandalism, or alerting officials to potential safety concerns. And as with any text, these messages can contain photos, videos, and other attachments. These attachments provide transit officials with more information about the concern. They also assist the rider with maps, instructions, or other tools.

Improved service and lowered costs with AI

In addition, the service provides a real-time dashboard that combines current and historical data with IBM Watson and other Big Data tools to improve service and lower costs.

This gives transit officials valuable information to direct equipment, personnel, and other resources to where they are needed most at any given moment. At the same time, the impact of various solutions over time are gauged to ensure a steadily improving transportation experience for employees and riders alike.

AI can also be used to automate many routine queries from riders, directing them to the proper knowledge stores or otherwise resolving issues much faster than a human operator.

The overall benefit of implementing serverless architectures

The overall benefit of the solution has been to streamline communications between transit operators and the traveling public.

Gone are the days when complaints or concerns were submitted manually, on paper, and then dealt with at the slow pace of the bureaucratic process. Today’s rider can submit a query or make a comment to the authority through a simple text. Just as quickly, they can get an accurate, informative response that is appropriate to the nature of the concern.

And best of all, the system gets better over time as both riders and operators become more familiar with its capabilities.

Conclusion

In this digital age, even public authorities must keep up with the demands of the public.

As new generations of commuters enter the workforce, they expect the same kind of functionality in their transportation as they receive on social platforms, productivity solutions, and shopping sites. Serverless architectures allow organizations to quickly create these environments, even when budgets are tight and there is no guarantee that the new services they support will contribute to additional revenues.

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Transform your business with a serverless solution

Serverless vs containers: complementary or competing technologies?

Serverless computing, which is commonly deployed using cloud computing services such as Function as a Service (FaaS), is a new technology that has the potential to transform your business into a dynamic, flexible, service-oriented operational model of the future.

Experts project that serverless solutions will be one of the top ten trends affecting digital infrastructure in 2019.

By 2021, 90% of enterprises that use Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) will also use some type of serverless Platform as a Service (PaaS).

What is serverless computing?

Serverless computing is a cloud-based execution model in which functions are executed off-premises in the cloud.

Despite its name, serverless computing does not eliminate the need for a server. Rather, serverless computing uses a cloud provider’s infrastructure to run the application automatically and at scale based on immediate, individual requests.

The cloud provider maintains the server and manages resource allocation to burst and contract elastically as required. Pricing is based on the amount of resources consumed rather than on pre-purchased units of capacity.

2014: Function as a Service gives rise to the dawn of serverless solutions

Serverless computing arrived in 2014 with the release of AWS Lambda, a Function as a Service (FaaS) platform that offered a function-oriented model and per invocation billing.

Other serverless computing options arrived shortly thereafter.

The most effective way to transition to a serverless environment is to pick from one of the many serverless platforms available and take full advantage of its toolset.

Current serverless computing options include:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS). The first major cloud provider to offer FaaS capability, AWS Lambda allows functions to be triggered by an increasing number of other services.
• Microsoft Azure. Using a more structured configuration model, Azure simplifies the code required to integrate with other services by allowing input and output bindings to be attached to the function.
• Google Cloud Platform. Google Cloud Platform offers some of the same integration capabilities as AWS and Azure and provides well-integrated support through Stackdriver. 
• IBM Bluemix/OpenWhisk. An open-source project that allows complete visibility into the workings of the FaaS platform, BlueMix allows you to run OpenWhisk on your own on-premises infrastructure, in the cloud, or as a fully managed platform.

Other FaaS platform options are available but may offer limited access to functions or fewer additional services.

Serverless computing and your business

Serverless computing allows developers to create applications that are designed to run in the cloud and are billed by the amount of time the process is running. This eliminates concerns over provisioning, scaling, and management.

Serverless computing will allow your enterprise to embrace digital transformation and optimize the opportunities created by the modernization of the application and infrastructure stack that will usher in new modes of automation, management, DevOps, and security.  

Learn how organizations are leveraging software defined networking to accomplish their digital transformation.

The continued surge in digital business initiatives leveraging cloud-based IT delivery is a force that’s reshaping the enterprise network landscape and moving clients toward software defined networking.

The ever-rising cost model associated with traditional networking makes for an inflexible and highly inefficient solution in terms of capital allocation. Costs include replacing obsolete hardware and applications, securing the proper IT staff to manage and maintain the infrastructure, and relying on multiple vendors for deployment and ongoing support.

The future of networking is the cloud. We are increasingly deploying sensitive data migrations to the cloud as our clients’ on-premise data centers and servers reach end-of-life. We are also delivering more cloud-based applications as a service, which are scalable and tailored to your unique business needs.

