Webex vs. Zoom Buyer's Guide

A New Era of Hybrid Experiences

Organizations of all sizes, industries, and revenue are embracing the opportunities of hybrid and remote experiences. However, many who adopted multiple collaboration tools to ensure uninterrupted continuity during the pandemic, are experiencing a variety of challenges in achieving their long-term hybrid and remote goals. From businesses to government agencies to educational institutions, we have entered a new era of hybrid collaboration experiences.

The challenges are diverse and many:

Disjointed Communication

Additional IT Administrative Work

Increased Security Risks

Global IT leaders report their focus on:

Empowering distributed workforce with seamless access to applications and high-quality collaborative experiences

Maintaining security, control, and governance across user devices, networks, clouds, and applications*

WHAT DOES THIS GUIDE COVER?

The Internetwork Engineering Communications and Collaboration Buyer’s Guide takes a closer look at these 2 focus areas (Security and Usability), as well as Value to help you make the best decision for your organization. We understand you have a lot of choices when it comes to collaboration platforms. In this guide, we will concentrate on 2 of the most popular solutions: Webex and Zoom.

Security

Most organizations are responsible for the handling of sensitive data. Healthcare, education, and government agencies are top of mind, but let’s not forget about the customer and employee data your organization is in charge of protecting. Collaboration tools are a target for hackers to get inside your systems and compromise your ability to safeguard sensitive data. From financial costs to the loss of your reputation, security breaches can have devastating, and even business-ending, consequences.

Zoom:

Experienced some serious security problems at the start of the pandemic. Since then, they’ve remedied most of their major security issues.

Webex:

Stellar reputation for excellent overall security. With robust secure authentication features, including locked personal room meetings, password-enforced meeting connections, and encrypted cloud recordings, Webex deterrent measures ensure that no business communications will be compromised.

Zoom:

According to the website, Zoom is GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, FERPA, and HIPAA compliant.

Webex:

Compliance is as robust as its features: ISO 27001 certified, Service Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type II audited, FedRAMP certified, Cloud Computing Compliance Controls Catalogue (C5) attestation, Privacy Shield Framework certified, GDPR, CCPA, COPPA, FERPA, and HIPAA compliant.

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Zoom:

The red flag here, and it’s a big one, is that Zoom utilizes overseas servers based in China. Due to recent global events and your industry, this may not be acceptable for your business.

Webex:

ALL servers are U.S. based.

Zoom:

Requires third-party apps (like Slack) to fill in communication gaps which can diminish overall security.

Webex:

Is an all-in-one solution for all your communication and collaboration needs.

Usability

Your collaboration tools are there to support communication, innovation, and the sharing of ideas, not discourage them. You also need to consider the technological savviness of the various people in your organization and their ability to adopt this new technology.

Zoom:

Highly intuitive user interface (UI) that makes it easy for users who aren’t familiar with video conferencing tech to get started. Because of its limited enterprise features, there is less of a learning curve for many people. However, since Zoom relies on a variety of third-party technologies to expand its collaboration features, navigation can be difficult for some users.

Webex:

Committed to open standards and interoperability, Webex delivers a lot more features than Zoom in an easy-to-use, all-in-one solution. Its integration with other mainstream and popular technologies, including Microsoft Teams, ensures users can connect and collaborate freely.

Zoom:

Features such as video conferencing, screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, breakout rooms, end-to-end encryption, and integration with third-party apps. It also includes a range of collaboration tools, such as team messaging, task management, and document collaboration—some through third-party providers.

Webex:

Offers many of the same features and tools but also includes file sharing, end-to-end encryption, and facial recognition to identify attendees. In particular, its integration with Microsoft Teams provides an excellent collaboration and calling experience without having to navigate through different applications.

eBook

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Zoom:

Highly accessible with closed captioning and keyboard shortcuts to simplify collaboration for your team.

Webex:

Delivers an accessible and inclusive experience with keyboard shortcuts, closed captioning, and screen reader support to bring your entire distributed workforce, as well as students and teachers, closer together.

Value

Though many organizations are under tight budgets, realizing value above and beyond price is key to the overall financial health of your organization. Hidden costs from having to supplement technologies, requiring more user IT support, or dealing with the aftermath of a cyber breach, should be considered when discerning real value.

Up-front Costs

Zoom:

Zoom Meetings pricing starts at $149.90 per license for an annual subscription.

Webex:

Is just a little less at $144 per license for an annual subscription.

2023 Webex vs. Zoom IMS360 eBook Icons (9)

Actual Value

If all you had to consider was the upfront costs, both platforms are pretty similar. But what are you getting for your yearly investment?

Feature

Meeting Capacity

Meeting Length Limit

Interactive Whiteboarding

Meeting Recording

Chat

Security

Access Webex Resources

Zoom

Up to 100

30 Hours

Includes 3 Boards

5GB Cloud Recording Storage

Team Chat

256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

Webex

Up to 200

24 Hours

Unlimited

Local and 10GB

Private and Public Chat

End-to-end Encryption

Try Webex Free

Conclusion

Considering security, usability, and value, Webex is clearly the best choice to ensure your teams stay connected, communicate easily, and collaborate freely.

Highly Secure, Easily Manageable

13-3

Backed by Cisco’s industry-leading security and networking infrastructure and provides a single pane-of-glass centralized management portal.

Comprehensive Capabilities

14-2

Addresses collaboration and communication needs of every type of business, while anticipating and accommodating future needs.

Greater Overall Value

15-1

Named a 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Unified Communications as a Services (UCaaS), supporting enterprise telephony, meetings (audio/video/web conferencing), unified messaging, instant messaging, and presence (personal and team).

IE is your collaboration partner

Internetwork Engineering (IE) has over 25 years of experience implementing and supporting best-in-class Collaboration solutions like Webex. To ensure you get the most from your collaboration investments, we offer Webex adoption services and access to our Customer Experience team. They can help you with:

Management of your licensing

and subscriptions

Insights into your utilization

and value for money

Help and support when

you need it

It’s a new era. Are you prepared to take advantage of all it has to offer? Learn more about how IE and Webex can open the door to greater possibilities for your business in this new era of collaboration.

Contact our Collaboration Team

Ready to make a decision? Our team can help you navigate implementation and internal team adoption. Simply fill out the form and one of our collaboration experts will contact you directly to get started.