Revolutionising Communication – Explore the Benefits & Possibilities of CPaaS

We are back with more exciting content. In this blog, I will discuss

CPaaS (Communication Platform as a Service) is a rapidly growing industry that provides businesses with tools and services to integrate real-time communication capabilities into their applications.

Let’s Explore!

Introduction to CPaaS

Let’s begin by understanding what is Platform As A Service?

In simple words, Technology platform providers like AWS, Azure, Twilio etc. provide building blocks like compute, network, storage etc. to other products/ applications built on their platform. For eg, Netflix runs on top of AWS, however none of the Netflix endusers have to deal with AWS. Similarly, Lyft ride sharing app runs on Twilio platform. The provider, such as Twilio, hosts applications on its infrastructure, and application developers pay for what they use to Twilio.

Now what is “Communication Platform As A service”?

It is simply, voice, messaging, email, video, whatsapp API’s etc act as building blocks (API’s) for software applications which integrate with it. The complexity of the platform hosting these voice, video, messaging etc. capabilities never have to be accessed by endusers. They can simply use the software/ applications hosted on top of the CPaaS platform. CPaaS has distinguishing differences than UCaaS, which I will cover later in this topic.

Without separate equipment, protocols, traditional infrastructure, telecom contracts, and software to deal with, the focus can be on building and iterating on the right solution for the task.

CPaaS uses application programming interfaces (APIs), software development kits (SDKs), integrated development environments (IDEs), and documentation to add as few or as many different communications capabilities as desired onto a business’s apps and services. Some of the communication capabilities are:

Why Do We Need CPaaS?

To improve Customer experience, Period.

Let’s say, you want to buy a pair of Jeans online but aren’t sure of the size. If this online service had a chat or video call button which directly connects you to an agent who can suggest you few things, won’t you always buy from them.

Another scenario, You booked a flight through an online app but now you want to postpone the flight. To do this, if the app asked you to call a phone number, on which you had to wait for atleast 2 hours on hold. I am sure from next time you will never book a ticket from that app.

CPaaS solution is designed to simplify and accelerate digital transformations, regardless of where a business is in their journey. Also, it’s important to optimize the cost and hassle of multi-vendor solutions.

As per Gartner’s Market Report on the future of CPaaS, By 2026, 95% of global enterprises will leverage CPaaS as a strategic IT skill to maintain digital competency, up from 30% in 2022.

The CPaaS market is made up of a mix of independent software vendors, systems integrators, service providers, and traditional equipment providers. It is, however, growing massively. In 2015 the market was $400 million. In 2022 it’s valued at $12.5 billion, and in the next five years it’s estimated to reach $45.3 billion.

Organizations use CPaaS to enhance their interactions with customers, employees, and the general public and achieve outcomes such as increased customer satisfaction, faster response times, higher revenue, improved productivity, and more streamlined backend processes.

Advantages of Using CPaaS

Communication channels: CPaaS providers offer a range of communication channels such as voice, video, messaging, and chat. For your application communication needs, you can either choose one or more based on your requirements.

Ease of use: CPaaS platforms are easy-to-use, have intuitive APIs, that allow developers to integrate communication features into their applications quickly.

Scalability: CPaaS providers can scale its services to meet your business’s growing communication needs. This includes the ability to handle high call volumes, messaging traffic, and video conferencing capacity.

Integration capabilities: CPaaS provider has pre-built integrations with the tools and applications that you may already use. This includes popular CRM, marketing automation, and other enterprise software solutions on top of the native API integrations that it offers.

Security and compliance: CPaaS platforms follow industry-standard security protocols for encryption and firewalls, to protect your business’s data and communications. Also, these solutions adhere to regulatory compliance requirements such as HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA.

Pricing and support: CPaaS offers transparent pricing and flexible plans that meet your communication needs. Additionally, the providers offer reliable customer support and resources such as documentation, tutorials, and developer communities.

CPaaS platform uses the latest security features, strong encryption, RBAC control etc.