After decades of sharpening network performance and adding on new features, the future of network innovation will require a strategic focus on:

1. Operational simplicity
2. Automation
3. Reliability
4. Scalability
5. Solutions with flexible business models

Read the full report

Operational innovation and the network of the future

Network leaders should focus on solutions that simplify the deployment and operation of the network. Zero-touch configuration, orchestration with application programming interfaces (APIs), business-policy-based configurations, automation, and virtualization are just a few of these solutions.

Organizations should aim to future-proof enterprise data center investments by preferring solutions like software defined networking that can extend management capabilities into a multi-cloud environment.

Software defined networking increases connectivity, efficiency

CBTS Software Defined-Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) powered by VeloCloud, now part of VMware, provides limitless and optimized access across the entire enterprise organization for cloud applications and services. At the same time, it simplifies implementations and centrally manages all network activity.

CBTS SD-WAN delivers:

• Maximized MPLS connections. Augment current, costly MPLS with a cheaper secondary connection, or even replace MPLS entirely in favor of broadband with SD-WAN.
• Orchestrated services. SD-WAN orchestrates services among Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Local Area Networks (LANs), Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, security systems, and private and public clouds, including clouds hosted on Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS platforms.
• Optimized usage. SD-WAN enables IT managers to build in rules for applications, specify 100 percent uptime for a specific application, and deliver remediation of packet loss or jitter.
• Improved Quality of Service (QoS). The centralized, policy-based routing capability of SD-WAN can increase the performance and reliability of branch networks.
• Successful business outcomes. SD-WAN delivers cost savings, drastic improvements on end-to-end voice and video communication, more efficient use of private and public networks, and the ability to optimize hybrid network activity and application-aware routing.

To stay competitive, distributed organizations are looking to SD-WAN to overcome today’s branch network challenges of expensive bandwidth, infrastructure complexity, and rigid architectures.

SD-WAN alleviates top networking concerns

SD-WAN addresses our clients’ top networking issues as it provides a centralized network that optimizes cloud computing, improves security, and increases visibility in a single solution. SD-WAN also lowers bandwidth costs.

Backed up by superior engineering, CBTS SD-WAN adopts a transformational approach to simplify branch office networking, assure optimal application performance, and overcome existing network barriers.

How SD-WAN overcomes your network barriers

Our purpose-built enterprise solution allows businesses to:

• Address performance issues where latency, distributed data sources and applications, and broad access to systems across locations, devices, and geographies may all come into play.
• Deliver high performance for the next-generation of business applications.
• Innovate and transform business outcomes with enhanced real-time operations and business agility.
• Eliminate capEx, the traditional capital investment in IT infrastructure.
• Leave behind the complexity and high costs associated with building, sourcing and supporting high performance and leading-edge technology.
• Pay less for an agile, high-performance network.

Why SD-WAN as a managed service is the solution

The simplicity and cost advantages of SD-WAN make it an excellent candidate for cloud-based fully managed services, even at the enterprise level.

When you partner with a managed SD-WAN provider, you hand off a substantial volume of networking duties to CBTS experts who design, implement, manage, and monitor your remote-office networking 24x7x365.

Managed SD-WAN from CBTS helps enterprises move beyond MPLS connectivity to overcome network barriers. Our experts have decades of experience with data centers, networking technologies, and enterprise-level IT challenges. With every enterprise embracing big data, machine learning, and advanced analytics to survive disruptive threats, the fully managed option can give your company a computing edge.

Pairing our SD-WAN solution with our expert support makes for a white-glove solution package that is tailored to meet your business needs.

The adoption of cloud technologies, such as SD-WAN, requires a comprehensive strategy along with the trust and reassurance of a proven IT partner.

Look for a partner with all of these capabilities:

• Ability to assess your existing network and develop a customized technology roadmap that addresses both your organization’s current needs and its future business goals.
• Support for both wired and wireless technologies as well as public and private transport.
• Cloud management that enables remote provisioning and global management from a single central location.
• Intelligent load balancing that uses all available bandwidth in the most efficient way.
• 24/7 monitoring that detects bad links and steers traffic for optimal network and application performance. Reports on application performance and links for SLA adherence.
• The ability to build sophisticated business rules and routing policies.
• The ability to let clients shift between managing all or just some infrastructure depending on current needs.
• Broadly certified engineers who can  perform routine implementation and monitoring, and future proof a network by designing a cloud migration strategy that maximizes efficiency of existing hardware on the way to the cloud. Our certified engineers will also suggest new technologies based on the latest certifications.
• A portfolio of providers that lets the partner choose the right vendor-neutral mix of solutions for a customer’s specific business needs.
• A utility pricing model based on a flat monthly fee for easy budgeting and planning.

