Upgrading Critical System Connectivity: 3 Things to Consider When Shifting to Cloud-Based Voice Solutions

In today’s fast-paced business environment, many critical systems such as alarm panels and elevators still rely on legacy voice lines that often are single-threaded, analog copper POTS lines. These lines are becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to service—and are subject to sunsetting.

As a result, businesses are looking to update these outdated systems with flexible and expandable modern cloud solutions. This post will outline the benefits and challenges of this migration, and how artificial intelligence is addressed in considering cloud-based communication implementations.

The Benefits of Cloud-Based Communication Solutions

1. Future-ready technology: Cloud-based solutions enable businesses to leverage progressive technology, providing enhanced reliability, automatic upgrades and simplified migration to digital lines while continuing to support analog lines if needed.
2. Enhanced efficiency: A single solution offering allows organizations to replace every hardline connection with a cloud-based line, streamlining coverage, management and billing to boost efficiency. Businesses of all sizes can also leverage voice and collaboration tools including chat, file sharing and video conferencing.
3. Cost reduction: With a turnkey, market-ready solution, businesses can avoid large capital investments and minimize unpredictable costs for ongoing maintenance, IT staffing and training. These solutions are sold on a subscription basis, providing a flexible pricing model that delivers a positive return on investment (ROI). For example, companies with around 100 employees can cut support costs by 15% by transitioning to cloud systems.¹
4. Comprehensive monitoring and management: Critical systems and devices are monitored 24/7 for incident, problem and event management. Proactive notifications, hardware replacement and technical support are included, enabling the business to be confident that the systems are fully protected without requiring internal resources.
5. Dependability: Inclusive solutions like Lumen^® Specialty Lines are fully modular with built-in redundancy, removable components, scalability and the latest chipsets. These systems provide top quality and easy management compared to single-box solutions.

Challenges Facing The Holdouts

As companies continue their journey to cloud-based communications platforms, they often concentrate on frontline workers and customer-facing applications. Since life, security and safety systems are often overlooked and on disparate connections and platforms, the “out of sight, out of mind” mentality can appear. Corporations that traverse this path are often unaware that the cost of waiting can often overwhelm the cost of upgrade, as several challenges will occur:

1. Obsolescence: As POTS lines age, they become more difficult to service and maintain, leading to potential disruptions in business-critical applications and resulting in direct or indirect business costs.
2. High costs: Maintaining legacy systems can be expensive due to the need for specialized maintenance and a lack of support options.
3. Inefficiency: Disparate connections and platforms for these systems create inefficiency and add complexity to the management of these systems, driving up current costs that could be avoided by upgrading.
4. Limited scalability: Legacy systems do not offer the flexibility and scalability that modern cloud-based solutions provide, making it difficult for businesses to adapt to changing needs, such as expansion through new locations or additional security needs.

Lumen Specialty Lines address these challenges by integrating cloud-based voice and digital connectivity for elevators, safety systems and security panels, giving businesses a clear path for modernizing business-critical communications.

Enabling Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Cloud-Based Solutions

Cloud-based solutions for voice and collaboration can significantly enhance the impact of AI on enterprises. With analog systems traditionally used in this space, the ability to collect, review and analyze system conditions is extremely limited. Cloud-based communication systems generate data that unlock the ability for enterprises to benefit from AI—for instance, noting which systems may be generating excessive false alarms that merit further investigation. By integrating cloud-based communication systems with AI-powered automation, businesses can further streamline workflows, expand employee output and boost productivity.

With the upgrade to Specialty Lines, moving to the cloud increases automation, enabling employees to spend more time on their core responsibilities and less on tending old systems. Cloud-based solutions provide the necessary infrastructure to support all voice and collaboration initiatives, as Specialty Lines can include voice and UC&C packages. This furthers AI initiatives by allowing businesses to automate processes, gain valuable insights and enhance decision-making without the need for in-house AI expertise or infrastructure.

Lumen continues to be a leader in business IT with Specialty Lines, a feature-rich, cloud-based alternative to POTS that provides critical connectivity for these applications, while also including voice and collaborative tools as flexible additional options.

Learn how to save time and resources when you upgrade aging POTS lines to modern Lumen Specialty Lines.

¹Jobera, Cloud Cost Savings Statistics: Insights and Trends, 2025.

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