Continuous value delivered with new Cisco SD-WAN innovations

IT teams need agile delivery to keep pace with business demands. Today, enterprises are in the process of transitioning to a hybrid workforce, another rapid pivot that requires agile delivery. It’s essential to adapt to the new paradigm and in doing so, seek to minimize costs while still improving productivity, security, and the user experience. Cisco software platforms, like Cisco SD-WAN provide continuous value with new capabilities enabled in software.

Our latest Enterprise Networking release helps with this transition to hybrid work and provides value with innovations that provide greater integration that can reduce OpEx and CapEx spending and simplify operations. See the details below on new features in this release to help your IT team increase business agility and deliver more value for your organization.

First Cloud OnRamp for SaaS to optimize Webex experience

To improve and enhance the user experience for organizations, in our latest release (17.7) we are announcing Cisco SD-WAN Cloud OnRamp for SaaS integration with Webex. Cisco SD-WAN is the first solution to provide this level of integration and automation.

Cisco enables users to optimize Webex connectivity and performance when using Cisco SD-WAN. It does this by continuously monitoring all possible paths to Webex, and intelligently routing cloud application traffic to the best performing path, providing a fast, secure, and reliable end-user experience – and without human intervention.

The ultimate value for the users is that Cloud OnRamp for SaaS delivers path optimization and policy automation for Webex, so enterprises will be able to deliver a better application experience for their customers and employees.

Simplify CUBE functionality embedded in routers with Cisco SD-WAN

The new release enables native Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) support on Cisco enterprise routing platforms. CUBE is an enterprise-class Session Border Controller (SBC) performing critical voice routing, security, interworking and session management functions. Supported platforms include: ISR 4000, ISR 1100, and Catalyst 8200 as well as other ASR models.

The integration of this functionality into Cisco SD-WAN empowers customers to leverage the edge platforms to route collaboration application traffic between SD-WAN enabled nodes either within an enterprise (for on-prem deployments) or private / public cloud-based solutions. Customers can enable SBC functionality on their existing SD-WAN platforms allowing them to consolidate capabilities into a single platform, eliminating the need for an additional appliance. This integration reduces the number of platforms to purchase, license, power and manage; simplifies network architecture; and lowers costs and complexity.

Ease operations with vManage Enhanced UX for Network Monitoring

Cisco is introducing enhanced vManage UX capabilities that enables IT managers and network operators to centrally automate the entire SD-WAN fabric, all in a highly visualized and intuitive user experience.

vManage is the single centralized dashboard for Cisco SD-WAN, addressing traditional challenges associated with device configuration, network management, and network monitoring with automation. It offers a highly visualized and intuitive user interface that simplifies and expedites network management and monitoring of SaaS, IaaS, and security for network operators.

vManage offers the following advantages:

◉ Intuitive user interface for easy consumption.

◉ Highly visualized network monitoring.

◉ Pre-configured templates automate and expedite the deployment of most common use cases.

◉ Guided step-by-step configuration designed to intelligently expedite onboarding of new devices.

◉ Expedite the Cisco ThousandEyes agent deployment for enhanced visibilities into internet, cloud, and SaaS

◉ Migrate to a SASE architecture with Cisco Umbrella

Greater reliability and resiliency with Cisco Integrated Services Router 1131 

Cisco Integrated Services Router 1131 with WiFi-6 and 5G pluggable interface module

Cisco is introducing the next iteration of Cisco Integrated Service Router (ISR) optimized for cloud connectivity with built-in Wi-Fi 6 and pluggable 5G support for enhanced connectivity.

Built-in Wi-Fi 6 adds additional flexibility and scalability to existing networks, and pluggable 5G technology can provide greater reliability and resiliency. There is also support for full-stack security, including application aware firewall, IPS, URL-filtering, AMP, and Thread Grid.​

SD-WAN has evolved beyond simply connecting users at the campus to applications in the datacenter. The value of network connectivity is the lifeblood of any enterprise today. The ability to connect users reliably and securely across multicloud, branch, datacenters, and hybrid workforce becomes a critical success factor to any organization.

