Cisco

A Recipe for Success

Remember when Cisco was a network hardware company? Cisco and networking were virtually synonymous and you knew who to call if you needed a router or a switch. Once upon a time, Avaya was a provider of enterprise communications equipment. If you needed phones or maybe an IP PBX, you could call Avaya. In days gone by Microsoft focused on server and desktop operating systems and developing software applications to help businesses be more productive. Ah, the good ole days.

To be fair, each of those companies still does what it used to. But, now the waters are muddy as they all try to be all things to all customers. As Joe Schurman, CEO of Evangelyze Communications and author of Microsoft Voice and Unified Communications, points out in his musings from Voicecon 2009, nobody was content with their piece of the pie and now they all want to be the whole pie.

The thing is, none of them really have ALL of the ingredients necessary to make the best pie. If I could only buy a pie from one company I would get my pie from Microsoft because they have the most complete list of ingredients. I might need to top it off with some additional ingredients like SmartSIP, but the Microsoft Unified Communications platform offers the most comprehensive and innovative features in the most cost effective and flexible solution of the major players.

That said, these vendors and the customers both benefit when they stop competing to be the whole pie and instead focus on how to integrate their ingredients to cooperate to make the best pie possible. A Microsoft Unified Communications platform using Avaya or Nortel communications equipment connected to a Cisco network infrastructure seems like a recipe for success.

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Microsoft and Cisco Make Nice…Again

It is no secret that Microsoft holds a dominant position in the server and desktop OS market as well as the office applications market. However, Microsoft products need networking equipment in order to interconnect and communicate and Cisco has a dominant place in the networking and routing hardware market.

So, when Microsoft and Cisco both jumped into the unified communications arena it made some ripples. The two giants are competing head to head for dominance of the lucrative unified communications market with very different approaches and very different visions of what unified communications actually is.

Microsoft- being Microsoft- approaches unified communications from a software perspective and is working toward a goal of a pure software PBX solution and replacing  the traditional PBX. Cisco, on the other hand- being Cisco- has a more network and IP telephony-centric approach to unified communications. They each approach the market from their traditional strengths.

At one point, they had pledged to agree to disagree, but work together for the common good. That rhetoric lasted about until Microsoft unveiled Office Communications Server 2007 and then the gloves were off as they slammed each other’s products and solutions and went for the proverbial jugular.

In this market though, with this economy, they appear to have a renewed partnership. There is an old Arabic proverb: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. In this case, Microsoft and Cisco have a common enemy in the economic malaise which makes them friends by association.

In order to boost customer confidence and ensure that enterprises do not delay purchasing decisions waiting for a clear winner, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Cisco CEO John Chambers have vowed to ensure that their competing systems will interoperate and work together.

Connecting Cisco to Microsoft OCS

According to a recent Gartner Magic Quadrant report for Unified Communications, Microsoft, Cisco, and Nortel are the industry leaders in terms of both innovation and the ability to actually deliver that innovation to customers. Nortel and Microsoft have an intimate partnership through their ICA (Innovative Communications Alliance) relationship with Microsoft, and they work very closely together to ensure seamless interoperability of their unified communications products.

Cisco is another story. At one point Microsoft and Cisco made a very public showing of burying the proverbial hatchet and vowing to cooperate in the best interests of corporate customers and unified communications in general. That cooperation lasted right up until they started rolling out products at which time the mud-slinging began. Each declared their approach and solution superior and slammed the other.

Whether they want to admit it or not though, they are sort of forced to play nicely together (sort of like the nerd and the playground bully while the teacher is actually monitoring recess activities). Cisco is a dominant player in network infrastructure and VoIP communications. Microsoft has a virtual monopoly on the PC desktop and a significant share of the enterprise server market. There is a high probability that a prospective customer is already using Cisco networking in conjunction with  their Microsoft Windows network, so that prospective customer may very well wish to continue that balance as they move forward into unified communications.

Thankfully for the prospective customer, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) does integrate with the Microsoft Office Communications Server environment. It isn’t always pretty, but it works. Mike Stacy, a Director with Evangelyze Communications, provides an illustrated step-by-step guide to configuring direct SIP connectivity between the Cisco and Microsoft communications products.

Cisco Patches CUCM Security Flaw

Cisco is preparing to launch the next release of their Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) product - CUCM 7.0. But, last week they released an update for the current CUCM release. Actually, they released a total of 12 security updates or patches, but 11 of them deal with Cisco’s IOS and only 1 of them is related to CUCM.

