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What cloud-based unified communications certifications are available?

The requirements for cloud-based unified communications certifications vary by industry and network environment. UC expert Carrie Higbie Goetz explains how to choose the right certifications for a UCaaS system.

Certifications are an easy way to validate individual aspects of unified communications as a service, or UCaaS. However, there are currently no UCaaS certifications that cover an entire UCaaS platform. When looking to get certified on a particular platform, the best option is to choose the specific aspects of UCaaS that are most impactful, then earn those certifications.

The types of certifications available or required vary from industry to industry. A cloud-based UCaaS platform in a healthcare environment, for example, would require certification that complies with all Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements for patient confidentiality. Cloud-based unified communications certifications for retail or finance might focus on Service Organization Control 2 and SOC 3 compliance or Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard for regulatory and security compliance.

In addition to individual unified communications certifications, you can also certify the environment you are working in through operating system, security and hardware certifications. You can also obtain security certifications to ensure the UCaaS system resides in a secure data center environment.

If you want UCaaS certifications or any UC platform certification, most are offered by the individual vendors, such as Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft and IBM. Vendor certifications will help with understanding the system setup, administration and configuration. When working with hardware such as routers, you can look for certification information from that specific hardware vendor. Using certifications to understand how the pieces fit together will result in a better overall configuration.

Do you have a question for Carrie Higbie Goetz or any other experts? Ask your enterprise-specific questions today! All questions are treated anonymously.

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