The cloud is an enabler and an accelerator for collaboration capabilities. Cloud technologies enable the delivery of collaboration services in an "asa-service" model, making advanced collaboration capabilities accessible to businesses while minimizing the requirements for upfront investments and for building deep expertise in these technologies. In addition, the use of collaboration services from the cloud can accelerate rollouts, improve business agility, lower ongoing maintenance and utility costs, and continuously deliver new capabilities without the need for lengthy and expensive upgrade projects. Cloud collaboration with the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) delivers the advantages of Cisco's collaboration solutions, with the financial, operational, and strategic benefits associated with cloud services.