CBTS is pleased to introduce Cloud Calling, a complete cloud-based calling solution powered by Cisco.

Cloud Calling features

Cloud Calling is a comprehensive service with full cloud-PBX and mobility features. It enables organizations to expand and migrate an existing on-premise deployment into a cloud environment.

This cloud calling solution provides multisite capabilities and global reach for small, midmarket, and enterprise organizations while minimizing the complexity associated with moving into the cloud. It supports a wide range of Cisco IP Phones combined with the latest collaboration technologies–Webex Meetings and Webex Teams.

The CBTS Cloud Calling offering includes calling, meetings, and team collaboration under a single subscription model.

Collaborate efficiently with Cisco Webex Teams

Leverage Cisco Webex for meetings

Cisco Webex Meetings provides unmatched video quality and delivers a seamless meeting experience from any device, anywhere. Webex Meetings is offered as an integrated add-on to provide the world’s most popular and premium conferencing experience.

Receive world-class support

As part of our secure and scalable Cloud Calling offer, you receive:

• Global delivery and support. Ubiquitous services and functionality regardless of location. Ideal for multisite businesses.
• A cloud migration path. Augment on-premise PBX solutions and build a gradual cloud migration to easily scale your business.
• Extensive support. From onboarding, activation, through ongoing 24x7x365 monitoring, management, maintenance, and training our CBTS experts are here for your business.

 

 

 

 

Cloud Calling offers multiple benefits

A fully managed cloud calling solution platform helps you:

Work Globally
Our Cloud Calling offer is built to support multisite and global multi-national networking requirements.

Control Investment Costs
Reduce technology and operational cost and complexity, and gain a more agile, intuitive way to work.

Scale Up or Down
We offer flexible Cloud Calling solution deployments that scale to meet the needs of enterprises of every size.

Reduce Time to Onboard
Start using your new solution quickly and easily.

Remain competitive with CBTS

Cloud Calling by CBTS is the solution for any business that needs and wants to remain competitive in today’s ever-changing digital landscape.

CBTS couples vast technical expertise with flexible unified communications and collaboration solutions to drive successful business outcomes, mitigate risks, improve operational efficiency, and reduce costs for our clients.

“Our clients expect to use professional communications technology that easily integrates with their business applications and workflows. Cloud Calling provides the flexibility and value that will allow clients to communicate and collaborate more efficiently in order to drive business outcomes.

The addition of Cloud Calling, in combination with our existing portfolio of Unified Communications solutions, allows CBTS to fully meet the needs of organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises.”

Greg Samuels
Senior Director, Cisco Sales Practice
CBTS

Greg Samuels
Senior Director, Cisco Sales Practice
CBTS

Future-proof your business today with Cloud Calling by CBTS.

There is no doubt that people are the key asset to any organization’s success. Even in today’s technologically driven world, it is still the human assets that differentiate an organization from its competitors.

At CBTS, our people bring considerable value through sharing their deep expertise, experience in nearly every industry vertical. Our people have a total of 2,800+ certifications. Needless to say, our people are equipped to transform any business, including our own.

But the real magic is that our people share the same drive, focus, and serious commitment to our clients’ success as our clients hold for themselves.

So, what do our people think about the value that they provide?

Chris DeBrunner, Director – Tools, Delivery & Operations

Chris started at the service desk 19 years ago and worked his way up through tools. He had several jobs inside of the compute space. Now he and his team focus solely on the tools that we use to support our clients. His team monitors and supports approximately 50,000 devices daily. This adds up to 1.5 million device components and over a half million interfaces. His team also intercepts 500 million logs every 30 days.

“Our tools provide insights and access to the engineers that work on client gear, making sure that we are delivering, and the environment is delivering for the client.”

Kevin Muldoon, Senior Director – Cloud Transformation

Kevin started in IT consulting and application development. He was fortunate to work with large corporations as well as startups. Before joining CBTS, he worked for Microsoft managing commercial software across the globe. Kevin’s team focuses on cloud transformation and assists our clients with their cloud migrations and data center transformations.

“I think the most critical value that we provide is simplification. Our goal is to enable clients to adopt new products, new technologies, new services, to build a foundation, and let the client focus on doing business-critical work.”

Jim Vorwold, Vice President – Service Delivery & Operations

Jim began his career in product management and rapidly advanced to program management, up through sales, sales engineering, engineering, and solution design. Today, he oversees a team that supports the cloud business, the communications business, and three major programs within CBTS.

