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pros and cons of using cucm or vcs

techguy
Level 4
Level 4
Hi, Im wondering that either cucm or vcs should be used? Or else both. What are the advantaged of using cucm over vcs or vice versa as a call agent for video. Thanks
10 Replies 10

Jens Didriksen
Level 9
Level 9

All depends on your current deployment and/or requirements, this article might be of help: http://blog.globalknowledge.com/technology/unified-communications/the-role-of-cisco-unified-communications-manager-in-video-conferencing/

/jens

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I think we still need VCS to do firewall traversal, when it is required to talk to outside world across firewalls . Looks like CUCM is not yet capable of doing that function ( to be an  in-path  device for media stream to support NAT function and media stream multiplexing).

-Nick.

In a pure CUCM environment, the "VCS" isn't needed for the firewall traversal or MRA functionality.  In this case, you use the "Expressway-Core" and "Expressway-Edge" products (which are effectively cut down VCSes with a different licencing model).

Wayne
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Wayne
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So lets say if we go with cucm then for firewall traversal we should use expressway core & edge. But expressway core & egde are again hardware? If so then why dont vcs expressway?

Expressway-Core and Expressway-Edge, similar to the VCS-Control and VCS-Expressaway can all run as Virtual Machines, so, depending where you put them within your environment, they may not necessarily require additional hardware.

The reason to not use the VCSes in a new deployment is that they are not going to be a long term solution as they are being discontinued and as Cisco want you to migrate all Video devices to the CUCM platform gong forward.

Have a look at some of the roadmap documents which all indicate the demise of VCS and everything being CUCM based in the future.  Here's one example (Pages 17-19):
http://www.cisco.com/web/HR/ciscoconnect/2014/pdfs/telepresence_infrastructure_update_aleksandar_vulovic.pdf

Wayne
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Wayne
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Again, IMO, it all depends on current deployment and future requirements - I wouldn't even look at Cisco, or Polycom for that matter, unless there was a compelling reason to do so.

We don't have a CUCM, nor will we ever get one as we don't have Cisco VoIP (we use Avaya), we're not on a Cisco network (now rolling out Juniper), nor are we interested in a Cisco UC solution, but what we are doing is actively looking at replacing our Cisco telepresence infrastructure with Pexip - as others are also doing. :)

/jens

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Agreed.  But for a brand new installation, as much as I hate to say it as I love the VCS platform, it's probably not worth making a significant investment in a new VCS based installation.

We're in a similar position to you, with no CUCM currently (and another vendor's VoIP solution for Telephony which is out of our control), but we're investigating putting in a "video-only CUCM" to migrate all our Video Endpoints to to keep up with CIsco's changing direction.

We've also dabbled a bit with Pexip, and use that as our way to call out to external, software only endpoints (ie Skype for Desktop) which we were pushed to do after Cisco cancelled their www.ciscojabbervideo.com service without a suitable replacement.

Wayne
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Wayne
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We're a VCS only organization, but recently purchased CUCM, and will  be used for video only.  Later down the road it might expand to voice if the need arises.

Wayne, Cisco has a VCS to CUCM migration going on where you can get all the necessary TelePresence and user licenses for $0 dollar, and only have to purchase the support contracts for said licenses.  CUCM licenses are based on the number of TelePresence endpoints and Jabber Video licenses in your VCS environment.  Migration offer ends July 31st.  We saved upwards to $70k+ on the cost of not having to pay for the actual licenses, while we paid less than $15k just for the support contracts of those licenses.

We were offered the migration from JabberVideo to Jabber, which included a free CUCM, but there's absolutely no appetite nor need for a CUCM nor Jabber here, so that won't happen.

If it was up to me, we would roll out Pexip to all staff and students tomorrow, and kiss Cisco goodbye, but it has to go through the appropriate/required processes for funding purposes, so guess we're in for a bit of a wait. :(

/jens

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Wayne DeNardi
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

The VCS way dates back to the good old TANDBERG days, and is the way things were done in the past.  Cisco has announced that the future direction is to have all devices using CUCM, so, if you're installing a completely new set of infrastucuture, the CUCM route would be the suggested way to go (much to the disappointment of those of us who are big fans of the TANDBERG way).

Further product development will only be occurring in CUCM and VCS will transition to a legacy product (although still partly used with CUCM as Expressway-Core and Expressway-Edge).

Wayne
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Wayne
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