Source: cisco.com

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Enabling Integration via Webex Teams – All Together Now

Enabling Integration via Webex Teams and Cisco DNA, SD-Wan, Intersight, Thousand Eyes via Cloud API Gateway

I was really excited to have a unique opportunity to put together a team of my fellow engineers to work on a Collaboration hacking contest within Cisco. This annual event is usually in-person for a day or two in San Jose, making it out of reach for my nomadic desert comrades located in Arizona. This year, however, remote is the new normal. This unique situation made it possible for my ragtag band of misfits to participate in events regardless of our geography. So we embarked on a mission to enable webhook integration for Webex teams, so that our products can send notifications into Teams, just as they can into email.

A cloud native yet cloud agnostic solution

In order to do this we decided to make sure this wasn’t only able to support diverse products, but also, diverse clouds. A cloud native, yet cloud agnostic solution based upon serverless infrastructure supporting standard webhooks and HTTPS Post messages. We decided on Google Cloud platform and Amazon Web Services for our multi cloud endeavor.

The initial idea was actually for a separate use case – I have esp8266 modules integrated with Teams for the use case of being notified when my garage door is opened/closed, my bearded dragon’s cage is hot, etc. As these scale in number, if I ever were to change my security bot token or room ID, I would have to go re-flash all of my IoT Sensors to match. So, it creates an operational problem for leveraging Teams as a IoT device receiver or third party integrator.

Enable cloud as an API gateway

The idea was to enable cloud as an API gateway to accept requests, do advanced security checks, and decouple the Webex Teams security and context information from what is flashed onto the sensors to better manage the lifecycle. But extending this to webbooks was a natural evolution that seemed to have the most immediate impact to customers. When Demo’ing some of our cloud technologies (Intersight, Meraki), customers saw that notifications can go to webhook or email, and naturally inquired about their Webex Teams integration.

By enabling the webhook capability, we immediately added support for all of our product sets that support webhooks to integrate with Webex Teams. And do so without requiring any change on either the product, or Webex Teams. We did want to have native “handlers” in the code to handle differences in webhook formatting between different products. For our project we created handlers for Cisco DNA Center and Meraki. We had started work on Thousand Eyes but didn’t have the lab instance able to send webhooks at the time we finished the project. The amount of effort to create and modify a handler is as simple as 20 minutes worth of effort ensuring that the JSON fields that you care about, are included in what is sent to Teams.

The code is available on Github

Of note, while the code should have been very consistent between solutions, there is a difference in how Google integrates their API with their cloud functions compared to AWS. The API gateway on GCP has been out for a while, but right now integration of the API gateway on Google for cloud functions is in Beta and does require a bit more lift to setup. I expect this will normalize as it is brought to market. I also want to caveat that by noting I was seeking a functional product, closer integration with GCP teams probably would have helped with how I managed some error handling in Cloud Functions to make it integrate with API GW.

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Securing Remote and Mobile Workers the Webex Way

In this unprecedented time where remote work has expanded and become the norm – Webex continues to innovate to give our customers the tools they need to keep their remote workers secure – whether they’re on the go on their personal mobile devices or safely working from home using company managed devices.

New Mobile Security and Granular Controls

Mobile Webex IT Administrators have been clamoring for more granular policy enforcement tools and also more integrations with their existing tool sets. To solve for both of these, Webex now has integration with Microsoft Intune Mobile Application management, including:

◉ Passcode/Touch ID

◉ Document sharing

◉ Preventing application backup

◉ Disabling screen capture

◉ Enforcing Application Encryption

◉ Disabling Copy and Paste

◉ Remote Application Wipe

And for those customers who aren’t using Intune, Webex allows them to secure the Webex mobile apps by self-wrapping it with their preferred Mobile Application Management solution SDK by providing app binaries.

In addition, Webex now supports AppConfig – the industry standard for Mobile Application Management. Customers can deploy several policies like disable copy and paste across virtually any MDM solution.

Finally, Webex is continuing to augment native Control Hub Mobile Application Management controls and just released a capability to block message notifications on mobile screens to prevent against data loss on unattended devices.

