It’s been a wild couple of years for cloud-computing-based communications. Software that enables chat, voice, and video capabilities via the internet was a high-growth affair before 2020, but demand skyrocketed as the world has grappled with the ongoing effects of the pandemic. And now the Omicron coronavirus variant has many companies on alert again. Hence, remote communication isn’t going away anytime soon.
That has left the door open for companies like Zoom Video Communications ( ZM -5.60% ) and Twilio ( TWLO -6.48% ) to begin disrupting the status quo in telecom. It’s a crowded field with many players focusing on different specialties, but it remains an in-demand niche of the cloud computing industry. Here’s how the various players relate to one another, and which are the best buys for 2022.
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CPaaS vs. UCaaS vs. CCaaS vs. plain-vanilla web conferencing
Though there is significant overlap in product type, it’s common to hear various acronyms thrown around by participants in the cloud communications space. Specifically, CPaaS, UCaaS, and CCaaS are some of the major subscription service categories (designated by the “aaS,” or “as a service,” indicating a cloud-based service subscription). Here’s what each acronym means and some of the stocks in each category.
1. CPaaS
You can think of Communications Platform as a Service, or CPaaS, as a type of software tool kit with which a company can build its own customized communications solution. Twilio is the leader in this space, but smaller outfit Bandwidth ( BAND -5.66% ) is also a notable mention. Legacy internet-based voice service Vonage Holdings ( VG 0.12% ) also has a CPaaS service, though this company is being acquired by Ericsson ( ERIC -3.16% ) for $6.2 billion to bolster the Swedish telecom equipment supplier’s presence in modern software-based services. In addition, Microsoft ( MSFT -1.85% ) launched a CPaaS tool kit in late 2020 to build on its success with Teams.
Many of the greater cloud communications industry companies, including Zoom, are also customers of these CPaaS providers.
2. UCaaS
If CPaaS provides the building blocks for a customized communications experience, then UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) is a ready-to-go package for businesses. Delivered via the cloud, UCaaS is …….
Source: https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/12/03/zoom-twilio-cloud-communications-stocks-for-2022/