What Are the Pros and Cons of Hosted Phone Systems?

“The Cloud” or Hosted (They’re the same thing, really)

You see this phrase advertised everywhere you turn nowadays, from subway and bus print ads to TV commercials.  While the idea and what is conveyed in those ads may seem ambiguous, the “cloud” is very real, and something you have been using for years without even knowing it.

The phrase “cloud” is another term for hosted technology.  It simply means that information and processing capabilities is stored off-premise (not on a local device).  Your Gmail, Yahoo, and other internet email services are a hosted technology because they use servers that do not exist on your computer, to store your emails.  You access your email, their attachments, and archived messages through the internet by connecting to Google’s servers.  The advantage of hosted technology is that servers are maintained in a controlled central location, can be easily serviced, and resources can be shared more easily.

You’ve Been Using Hosted For a Long Time!

Emails, files, and other data isn’t the only thing that can exist in the cloud.  Voice exists in the cloud too.  Your cell phone voice mail uses hosted technology.  The voice mail system and messages don’t actually exist on your device; you dial into your voice mail box, which resides on your carrier’s servers elsewhere, to access all of the features that would not be possible to house on your slim and sleek cell phone.