“Clients entrust us with their infrastructure–the crown jewels for any business. So, basically, we are running their business for them.”

Darrin Manning, Senior Director – Cloud Operations

Darrin’s career has taken him from IT support to the TelCom industry. He is a 15 year veteran of CBTS.

“Our clients depend on their IT systems to run their business, to deliver their service to their customers. And we ensure that they can do that on a consistent basis.”

Hope Thackery, Director – Security Programs

Hope has an international privacy certification and ensures that CBTS improves the maturity of our security program every year.

“Clients are often visibly relieved when they hear about the security we have, and they know that we speak the language that their auditors are going to use.”

Dusty Baker, Manager – Network Technical Operations

Dusty works on a number of devices including Cisco, Brocade, and 40 Gate. He also works on a lot of technologies like Route Switch, Firewall, IPS, Load Bouncing, and Wireless. His team spends their time designing, analyzing operations, and tailoring solutions to meet the needs of our CBTS clients.

“We’re here for our customers 24/7. Our job is to make our clients look good to their customers.”

Keith Talbot, Director – Service Management

Keith’s professional background is in IT operations, architecture, and service delivery.

“We manage all the services so that our clients have a seamless experience across all of the products they purchase.”

Daniel Tackett, Cloud Engineer III

Daniel works in between day one and day two operations. His team is responsible for design, implementation, RDS, and transition hand-over to second-day ops. He makes sure there is a smooth transition between the two shifts.

“Our impact is no impact. We set up environments to go weeks to months with no incident. And our regular check-ins help make sure everything’s going smooth, or see if there’s anything that needs to be updated.”

Susan Artz, Enterprise Solution Architect

As a part of the sales process, CBTS brings in the SAs, like Susan. SAs discover, create, design and build long-term solutions before transitioning them over to operations.

“Our work alleviates the pressure of ongoing management and maintenance. Clients can count on us to maintain their environment, monitor it, keep it up and available.”

CBTS experts have you covered

At CBTS, our people are our experts.

Our people have unmatched experience and qualifications in the solutions that help our clients stay future-proof. They have leveraged their skills and education to solve our clients’ needs for:

• Cloud
• Data Center
• Compute Storage
• Data Protection
• Infrastructure
• Networking
• Windows
• Unix
• Linux
• Collaboration Technologies
• IT Staffing

Our cloud engineers are highly trained in and certified experts in the Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud platforms. Our full stack developers focus on fixing problems with code and system administration.

Aside from how knowledgeable our teams are, they are exceptionally proficient at taking care of your business like it was their own.

“Clients know their business. They shouldn’t have to worry about the technology. That’s what we’re here for.”

Joe Hoover
Network Engineer IV

70% of Unified Communications deployments in the next year will be cloud-based. Find out why – and how to choose the right UC cloud provider.

About 70 percent of UC deployments in the next year will be cloud-based, and virtually all will migrate to the cloud within the next five years, according to a survey of chief information officers conducted by International Data Group, Inc. and CBTS.

Among respondents who either already have or plan to implement UCaaS, 28 percent have done so, and 42 percent plan to do so within the next 12 months.

UCaaS a better option than on-premise solutions

Cloud-based UC is more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective than on-premise options.

Increasing productivity and relieving internal IT staff from the hassle of managing on-premise solutions are clearly top drivers for investment in UCaaS solutions – and finding the right cloud provider to deliver those solutions.

On-premise solutions create organizational challenges

Many organizations have limited staffs or cannot afford to invest in the talent required to manage on-premise solutions.

Organizations that take on that challenge themselves, and that deal with multiple vendors, can quickly drain their internal resources. Disparate hardware and applications can be a management nightmare if you don’t have the right professionals or providers to monitor and maintain the on-premise solutions at all times.

Your company needs to find an expert UC cloud provider that can provide 24x7x365 monitoring, management, and support to offload the burden of upgrades, patching, and maintenance from your organization so you can focus on your core initiatives.

Case Study: Learn how CBTS Hosted Enterprise UC solution saved the State of Ohio $6.8 million.

Essentials for selecting the right cloud provider

Expertise

CBTS is a Cisco Gold, Master Specialized partner and has more than 560 certifications.

CBTS has deep experience as a UC cloud provider: We’ve been providing UCaaS services utilizing Cisco technology for 20 years and provide on-premises, hybrid, and pure cloud deployment support to more than 2,400 clients across North America.

In October 2018, CBTS was named as a Notable UCaaS Vendor by Gartner in their “Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, Worldwide,” report.

