As the shift to remote and hybrid work has become commonplace, temporary measures to accommodate those workers are no longer adequate. That’s where UCaaS comes in.
Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) is a platform that unifies and integrates a company’s communication systems, both internally and externally. This unification process involves moving data processing to the cloud, enhancing efficiency, enabling data storage, and providing cybersecurity, and disaster preparedness.
A typical UCaaS platform will incorporate:
- Telephony – a system for making, recording, and searching phone calls.
- Email – replacing or building legacy systems like Gmail or Outlook.
- SMS messaging – both externally and internally, to mobile devices.
- Push notifications – these can be sent to employees’ devices or desktops/laptops.
- Video calling and videoconferencing – replacing or building on Zoom and other videoconferencing apps.
- Simplified document sharing.
- Collaborative workspaces
Crucially, all these features must be available to all employees, wherever they are working – whether that’s office-based, working from home, or mobile. And, they must be secure, which is where the next part of the puzzle comes into play – SASE.
What is SASE, and how does it Enable UCaaS?
With so many people working remotely or in a hybrid environment, security concerns are real. How do companies keep data and systems secure when their people aren’t physically in the office but are accessing work resources remotely? Enter SASE.
SASE stands for Secure Access Service Edge (pronounced “sassy”). It’s a cloud-based suite of fully-integrated features for advanced security, which makes remote access to even the most secure data sources possible. Adopting SASE means that companies can have a distributed workspace that’s just as available in employees’ homes as it is on the go, on their handheld devices.
Workers are no longer tied to their office workstations (although some will prefer the community inherent in co-location). What SASE and UCaaS together provide is flexibility – they give organizations options for working in an agile and responsive manner.
Included within SASE are the following elements:
- Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) – a secure, private network of potentially unlimited size whose boundaries are defined and policed within the cloud by software rather than by physically localized hardware routers.
- Zero-Trust Network Access (ZTNA) – a security protocol that doesn’t assume an identity but requires users to prove their identity on each new device upon login. It may incorporate MFA or 2FA features, including the use of third-party authenticators, biometrics, or other measures to reinforce secure access.
- Firewall as a Service (FWaaS) – a method of incorporating cloud-based firewalls to prevent cyber-attacks by using technologies such as URL filtering, early threat detection, intrusion prevention, and DNS security measures.
- Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) – Security measures to ensure that third-party apps accessed via the cloud do not infect your network with viruses, bots, trojans, or other unwanted intrusions.
- Secure Web Gateway (SWG) – This part of SASE protects the user from accessing unsecured or malicious websites, as well as protecting against inbound threats such as data-scraping bots and malware.
Remote and hybrid work is the new employment model. Fortunately, technologies such as UCaaS and SASE enable organizations to operate successfully and securely in that environment. Reach out to CM3 for assistance in deploying your remote work model.
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Content for this blog was provided by Skyswitch. CM3 leverages the Skyswitch platform for UCaaS solutions.