Read on to learn more about the new Webex Cloud-Connected Unified Collaboration (CCUC) for Cisco UCM software, as well as changes to Unified Communications’ perpetual licensing and hybrid calling that may affect your current collaboration systems.
Cisco has announced a number of new collaboration features and changes to existing solutions. What do these changes and announcements mean for your collaboration systems?
Webex Cloud-Connected Unified Collaboration for Cisco UCM
Webex Cloud-Connected Unified Collaboration (CCUC) for Cisco UCM is a set of services in the Cisco Webex cloud that aim to improve administrative workflow productivity with enhanced business and operational insights. Announced at Cisco Live earlier this year, the new CCUC feature set connects a Cisco UCM phone system to Webex Control Hub, allowing for enhanced configuration, management and monitoring of on-premises collaboration products from the Webex cloud.
CCUC expands Webex Control Hub to provide a global view of your cloud and on-premises collaboration products, making it a single operations control panel for analytics, administration and troubleshooting of your entire collaboration portfolio.
This feature set is available now as a free upgrade for existing Cisco clients.
Perpetual licensing end-of-life milestones for collaboration products
This past January, Cisco announced end-of-life for perpetual licensing on their collaboration products. This announcement had an immediate end-of-sale implication on all new or add-on orders of collaboration products, as it made subscription-based licensing the only option. It also laid out milestones for those with existing perpetual licensing related to maintenance contracts, including:
- January 23, 2022: The last date to purchase or renew maintenance contracts on existing perpetual licensing.
- January 31, 2024: The last date to receive applicable service and support for the product with perpetual licensing. After this date, Cisco will consider perpetual licensing to be obsolete.
Cisco has numerous incentives to help migrate from perpetual collaboration licensing to a subscription—even in cases with existing maintenance contracts in place. If you have questions about your existing licenses or want to inquire about how to make the transition, be sure to contact us.
Cisco Webex Hybrid Call Service end-of-life milestones and the new Webex device connector
The Cisco Webex Hybrid Call Service is a part of the Cisco Webex Call Connector architecture enabled through a dedicated Cisco Expressway instance. Hybrid Call Service was used to integrate on-premises Cisco calling capabilities to the legacy Webex Teams application, as well as to devices like video endpoints. Cisco announced that the Hybrid Call Service was going to end-of-life earlier this year, and stated their intention to disable the service on June 30, 2021.
After this June 30 deadline, calls made via the Hybrid Call Service will stop working for users with the legacy Webex Teams app or on devices still using this service. So, what do you need to do to ensure that you can continue to use hybrid calling without impacting operations?
Webex app users
Those currently using the legacy Webex Teams app will need to migrate to the latest Webex app (no longer called Webex Teams or Webex Meetings). The Webex App can be deployed with cloud-based call control systems like Webex Calling, or registered directly to an on-premises Cisco UCM. When registered with a Cisco UCM, you’ll have full access to the same enterprise calling capabilities including audio and video calls, plus mid-call features like mute and merge.
Migrating now will help avoid service impacts and allow you to continue using the calling functionality in the Webex app. Not only is the change necessary, but some of the benefits of direct registration include:
- Faster connect times than the Call Connector solution
- Direct media when Webexapps are local within the enterprise network
- Reuse of existing Mobile and Remote Access (MRA) and Jabber Client Services Framework (CSF) configurations
User devices
If you have personal mode devices configured and enabled for PSTN access and do not require PSTN any longer, no action is required before migrating to Calling in Webex. However, if you require PSTN support, you must migrate to the new Webex Device Connector solution and use Webex Control Hub to enable hybrid calling for your devices.
Webex Device Connector is a free application for Cisco users that not only adds on-premises calling capabilities to cloud-registered endpoints, but can also be used to automate Webex device onboarding to the cloud—including CSV-based bulk registration—in one step.
If you have questions about how Sirius can help your organization prepare for these upcoming changes to collaboration products and software, be sure to contact us or call 800-460-1237 for more information.
