New data from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) shows that companies everywhere are scooping up solutions like SaaS, IaaS and UCaaS to move their operations to the cloud – in part or in whole – marking an unprecedented uptick in adoption.

Industry analysts are baffled at the growth rate of the cloud industry in the past five years. In the UK alone, 84% of businesses have adopted at least one cloud solution to give themselves a technological edge. Five years ago, that number was 48%. Four in five companies have adopted two, or more such applications. These include data management solutions, Unified Communications solutions, and collaboration apps. And the adoption continues to accelerate, analysts say.

Studies conducted by SteelBrick and Dell’Oro Group produced similar findings. Sameh Boujelbene, Director at Dell’Oro Group, notes that the massive increase in cloud uptake is the result of declining skepticism among enterprise accounts, and the willingness of cloud vendors to provide solutions based on specific needs – i.e. the services enumerated above, and others like them. Confidence in the security of cloud solutions has also increased substantially. Boujelbene added that cloud servers will reach 50 percent of total server shipments by 2017, a full year sooner than previously anticipated.

‘Hosted’ is the norm

In June this year, the Enterprise Unified Communications and Voice Equipment report by IHS Infonetics revealed that on-premise PBX sales continued to dwindle at the hand of hosted PBX solutions. The analytics firm reported that pure IP PBX was the only (PBX) segment to experience year-over-year growth.

IHS research director Diane Myers pinned it on businesses looking for “ease of management and flexibility” through cloud solutions. Less and less companies today are investing in new phone system purchases, she said, as hosted solutions present themselves as far more attractive. And here’s why, straight from the vendors themselves.

Outsourcing your communication system pays off

Users of our hosted PBX solution, VoipNow, reap considerable benefits in areas like operating costs and time saving. Something as simple as Find-Me/Follow-Me saves up to 30 minutes per user, per day, because it lets others reach that person on the first attempt. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) statistically saves around 15 minutes (again, per user) thanks to the automatic routing mechanism that directs the call to the appropriate person. In call centers, this figure is considerably higher. Without IVR, contact centers as we know them would cease to exist.

What else? Mobility. VoipNow comes with a companion app that goes right on your iPhone and extends your business-oriented communications when you’re not at your desk, or even in your office building. Stressing the benefits would be stating the obvious. Mobility is arguably one of the biggest trends today. Hopping aboard the bandwagon is a must for any company looking to stay competitive.

Our clients report fewer delays as a result of killing their legacy phone system, and we’ve learned that they prefer us over others thanks to the pay-per-use licensing plan we’ve put on the table. VoipNow already costs little to deploy, making it the best cloud communication platform money can buy. For our part, we aren’t so perplexed that cloud adoption is on the rise. After all, we’re helping 🙂 .