The debate between on-premise VoIP and hosted VoIP solutions continues to grow till date. The system has its multiple pros & cons and I think there is no reliable solution can work well for every business out there. It is much better to find the solution that can meet your particular business requirements at the specific time. Therefore, the decision of choosing hosted VoIP or on-premise VoIP seems hard as you also need to consider the security. Let’s go through this article to decide which is better in terms of security concerns.

On-premise or hosted VoIP?

It has been acknowledged that hosted VoIP solutions are quite easy to deploy, setup and maintain. When you consider choosing a reliable hosted VoIP service provider they can you all the necessary features need over the cloud. You won’t be required to invest large amount or purchase costly hardware. You can even switch between different vendors if they are not keeping up with your business needs.

In case of on-premise VoIP solutions, you will need to invest more- in terms of expertise & professional resources both. And for long-term solutions, the premise-based VoIP services can prove to be more costly than hosted services. However, some organizations are not able to afford expensive solutions and choose the hosted services which are more cost-effective than the other.

Security implications of on-premise VoIP:

As the name implies, on-premise VoIP is usually installed in the exact location, such as offices. You will be able to control the whole setup, configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting as well as its security. This kind of control looks much attractive to the companies that have different compliance requirements and can operate in different industries such as banking or insurance.

But unfortunately, there are certain companies that tend to overestimate their ability to make their network secure. There are just a few companies that hire high payable resources for securing the less costly system they can save their money and time.

VoIP routes your calls over the Internet, just like the email. This means that the overall landscape for VoIP is totally different from the old conventional landlines. The hackers generally target the voice servers, intercept multiple calls, place fraudulent calls, then steal information like passwords, account credentials, and client data etc. They can even use the phones as an entry point into the security system. So before choosing such services, you need to ensure that you have asked the experts to manage this on your own.

Security matters in hosted VoIP system:

Hosted services are often considered as a much better solution, especially in terms of security. This is also quite suitable for small or medium scale businesses that generally have no security professional in-house. If you buy a hosted VoIP services from the reputed vendor, you will rest assured that they will take good care of securing the data center as well as the network.

However, these concerns do not absolve you from all the major responsibilities regarding security. You need to secure your hardware endpoints, the user access, and the private network the calls pass through them. So when the employees enter their password on some malicious website and then reveal it on social media then it can compromise the overall system. Scammers can even use the security bugs in your phone hardware so that they can intercept the calls or place unauthorized International calls to the detriment of the organization.

User data is mainly considered as the starting point for all the security breaches. Therefore the training and awareness is a long way in providing protection to your business from all external malicious threats. So whether you choose the hosted services or set up the on-premise VoIP solutions, first you need to ensure the security. That’s why a little bit of planning can help you in fixing the problem in case of security breach.