There is no question that the coronavirus pandemic of 2020 has given Voice over Internet Protocol the final push it needed to completely take over the Plain-Old Telephone System (POTS) and legacy PBX switches. Even outside of the business sector, VoIP is the new standard of personal communications; when you learn about AT&T and other major wireless carriers warning about the upcoming switch to Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE), this is essentially the future of VoIP.

The Demand for Effective Communication Solutions in 2020

Millions of employees around the world are now connecting to corporate networks from their homes; this is largely done to comply with the social distancing recommendation designed to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 contagion. To this effect, three types of VoIP connections are being used, and they are similar to the way cloud networks are categorized:

• Public solutions such as Zoom and Skype.
• Private VoIP solutions hosted on-premise.
• Cloud-hosted VoIP systems.

The first category has come to the forefront during the pandemic because many business organizations, including government agencies, were caught by surprise when the pandemic hit. Immediate availability was a deciding factor; just about everyone has a smartphone equipped with everything you need to join video conference calls, and apps such as Skype and Zoom made this possible with relative ease. The security problem with this approach was revealed almost immediately with cybercrime trends such as Zoom bombing and Skype jacking.

Cloud-hosted VoIP systems have fared much better in terms of security during the pandemic, and this can be explained by the default security measures of the data centers where they are hosted. These VoIP systems are constantly monitored by automated means that immediately alert network technicians when security risks are detected. It is easier to enact “bring your own device” (BYOD) policies within cloud-hosted VoIP systems, and measures such as multi-factor authentication are easier to manage.