One executive from a solution provider, a longtime Avaya partner, said the vendor is trying to find its foothold in the cloud era by becoming a communications software and service provider. The cloud shift, along with a massive amount of debt, is making Avaya “disrupt itself,” he said.

“They need to live to fight another day right now,” he said.

ShoreTel is also laser focused on providing more cloud and hybrid cloud solutions with an emphasis on UCaaS.

During its recent quarterly earnings call, ShoreTel revealed that its board of directors had formed a strategic advisory committee to explore options, which could include selling parts of the company or ShoreTel itself. ShoreTel hired J.P. Morgan Securities as a financial advisor and Fenwick & West as its legal counsel.

“From a ShoreTel partner’s perspective, I don’t look at this as a negative move and, moreover, this is exactly what I personally want to see,” said Rittenhouse, at Converged Technology Professionals. “They are all essentially exploring options as they should be. The worst thing to be doing right now is pretending we are not going through a tremendous change on how businesses are adapting.”

UC provider Lifesize made its strategic move by spinning out of Logitech earlier this year in an effort to become a cloud and UCaaS provider.

“What you are seeing is a realization, strategy, concern of some organizations," Rittenhouse said. "It’s indicating that they are looking to see if they have a strong cloud model that’s sustainable, scalable and how [they can] capitalize on it."