Cloud Telephony Provider Broadens Horizons

Hosted cloud telephony service vendor Ifbyphone, Inc., is acquiring hosted cloud telephony development architecture provider Cloudvox to position itself as an application developer platform. Ifbyphone, which provides a suite of self-service Web-configured and customizable phone applications, will also add the hosted service capabilities of Cloudvox. As a result, Ifbyphone will enable customers to rent a phone-based application, integrate with an existing Ifbyphone app, or build a custom app. Cloudvox, which leverages the Asterisk open source telephony server, lets developers automate phone calls using their own software.

Cloudvox’s standards-based solution is compatible with existing Asterisk applications and software libraries. It is also scalable and deployed in a carrier-grade environment. Using Cloudvox, developers can place, receive, and control phone calls from their own software, including Python, Ruby, PHP, Java, C#, and simple HTTP/JSON.

Meanwhile, Ifbyphone offers hosted cloud telephony solutions that allow users to perform tasks such as setting up a virtual call center, design an interactive voice response phone system using Web forms, automate outbound calls, track calls, and route calls to the caller’s nearest store or franchise. By using a virtual cloud computing infrastructure, Ifbyphone can offer its customers greater flexibility and scalability at a lower cost than many traditional telephony solutions.

The combined functionality of the two companies’ technology offerings should create options for enterprise telephony customers. Users can now select the option of integrating Ifbyphone’s hosted telephony applications with their enterprise, or of building their own portable, open cloud telephony application with the support of Ifbyphone’s infrastructure and customer service.

Cloud computing is rapidly becoming the preferred development environment for a vast range of distributed enterprise solutions. Considering how vital telephony is to keeping disparate access points in touch with each other and with enterprise headquarters, it is only natural that cloud-based telephony would grow in popularity. By purchasing Cloudvox, Ifbyphone is taking a strong position in what should be a growth market for some time to come.