UC Case Study: Part 2 - Cisco

By Alex Lewis on Mon, 12/01/08 - 4:31pm.

Welcome back from the holiday! After my intro post last week this is part two and will be focused on Cisco's unified communications offering. Why Cisco, well, they have the most disjointed and incomplete offering currently, but they also have a lot of potential. Read on for some interesting things to think about.

In 2008, Cisco went on a buying spree snapping up Jabber and PostPath. For those of you new to UC, Jabber is a popular XMPP IM platform is PostPath is an "Exchange-clone" email platform. Theoretically this filled two gaping holes in Cisco's UC strategy. However, neither of them are available now in any form. This may become another debacle because of Cisco's inability to create good end user software. Ever try to use the Cisco VPN client on Vista x64? ...exactly my point.

Cisco is also in a bit of a transition. They've said they're basically abandoning the enterprise (on-premise) IM and UC solution with the announcement that all new R&D efforts will be directed to the WebEx Connect SaaS platform. Most people I spoke with didn't even know Cisco had an enterprise UC client.

Enough surface analysis, let's look deeper. Based on the functionality requirements I listed in the first post let's see how Cisco stacks up.

Presence engine - To me, this is another "zero". The enterprise client from cisco has limited presence levels and no real granularity. It's way behind solutions from IBM and Microsoft.

Instant Messaging - The IM client from Cisco is clunky and outdated. They purchased Jabber but don't have anything to show for it yet. This is a big disappointment. The IM portion of WebEx Connect shows some promise.

Federation - The WebEx Connect platform offers what I call a federation alternative. Since it's in the cloud, users from anywhere can be granted permission to access it at a granular level. IMO, this is where the Cisco offering really shines. Since there is no "internal" there's not really an "external" either. granting access to partners is simple and intuitive.

Public IM - They have a forthcoming XMPP gateway appliance and it will be free to interoperate with some (not clear which) public IM networks.

Audio and Video Conferencing from a desktop client - Surprisingly limited from the desktop. 1-1 conferences only. You have to fire up meeting place to meet between more than 2 people. Video Conferencing also requires expensive MUX/MCU appliances.

Web Conferencing - MeetingPlace is a great, basic tool but it hasn't changed much since the mid-90s while the rest of the world has moved on to needing something bigger and better. WebEx is great but it's a pay-per-use solution that kills a large part of the ROI model for UC. Voice and video from conferences are saved in a proprietary format and can't be replayed without the console app.

Messaging Platform - Although Cisco purchased PostPath awhile ago, they currently have nothing to offer in this area.

Mobility - The basic find me follow me functionality is there but other UC-enabled mobility functions are limited.

Collaboration - MeetingPlace (on-premise) has some realtime collaboration but lacks important features like document repositories, wikis, etc. WebEx Connect has some promise in these areas but right now it's clunky and limited.

Extensible API - Nothing really to speak of in this area. Again, Cisco is caught between an outdated enterprise client and a not-ready-yet SaaS offering.

IP Telephony - Cisco has a great solution with Call Manager. It's arguably the industry leader for VoIP and converged voice solutions. Cisco Unity is also a great, proven UM platform.

Remote Access - Not included in the original but Cisco's remote access solution is so asinine that it needs to be mentioned. Cisco calls it "remote worker" and it involves a Cisco router/VPN endpoint sitting at a users home maintaining a persistent VPN tunnel to the office. Besides expensive and and behind the times there's still no excuse for Cisco, a networking company, not to have a more elegant remote access solution.

There's the meat of it. In summary, Cisco has a great VoIP solution but is lacking in the other areas of UC. I'd argue they're irresponsible in claiming to have a "UC offering". They have UC only by the most liberal definitions. Rebranding Cisco Call Manager to "Unified Communications Manager" is classic marketing; all sizzle, no steak. Ranting a bit, doesn't a unified communications solution need to be, you know, unified? Cisco's offering is a kludge of nearly 40 products on distinct platforms with minimal interoperability and synergy.

Overall I'm disappointed in the offering and do not recommend it for companies looking for a UC solution from a single vendor. However, if you're looking for strictly a VoIP platform and plan to tie it into another UC platform then Cisco is a safe bet.