Zoom lets corporate customers redistribute a portion of the video conferencing network load to their company’s internal network. This approach is called hybrid as it combines dedicated and cloud video conferencing system capacities. This article explains why the hybrid approach cannot be considered 100% independent and secure as compared to on-premises video conferencing solutions.
Hybrid Zoom solution has certain limitations. Here is what the vendor says on its official website: “User and meeting metadata are still managed in the Zoom public cloud”. What’s important, currently Zoom doesn’t provide any solutions operating without internet connection.
© https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201363113
Zoom hybrid approach is based on the ability to deploy a virtual machine in a customer’s network. It performs one of the four actions: managing calls, sending audio/video streams, recording conferences or acting as an SIP/H.323 gateway. To illustrate, let’s compare Zoom hybrid solution and TrueConf Server in more detail.
| Zoom Business / Zoom Enterprise via Meeting Connector | TrueConf Server / TrueConf Enterprise | |
| Can users join a meeting without the internet connection? | No. | Yes. |
| Can users schedule a meeting without internet connection? | No. The information about scheduled conferences is stored on Zoom data centers located in the USA and China. | Yes, the information about scheduled conferences is stored on the server in your corporate network. |
| Can an administrator add a new user to the video conferencing system without internet connection? | No, user management is only available using a cloud-based web manager. | Yes. |
| Is it possible to securely synchronize account information from Active Directory (LDAP) with your video conferencing system global user list? | No, prior synchronization of your LDAP directory with Microsoft Azure cloud is required. | Yes, synchronization with Active Directory, OpenLDAP and 389 Directory is performed via secure ports that are listed here. No connection with third-party services will be needed. Check this article to set up user data synchronization between Active Directory and TrueConf Server. |
| Are the lists of conference participants stored in the vendor’s cloud? | Yes, administrators can’t restrict access to this information to third parties. | No, TrueConf Server provides total security for your communications data. |
| Is chat history stored in the vendor’s cloud? | ||
| Are polls, meeting statistics, as well as the lists of meeting participants and endpoints stored in the vendor’s cloud? | ||
| Can hackers join your meetings and intercept data? | Yes, unauthorized participants can join Zoom meetings, while media streams, exchanged files and participants’ information is delivered through the cloud during the meeting. | No, all communications happen within your corporate network. Access to conferences can only be restricted to authorized subscribers. |
| How many virtual machines are required to provide interop for 16 legacy conference room systems? | Three: two 16-core virtual machines with Virtual Room Connector and one double core Virtual Room Connector Load Balancer for load distribution. | None. The multiprotocol gateway is already built into TrueConf Server and supports up to 100 SIP/H.323 connections on a single server. |
| How many virtual machines are required to hold one conference with 800 participants? | Three: two quad-core virtual machines with Multimedia Router and one quad-core virtual machine with Meeting Connector. | None. Up to 3000 users can simultaneously participate in various meetings on a single server. |
It is also important to mention the following differentiating features for enterprise customers:
| For large-scale meetings, is it possible to manage speakers and control the conference remotely? | No, the active speaker automatically becomes bigger in the layout and displaces other conference participants. | Yes. With TrueConf, you can hold virtual meetings where moderator can manage speakers and attendees. |
| Is it possible to lock or freeze layout and configure video layouts during an ongoing meeting? | No, participants can configure only personal layouts, or choose a voice-activated layouts. | Yes. Moderator can remotely lock and configure the layout of every participant. |
| It is possible to remotely perform basic troubleshooting during video meetings? | No, moderators can only remotely enable or disable participants’ microphones or cameras. | Yes, moderators can remotely choose and configure audio and video devices of every participant or adjust microphone sensitivity. |
| Can external users be full-fledged meeting participants without installing a client application? | No, only one active speaker is displayed in the Zoom browser application. |
Yes, TrueConf application for browsers automatically mixes all video, audio, and content streams from participants and provides you with the same experience available for client applications. |
TrueConf Server provides a number of other benefits that are not listed in this article. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask more specific questions to our managers via live chat.
Happy video conferencing!