People

CBTS provides highly-certified experts who serve 24x7x365 as your dedicated account team. Our engineers guide you through the entire process, from the assessment of your current environment to implementation and support.

Let CBTS be your UC cloud provider. Our experts will create the right roadmap, project management, and training that your organization needs to successfully migrate your UC to the cloud.

Product

CBTS UCaaS offers multiple delivery options for voice, collaboration, and mobility solutions.

We are industry trailblazers when it comes to custom-tailoring an integrated NaaS, SD-WAN, and UCaaS solution. Our white-glove designed UCaaS solutions are engineered for flexibility, scalability, and integration with your existing applications and technologies.

Service

CBTS UCaaS is a single-vendor solution with centralized management. Having one support number for voice and network service requests simplifies the management experience.

CBTS cloud unified communication solutions offer network monitoring tools and constant analytics that can enhance management control and monitor for service issues.

CBTS is the right cloud provider to help you leverage UCaaS

UCaaS renders a seamless experience across all locations, centralizes management, and delivers immediate cost savings.

UCaaS and SD-WAN provided by CBTS let you deploy on-demand communications and applications as a utility service, providing the business agility, quality of experience, scalability, and cost-effectiveness you need to innovate and grow.

Stay ahead of changing markets and new demands by building a more agile, efficient company with CBTS UCaaS, and by partnering with CBTS as your cloud provider.

A fresh start is sometimes exactly what an enterprise needs to modernize data infrastructure and shift processes to a forward-leaning, digital-ready framework. Such was the case with Unilever Federal Credit Union when it recently decided to relocate its main campus, and embrace a managed services solution.

Unilever FCU is a full-service, single-sponsor, non-profit financial institution that is owned by its members and governed by an elected board of directors. Its Corporate Credit Union is Alloya Corporate FCU. This organization provides a range of credit union services, such as compliance guidance and managed services solutions through a partnership with CBTS.

New data environment included key requirements

To bring its services in-line with today’s digital economy, Unilever FCU had to fulfill a number of requirements for its new data environment:

1. Deploy its own network infrastructure. To ensure both operational efficiency and meet regulatory requirements.
2. Upgrade its data resources. To accommodate rapid growth and the development of new products and services.
3. Implement an in-depth data protection strategy. To support the needs of a modern financial institution.

But since every challenge is an opportunity, Unilever FCU seized on this project to implement a wholesale reimagining of the existing data center infrastructure.

Client operates in heavily regulated environment

A key challenge for any financial institution is meeting the regulatory requirements imposed by both regional and national authorities.

In UFCU’s case, this involved maintaining stringent levels of security and data availability, while also developing new services to provide members greater flexibility for their banking needs. This became increasingly difficult to do with aging infrastructure.

Solution leverages managed services model

In consultation with both Alloya Corporate FCU and CBTS, Unilever FCU decided to switch to a managed services model using a hybrid data center and networking infrastructure solution. In this way, the company benefits from:

1. A high-availability cloud for all production.
2. Data protection.
3. Backup and disaster recovery services.
4. A full suite of services for remote network monitoring and management.

CBTS has expertise to support complex managed services projects

A project of this magnitude requires a deep understanding of infrastructure needs and the emerging business objectives they will ultimately support. CBTS worked closely with UFCU to first design the environment, and then to define the ongoing responsibilities to maintain a tested and proven data ecosystem.

CBTS provides a cohesive solution

We began by assessing the current environment and establishing a set of success-based business objectives. We then developed new policies to guide the design and deployment of a new secure network.

For production workloads, we established a high-availability, multitenant cloud with managed backup and disaster recovery services across multiple CBTS data centers. This places primary production environments within a fully managed, high-availability CBTS cloud. A secondary offsite offers backup and full data replication for Disaster Recovery applications. This environment is subject to complete documentation and annualized testing.

The solutions allowed CBTS to assume responsibility for managing and monitoring key functions, such as network authentication based on group policies developed in conjunction with Unilever. In addition, our experts guided the client’s IT staff on the proper way to pull reports for auditing purposes to ensure regulatory compliance. CBTS oversees any and all third-party integrations and other support needs for the new environment.

Solution meets client’s needs, helps drive business outcomes

Today, Unilever FCU enjoys a state-of-the-art data ecosystem with redundant, secure and universal Internet-based access. We also provided a letter of attestation proving that UFCU is committed to ensuring full protection against downtime and data loss. We work with both UFCU and Alloya to continuously refine regulatory documentation to address stringent compliance requirements.

And as a fully managed environment, Unilever FCU can now relieve its internal IT staff of the day-to-day burdens of operating a data center to focus on more productive pursuits involving the delivery of outstanding member services.