eFax Corporate Cloud Fax vs. On-Prem Fax Servers
Faxing is universal, ubiquitous, and easy to use. But increasingly, there are challenges seen with legacy paper fax, their related workflows, and costs. The industry has long been moving to replace the paper fax with more secure and HIPAA-compliant technology and there are two technologies at the forefront. They are: The fax server, which requires on-premise hardware and software; and digital cloud fax technology (DCFT), a reliable and scalable technology that runs entirely on the cloud and requires no additional hardware or software.
In addition to the extra hardware, fax software, and telecommunications services, fax servers also require on-site installation, training, and ongoing maintenance. These items are costly as they involve IT personnel for administration and maintenance. Other expenses also include monthly telco charges for phone lines, phone numbers, and PBX ports.
Fax servers are also less than reliable. The costs of downtime to a business can be incredibly high – and for some industries like healthcare and financial services – are completely untenable.
On premise fax servers also require managing the Operating System updates, Fax Server version updates, the Anti-Virus Software, and the server connection to the Internet (Data/Voice/Telecom). Fax servers are further limited in their security by not offering redundancy with a single point of failure per location.
RightFax, for example, is a provider of fax servers and hybrid solutions that include some elements of cloud services but have fax servers as the main component.
Involve capital expenses/acquisition costs of the server hardware, software, server license, line-card cost, other hardware equipment
Involve ongoing software maintenance costs
Require support costs for IT personnel to maintain server
Require monthly phone lines and fees
Require annual licensing fees
Only support local phone numbers (area code where fax server is located)
Involve complex configuration
Lengthy deployment
Semi-reliable; Uptime depends on hardware, fax boards, local power, and phone connectivity
| Fax Servers | Cloud Fax (eFax Corporate) | |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Investment | Hardware, software, telecom setup | None |
| Telecom Needs | Capacity for peak usage. Redundant access required | None |
| Telecom Fees | Monthly fees for fax lines and phone numbers | None |
| Long Distance | High | None |
| Setup Time | 8 - 10 weeks | Up and running immediately in most cases |
| IT Knowledge Required | High – requires expertise in fax server software, fax hardware, and telecom facilities | None |
| Maintenance | Client and server software upgrades needed for file compatibility and features. Hardware upgrade needs. These could be as high as 75% of the initial cost | None |
| Reliability | Inconsistent to no core redundancy or continuous monitoring | 99.5% availability Redundant servers 7x24x365 monitoring tools & personnel |
| Scalability | Limited capacity: restricted by capital and telecom choices. Increasing capacity requires new hardware, sometimes new facilities, and 10 - 12 weeks to deploy and test | On-demand, scalable capacity |
| Cost Per Transaction | Long distance cost per minute for long distance traffic | Fixed cost per transaction |
| Monthly Cost | Annual software maintenance. Monthly fees for each fax number. | Low monthly fee per active fax number |
| Total Cost of Ownership | High | Low |
| IT Environment Impact | High – Increases complexity of IT environment and introduces new risk | None |
| IT Overhead | Depending on the size could end up in escalated expenses | None |
| Administration and Reporting | Average | Feature rich – online administration, logging, and tracking |
| Physical Security | Servers usually run in the customer office with often no disaster recovery or business continuity plan, unless specifically implemented at an even higher cost | World-class security infrastructure. Disaster recovery and business continuity plan |
| Document Security | Document is not secure; located within the customer office | HTTPS transmission, optional encryption at rest, TLS 1.2+ transport |
| Web Access | Limited functionality compared to desktop capabilities | Standard offering |
| Compliance | HIPAA Compliant | HIPAA Compliant and HITRUST CSF® Certified |
Fax technology has progressed from dedicated, standalone machines to cloud-based integrated services. Today, progressive companies are moving their fax infrastructure to the cloud. By eliminating concerns about system reliability, scalability, and hardware and software maintenance, these companies are able to free internal resources to focus on other business-critical systems and processes.
eFax Corporate is a robust cloud fax platform used by thousands of customers every day to securely transmit important business documents. eFax Corporate is offered as a fully hosted online service, powered by a network of secure datacenters and colocations distributed across North America, Europe and Asia.
Our inbound faxing services operate across a highly secure network of telco-grade, Tier III and Tier IV colocations, equipped with environmental controls, infrastructure support, power management and protective equipment. Business continuity for back-end systems is provided via a geographically redundant Disaster Recovery datacenter facility. The core front-end services, Inbound and Send, utilize distinct architectural approaches designed to maximize service availability. Transmission security and system redundancy are achieved through Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), which include multiple peers and Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections between each colocation and our primary datacenter, where core backend systems reside.
eFax Corporate is a digital cloud fax technology (DCFT) that runs 100% on the cloud. Cloud Fax delivers encrypted communications and password-protected documents. You can get a complete audit trail of all activity and optional features such as fax tagging, annotations and digital signatures.
Experience better than 99.5% uptime fast delivery and receipt rates, with is ideal for time-sensitive information with high completion rates and reliability.
Better still, cloud fax is easy-to-use on the desktop, web, on the go (iOS and Android smartphones and tablets) and through an integration with enterprise-level APIs.
Fax server environments cost significantly more, take more to maintain, and require more effort to deploy when compared to digital cloud fax technology.
Cloud fax eliminates major capital expenditures associated with faxing equipment – and the fax server -- and reduces fax expenses to a low operational cost. This means more to your bottom line. Furthermore, cloud fax requires no additional effort and time to deploy, is far more reliable, scalable, and flexible than other options.
eFax Corporate is the world’s leading digital cloud fax service for your business with millions of customers, worldwide.
Call us at (844)344-7010 or fill out the form below to get started today.
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