Mitel Shoots for the Cloud with Aastra Buy

Mitel is no stranger to cloud and hosted offerings of its unified communications solutions, but the company's focus has not been on driving its cloud strategy. That may be changing following the acquisition of Aastra, an enterprise communications company with cloud offerings.

That said, the company still has a ways to go to build out its cloud portfolio—According to Mitel, the combined company has revenue of $1.1 billion. Only about $100 million of that revenue comes from the cloud, which means the company still is highly focused on the on-premise market. But with the merger, it looks as though Mitel is putting more emphasis on the cloud and is hoping to grow as a cloud-based communications player.

"The business communications market is ripe for consolidation and on the cusp of a mass migration to cloud-based services. We believe that small competitors with narrow focus and limited global reach will quickly be marginalized," said Richard McBee, president and CEO of Mitel, in a prepared statement. "Aastra's solid financial structure, complementary portfolios, geographic reach and large installed base immediately augment and expand Mitel's market footprint, enabling us to capitalize on a unique opportunity to leap-frog the competition and lead the market."

According to the two companies, Mitel and Aastra have complementary technology, but little product, technology or channel overlap.

Mitel wasn't specific about how it plans to boost its cloud strategy, but if it's serious about giving the cloud a greater place in its product portfolio, further announcements are likely on the horizon. From what was said in the announcement, it looks as though the vendor's plan is to migrate customers to cloud-based solutions over time.