The CUCM threats have been rated by Secunia as ‘moderately critical’. Vulnerable systems may be exposed to denial-of-service (DoS) attacks from a successful exploit. You can get more information from the Cisco Security Advisory and download the appropriate updates directly from Cisco.

Video Conference Via SmartPhone

Throw away your excuses. You won’t be missing any more meetings. As long as you have your mobile phone, you will only be a click away. CallWave is rolling out the Beta version of FUZE which, according to a Network World article, “delivers high-definition synchronized video, document collaboration and audioconferencing from any Web browser-, 3G- or Wi-Fi-enabled device.”

That sounds pretty impressive. What is more impressive is that CallWave has also integrated this application with Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007, enabling expanded unified communications functionality including the ability to invite / add users to a meeting with a simple click of the mouse. FUZE also works with the Cisco Unified Communication Manager (CUCM) IP PBX. In addition, CallWave has announced imminent support for the Apple iPhone, as well as support coming soon for Avaya, Mitel, Nortel, and other IP PBX platforms.

Cisco Reversing Course?

As unified communications entered into the mainstream consciousness, a few major players emerged. Two of them were Cisco and Microsoft. They have very different visions for what unified communications means and very different approaches to get their customers there.

At one point, they actually called a cease fire of sorts and agreed to cooperate in the interest of the greater good. That amiable agreement was quickly tossed aside though once they started rolling out products and one-upping each other about which is the right way to do it.

Now Gurdeep Singh Pall, the head of Microsoft’s Unified Communications team, offers up some insights in a recent blog post. He claims that Cisco has now seen the error of their ways and that they are shifting gears and reversing course to try and play catch-up with Microsoft’s Unified Communications platform. Recent purchases, like the announcement that Cisco is buying Jabber, seem to support this change of strategy and direction on the part of Cisco.

Cisco Buys Jabber

With the speed of computers and networks today, email is virtually instant. But, many corporations consider instant messaging to be a valuable complement to email communications and a vital component of efficient communications. When 10 seconds is just too long to wait for an email to be delivered, you can rely on instant messaging to get your message there even faster.

When instant messaging first emerged, it was primarily consumer oriented and handicapped by its own proprietary nature. AOL users could only communicate with AOL users. ICQ users could only communicate with ICQ users. Etc. Jabber came onto the scene as one of the first products to legitimize instant messaging for corporate use. Jabber enabled companies to house the instant messaging server on the internal network where they could monitor, maintain, log, and secure the communications. It also provided cross-platform support, allowing users of Jabber to communicate with AOL, ICQ, Yahoo, and other instant messaging platforms.

I used Jabber at a former employer. It seemed like a solid and functional tool and I liked the ability to communicate with disparate instant messaging systems. Cisco apparently has seen the value in Jabber as well. They are purchasing the instant messaging company to add the functionality and capabilities to their line of unified communications products. You can learn more from this Information Week article.

Cisco Unified Communications Vulnerability

Security vulnerability research firm Secunia reports “A vulnerability and a security issue have been reported in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, which can be exploited by malicious people to bypass certain security restrictions or to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).” The vulnerability is only rated as Less Critical by Secunia, so it is not an urgent issue, but users of Cisco Unified Communications Manager should be aware and investigate the availability of patches or updates to address the problem.

D-Link Takes on Cisco for UC Switching

D-Link, an established name in consumer wired and wireless networking, is targeting rival Cisco to deliver switching solutions for unified communications. D-Link is one of the primary partners with Microsoft for their Response Point communications package, a simple, cost-effective product for small and medium businesses (SMB) which provides many of the benefits of an enterprise unified communications implementation without the cost or complexity. D-Link plans to deliver a range of products aimed at providing unified communications for the SMB market, and they envision being able to achieve 50 percent profit margins in this hot, cutting edge arena.

Wireless VoIP

If you have ever set up or worked with a wireless network, you are probably familiar with the fact that the signal quality isn’t always the best. Depending on your wireless networking hardware and how you have it configured, the layout and materials used in the structure your network is in, and possible interference from other electronics and communications equipment, the wireless network connection can be erratic. The same can be said for those who may have worked with or set up a VoIP communications system. The issues are different, but the problems still arise with bandwidth and signal quality. It can be difficult to maintain the quality of voice communications over a VoIP network. Imagine then what types of issues you might encounter if you try to implement a VoIP communications system over a wireless network. Yikes! On May 1, Cisco is presenting a webcast entitled Extending VoIP to Wireless LAN’s which will cover six technical challenges you must address, capacity planning, roaming, security issues, and more. For more details, or to register to attend the webcast, click here.