There was a marked shift in thinking about cloud-based unified communications in 2010, according to Zeus Kerravala, Yankee Group (News - Alert) senior VP. In 2009, Some 14 percent of respondents base did not consider software as a service (SaaS) to be a viable option for UC, but that number dropped to a mere three percent in 2010, Kerravala says. 

It isn't yet clear what the Microsoft acquisition of Skype (News - Alert) could mean for the cloud-based UC business, but one would think the whole business could get a push, depending on what Microsoft (News - Alert) decides to do, and what other competitors decide to do in response. 

According to Aberdeen Group, about 24 percent of surveyed respondents said Skype was their enterprise collaboration product. Microsoft might be able to leverage that installed base in new ways.  

Skype competitors should look for partners or buyers, Kerravala suggests.  “Skype’s acquisition marks the beginning of an era in which VoIP companies either need to get big or get out of the market,” he said.

With Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and even AOL (News - Alert) all offering free VoIP and messaging services, small VoIP and video-conferencing companies need to either partner with someone with a big audience or watch their subscriber bases dwindle away. 

Bring-your-own-broadband VoIP providers such as Vonage (News - Alert) and MagicJack will find their businesses particularly at risk in the coming months and years, Kerravala suggests.