The Challenge: Scalability to meet growing demand
To provide services for clients, Orbits was heavily reliant on an embedded video conferencing platform.
When the company began its operations, a decision was taken to use an in-house Jitsi server to provide this support. However, it was found that the platform was not optimised during its setup to work effectively on mobile devices and could not be easily scaled to meet demand.
“Faced with this, we opted to switch to another vendor deployment,” says Orbits Chief Executive Lachlan Phillips.
“While this change did improve overall performance, we discovered the platform required a significant amount of customisation to deliver a smooth experience for customers.”
“We knew that we had to find a new video conferencing platform that better suited our needs.”
The Solution: An elegant solution with “first class” service
The Orbits team scoured the marketplace for a new video conferencing solution, and they evaluated a shortlist of the best contenders before deciding to go with cloud-based Jitsi as a Service (JaaS) from 8x8.
“The 8x8 Jitsi as a Service offering was the stand-out solution for us,” says Phillips. “We could see that it would meet our current requirements, as well as scale well in the future.” “In addition to very high performance and reliability, the platform also offered an elegant user interface which we found appealing.”
The company made the decision to deploy JaaS in early 2022, and the new solution was fully operational within a week.
Phillips says that the service and support provided by 8x8 since deployment has been “first class.” “I am confident that with 8x8 Jitsi as a Service, we now have a video conferencing partner who will underpin our growth in the months and years ahead,” he says.
The Benefits: More power, lower costs
With JaaS fully integrated with the Orbits front-end, the company began quickly enjoying some significant benefits.
“One of our primary markets is events,” says Phillips. “This means we can have large volumes of usage for a couple of days and then it drops right back. The benefit of using JaaS is that we are able to easily scale up for relatively short periods of time before scaling back down again once the event has concluded.” This ability to scale has a significant impact on operational costs as the company does not have to run servers that are only being used for a fraction of the time.
The next step for Orbits is the official launch of its Workspace offering, which will allow organizations to collaborate more easily in pre-built online environments. Larger corporations can also create full-blown digital twins of their physical premises.
“People will be able to use the service in the same way they use a conventional physical office,” says Phillips. “It’s about being able to allow people to meet and converse in a similar way as they do when in the same physical location. And with 8x8 Jitsi as a Service powering our meetings, we’ll be able to offer virtual offices, as well as events, at scale.”