CPaaS platform offers distributed, self-healing infrastructure.

Each service like voice, video, and messaging services is backed by SLA.

Most important, You only pay for what you use.

CPaaS Providers

There are several CPaaS (Communication Platform as a Service) players in the market, each offering unique features and services. Here are some of the leading CPaaS providers:

Twilio: Twilio is one of the most popular CPaaS providers, offering messaging, voice, and video capabilities through APIs. They also provide a variety of other communication tools, including chatbots, email, and fax. As the CPaaS market continues to see incredible growth, Twilio remains a clear leading provider. Twilio has been CPaaS innovators since the beginning. Today, they sending over 180 billion messages per year and helping businesses protect and serve their users with speed and security.

Vonage: Vonage offers a range of communication solutions, including messaging, voice, video, and chat. They also provide APIs for integrating these capabilities into applications.

Nexmo: Nexmo, now part of Vonage, also offer a number of other communication tools, such as two-factor authentication and number verification.

Infobip: Infobip provides messaging, voice, and video capabilities through APIs, as well as chatbot development tools. They also offer a number of other communication tools, such as email and push notifications.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth’s CPaaS solution delivers enterprise-grade solutions with higher quality voice and better insights on message deliverability. You also get access to an industry-leading dashboard for number management tasks like buying and porting numbers from one provider to another.

Cisco: Webex Connect is an Enterprise CPaaS platform that provides a single point of orchestration for automating communication journeys end-to-end. Webex Connect is also a SMS aggregator. The Webex Connect platform abstracts away the complexity of building and managing CPaaS applications.

Sinch: Sinch provides messaging, voice, and video capabilities through APIs, as well as chatbot development tools. They also offer a number of other communication tools, such as SMS and email.

Plivo: Plivo offers messaging and voice capabilities through APIs, as well as conference calling and number verification. They also provide tools for developing and managing SMS campaigns.

MessageBird: MessageBird offers messaging, voice, and video capabilities through APIs, as well as chatbot development tools. They also provide a number of other communication tools, such as email and push notifications.

These are just some of the leading CPaaS providers in the market. Other notable players include Sendbird, Agora, and TokBox. Each provider has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it’s important to evaluate each one based on your specific communication needs.

As per Omdia, Frost Radar research and several other analysts, Twillio is the leader in this space in terms of the capability, customer experience and market share.

CPaaS Use Cases

CPaaS solutions can be used in multiple industries. Let us look at some use cases of CPaaS:

Healthcare – CPaaS can enable online fitness sessions and teleconsultation by doctors. Solutions also provide TeleOPD features.

Education – Online education apps and businesses can use CPaaS to conduct online classes and assessments. Students can use real time communication to even clarify their doubts.

FinTech – CPaaS can enable video consultation and facilitate the KYC process for customers.

Entertainment – CPaaS helps app developers build OTT streaming apps where content can be created and uploaded fast and in a cost-effective manner.

Food delivery, ecommerce, companies who rely on messaging Amazon delivery, Uber etc

Security and Compliance

Is this even secure? We barely are doing UCaaS solutions and now this CPaaS. Like any other technology solution, security and compliance are critical aspects of CPaaS.

Here are some important factors to consider when evaluating the security and compliance of a CPaaS solution:

Data encryption: CPaaS providers use encryption to protect sensitive data during transmission and at rest.

Access control: CPaaS providers offer robust access control measures, such as multi-factor authentication and role-based access control.

Compliance certifications: CPaaS provider has obtained relevant compliance certifications, such as SOC 2, HIPAA, or GDPR, depending on your specific needs.

Risk management & DR and Business Continuity: Every CPaaS provider has a risk management processes to ensure proper measures in place to identify, assess, and mitigate potential security threats. Also disaster recovery and business continuity plans are there to ensure continuity.

Data privacy: CPaaS providers have a privacy policy that complies with relevant data privacy regulations, such as CCPA or GDPR.

