Ensuring seamless, secure connections over telepresence and video, Cisco Unified Call Control offers a scalable and pervasive collaboration solution. It includes the following:
Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), which delivers key aspects of core call control; and,
Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) Expressway, which enables advanced telepresence applications such as secure B2B communication, remote access and firewall traversal capabilities;
VCS Expressway also supports H.323 for interoperability and interworking to maximize customers’ investments.
Check out the video below from InfoComm 2012, where I gave a short overview of how CUCM and VCS Expressway operate together to streamline and simplify the telepresence experience.
Boris Johnson, London’s Mayor, recently went on a tirade about working from home, criticizing the work ethic and the “general malingering” of a teleworker.
Coming from a company where telework is widely practiced, I couldn’t disagree more with Mr. Mayor. The world is on the cusp of the next revolution in how people work and this next phase must create deeper relationships and spur more effective communications and a sense of “connectedness” that we’ve been missing. Telework has not only been proven to make for a more efficient workforce but it also has resulted in happier employees. More than 80 percent of employees claim a better work/life balance since working remotely and 73 percent say they are more willing to put in extra time at work without their commute.
Organizations that provide flexibility are also more likely to attract new talent. Cisco surveyed college students and young professionals working around the world to determine the influence mobile device protocols, remote work opportunities, and Internet policies have on their employment decisions. And it matters — 42 percent of college students and recent graduates said they make career decisions based on companies that provide the best work/life balance. This request for balance came before more money (26 percent) or advancement potential (23 percent).
Cisco recently announced the availability of the Cisco Jabber for Windows client which now supports the Cisco Media Services Interface (MSI). This is Cisco Jabber’s first step towards integration into the medianet architecture and along with similar support within the WebEx meeting client will have a profound effect on how customers can manage Quality of Service (QoS) for desktop video enabled applications.
Today, one of the most common issues which prevent a wide scale deployment of desktop video clients is the lack of visibility and control that the network administrators have over these deployments. Unlike video conferencing or telepresence units that are invariably in the same place, desktop clients by their very nature move around and can pop up just about anywhere: Inside and outside of the enterprise, connected via VPN or wireless and, of course, they are mobile enough to appear in different offices unannounced. Given that network administrators are charged with delivering acceptable application performance across their network infrastructure, the uncontrolled deployment of desktop video can be a real nightmare. Is the network ready to support the potentially large numbers of concurrent desktop video sessions? What happens if too many sessions are concentrated in a site with limited or oversubscribed bandwidth? How do I protect my existing revenue generating applications from the impact of bandwidth hungry video applications? It is no wonder that it is the network administrator who typically ends up being the roadblock to deployment, given the lack of tools by which to do capacity planning, performance monitoring/management, and, of course, traffic engineering to protect the experience.
For customers who may not be ready to make a large investment in telepresence, the Cisco TelePresence MCU 5300 Series offers the ideal solution. It allows customers to buy a single unit, giving them a low entry price and grow as they need by adding a second unit via a stacking cable.
At InfoComm 2012, I discussed the MCU 5300 Series’ unique flexibility. Check out the video! Read More »
At InfoComm 2012, we announced the latest release of our TC software for Cisco TelePresence C Series Codecs. One of the unique features of TC 6.0 is its layout composing and control, so you can customize your video screen experience the way you want.
Check out the video below to see it in action! Read More »
