Cisco Spark

[himanshu87]

Hi,

Just wanted to know what is Cisco SPark..how it is different from Current CUCM and how will it affect career wise the people currently in UC.

Also is there any study material present to get to know it.

Thanks

Himanshu Vaish

[Terry Cheema · Accepted solution]

Spark is the Cisco's Cloud based Collaboration offering. As Cisco advertises it provides below services:

1) Message: Messaging services using virtual rooms etc.

2) Meet: Conferencing(audio/video/web)

3) Call: Voice video services

Refer here for further: https://www.ciscospark.com/content/dam/ciscospark/eopi/country/usa/assets/pdf/Cisco-Spark-Overview.pdf

As mentioned since there is growing tendency towards hosted/cloud solutions this is Cisco's cloud collab offering basically re-engineered. On-prem CUCM is still in place but it appears over a period of time it may see a decline due to hosted/cloud/mobile etc. various offerings...fast change in the technology... just my thoughts...

Let us know if you have more questions on this....

-Terry

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[himanshu87]

Hi Terry,

What are your thoughts about a professional in Cisco Voip solution. What should be his career progression path.

Also what effect will Spark have on UCCE professionals.

Himanshu

[Terry Cheema]

I have been experiencing purely VoIP service is no longer a hot topic these days...As mentioned earlier a lot of different things are changing the scene hosting services/Cloud Service/Smart Mobile phones/competition from non-Cisco vendors etc. so traditional VoIP desk-phone use may see a decline.

Couple of years earlier it was a kind of big trend to move from the old telephony to VoIP but these days scene is quite different. It's all about experience and I see more and more people relying on their smart phones/apps etc. to communicate..(I am talking about the market segment I am exposed to...)

As to career progression I would suggest instead of any certs etc. just stay on top of market on where things are going...and if possible diversify your skills..Admittingly we live in, work in, different times than previous generations...and we may not be able to retire in the same area and may need to reskill continuously to be able to survive..

Regards to the technical question, at the moment I dont see Spark impacting the UCCE. Although for some organizations PCCE (scaling up to 1500 agents) is the better fit now...but again not a huge difference in technical function..or change in direction..

Feel free to ask if you have more questions..

-Terry

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