Security monitoring: CPaaS providers have real-time security monitoring and alerting capabilities to quickly detect and respond to security incidents.

Customer support: CPaaS providers offer excellent customer support, including timely security updates and patches.

Another safeguard is to have an Audit trail. Assuming you have set up levels of access and roles for users, an audit trail will show you who is accessing an API and how. From there, you can track any unusual activity spikes and trace them back to a user to head off larger security threats. Similarly, it may be worth setting rate limits. You can use defined roles to limit how fast and how often users can call APIs to limit data harvesting.

By carefully evaluating the security and compliance of a CPaaS solution, businesses and organizations can ensure that their communication services are secure and comply with relevant regulations.

With CPaaS, you can also add an extra layer of security for your customers. You can do this with text messages to send your customers:

This use case works for any industry where customers have accounts with their personal data and/or make online payments. Online shopping, consumer and business software tools, and personal banking are just a few examples.

CPaaS vs UCaaS

But isn’t it similar to UCaaS?

The answer is Yes & No.. both

UCaaS gives you a plethora of services with built in functionalities for instantly accessing phone service, video meetings, usage reporting, and call recording, etc. UCaaS provides an entire suite of communication channels to businesses.

But with CPaaS you have an open option to pick and choose specific APIs of your choice to add to your current communications stack without building a brand-new backend interface or infrastructure. Also, developers have the liberty to build custom communications solutions that enhances the personalization experience for the customers.

With CPaaS’s flexible, plug-and-play approach, businesses can customize the platform to fit their budget, capabilities, unique requirements, marketing strategies, and CX needs.

Challenges : Cost and hassle of multi-vendor solutions.

Advantages

Like CPaaS, UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) facilitates communication between employees and their customers, enhancing communication without owning and maintaining the infrastructure. And like CPaaS, it also provides communication tools through the cloud, enabling teams to use standard messaging, video, and phone capabilities.

But while CPaaS provides unique API, SDK, and libraries for integrated and customized application solutions, UCaaS offers unique integration capabilities with CRM tools such as SalesForce. There used to be a difference between UCaaS and CPaaS due to their customization and API support options, but the lines are beginning to blur as many UCaaS providers have started providing APIs for customization.

Here are a few key differences between CPaaS and UCaaS:

CPaaS	UCaaS
Requires integration using API/SDK	Ready to go without any developer intervention
Focused on customization of solutions	Focused on communication
Can be initiated by application	Majorly initiated by user
Pay-as-you-go pricing model	Per-seat pricing model

Future of CPaaS

At the beginning, CPaaS providers were working on enabling more timely and responsive communication between organizations and their customers through voice, video and messaging channels.

Now, a key trend is currently underway where customers are transitioning from just enabling communication to putting the customer experience at the center of it. CPaaS providers closely examine how the customers are interacting and comparing with how services are being delivered by organizations.

Another trend is, demand of “composable enterprise” platform. This is development of no code/ low code applications. Typically, the composable enterprise uses a combination of CPaaS, workflow automation, and data integration to provide custom apps and services.

Also please note, in the last few years CPaaS market has grown and there are number of acquisitions took place.

Ericsson’s acquired Vonage for $6.2bn in November 2021.

Twilio’s key acquisitions, namely Sendgrid and Segment, extend Twilio’s platform to incorporate email as a channel on the former, and provide a complete “Know Your Customer” view for businesses with the latter. Both acquisitions have been integrated into Twilio’s core platform and Segment is the innovation engine behind Twilio’s Engage solution.

In 2021 Cisco acquired IMImobile for $730 million.

This space is buzzing with excitement and I hope you ride the trend. That’s it in this blog. But do post your questions, comments.

I am happy to interact with you. For more technical audience, please find below the Twilio CPaaS architecture for your reference. Will look to cover in another blog in the future.

Appendix

General Architecture

Twilio Architecture

That’s it Folks! Feel free to share your thoughts. Post for any comments, questions. I can also be reached at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.