A UCaaS and CPaaS Primer: Part Dos

Hey there! Ready for part two of our aaS primer? We recently discussed what UCaaS is and whether it’s the right solution for your business needs. If you’re still looking for another application-centric approach to your communication challenges, CPaaS might be another option for you.

Let’s Talk About CPaaS Baby

Communication Platform as a Service, in its simplest form, is a cloud-based solution that takes advantage of APIs for real-time communication – like voice and messaging – eliminating the need to create physical network infrastructure for your organization. You’ll often see these communication APIs embedded into certain business applications by developers, because why create something from scratch when a CPaaS provider – like Telnyx – has already created the infrastructure for you?

So, what’s the difference between CPaaS and UCaaS then? There are certainly some overlaps, and lines are blurring by the minute – especially with UCaaS providers acquiring CPaaS companies left and right – but the easiest way to explain the difference, according to the VoIP Report, is that CPaaS does the work at the platform end, while UCaaS does the heavy workload at the application end. There’s also differentiation in terms of their use – whereas UCaaS has its solutions bundled together and is mostly used for internal collaboration and enterprise communication, CPaaS can be utilized in a variety of ways depending on the features that your application needs for consumer-facing use.

The Only Way to Go is Up

The future of CPaaS is bright. With a variety of use cases and functionality – SMS alerts, voice conferencing, two-factor authentication, WebRTC, appointment reminders and masked phone numbers, to name a few – this communication approach is only going to get bigger. Gartner predicts that the global CPaaS market will increase by 50% within the next four years, reaching an annual revenue of $4.6 billion. There’s plenty of room for growth, especially when we take mobile telephony into consideration. In order to compete, UCaaS providers need to diversify and acquire – as mentioned previously – or intelligently partner with companies that offer CPaaS solutions if they don’t want to get left in the dust.

Is CPaaS Right For You?

Embedded cloud communication is the future, and if scalability, ease of deployment and cost are your thing, then you might want to start looking into a CPaaS solution for your organization. The great thing about most CPaaS platforms is that they’re free to access, APIs are open source and feature usage is a la carte, so there’s plenty of opportunity for testing and troubleshooting before you fully invest in overhauling your communication strategy. Because of these elements, there are plenty of opportunities for you to try different providers, so you can compare API capabilities and gain a better understanding of which features are most important for your needs.

Have questions about how we can help with your CPaaS needs? Talk to a Telnyx representative today.