Securing Your Remote Workforce with Granular Tools 

Another capability that we’ve added blocking file share for groups. For instance, you may have a group of contractors in your company and you don’t want to run the risk of your contractors sharing sensitive data files from their desktop – so now you set up policies for groups from sharing their files – based on their group classification in your active directory. Using Cisco Directory Connector – Webex administrators can get group information directly from their active directories – directly from the Webex Control Hub. They can set up groups of people – like contractors vs. employees; investment bankers vs. retail bankers; or groups of those who provide patient care vs. those in financial administration.

Figure 1 – Active Directory groups in Webex Control Hub

Without having to back to their active directories – Webex admins can:

◉ View all active directory groups

◉ Search for a specific active directory group

◉ View all members in an active directory group

◉ View group attributes like usage, type, owner and number of members

Webex Control Hub gets this information by syncing with the customer’s active directory. And customers can choose how frequently they sync and when and what to sync. This is such a streamlined workflow for customers who are accustomed to having to sync by individual user. And we’ll be adding new security controls based on Active Directory groups in the future.

Additionally, Webex Admins can:

◉ Control file upload control or file upload and download control

◉ Only allow people to upload when they are on the corporate VPN network

◉ Define their network location by IP range and IP addresses – and they can enable file sharing restrictions based on those addresses & ranges

New Webex Space Classifications

Webex space classifications can help enable companies to safeguard content by labeling spaces and then having 100 characters of explainer text for each.

Figure 2 – Webex Teams space classifications

Webex administrators can set up any five labels that they want within Control Hub.  Many companies will elect to set their policies around security – for instance:

◉ Public

◉ Private

◉ Confidential

◉ Highly confidential

◉ Restricted

And then the creator of the space would label and add up to 100 characters of explainer text for each space he or she creates.

Additionally, Webex administrators can build data loss prevention policies in their Cloud Access Security Broker – using the APIs that Webex provides – for instance – they could prohibit file uploads in a space that’s classified as “Top Secret.”  Or they can set up policies for when users collaborate with someone outside of their company – and those external users will get an alert that the space they are entering has a classification.

Users also have the ability to elevate the space classification – but they can’t lower the space classification. For instance, if someone in a space starts introducing confidential information in a public space, the creator or space owner could change that space classification to “confidential.”

Unparalleled Security for Remote Work

Whether it’s the ability to secure mobile devices so users can safely use Webex on the go, or granular tools to prevent data leakage – Cisco has unparalleled security to secure your remote work force.

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Cisco Named a Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing 2020 Vendor Assessment

Why Cisco is a Leader in the 2020 IDC MarketScape

For the fifth consecutive year, Cisco has been identified as a leader in the IDC MarketScape! We are extremely proud to receive this recognition and while we strive to achieve for the benefit of our customers, it always feels good to be recognized for our hard work, especially in a crowded market among notable competitors. Cisco’s continued standing as a Leader in the 2020 IDC MarketScape Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing report is a strong indicator that customers continue to believe in the Webex vision and strategy. As the IDC MarketScape report points out, our “focus on enterprise-grade security, scale, and management functionality are selling points for customers.”

IDC MarketScape studies companies’ recent paths, investigate where they think the company is going, connects with the company’s customers, and comes up with a positioning based on these parameters.

Our Approach to Collaboration

I see our position as a leader in this year’s IDC MarketScape as a validation of our approach to collaboration: We believe in tools that are easy to use and let users be productive from anywhere; that is integrated with the workflow and decision-making process; that have security built-in, not bolted on; and are inherently flexible, manageable and adaptable for scale and innovation. And for many of our customers, the best part is you can get it all from one place.

“Cisco’s one-stop vendor approach and broad portfolio of video collaboration solutions and endpoints that are integrated with its extensive UC&C portfolio can be key benefits for customers, whether you are a small, a midsize, or an enterprise organization,” said Rich Costello, IDC analyst. “This can be even more beneficial especially if you already have an existing investment in Cisco networking infrastructure or leveraging cloud-based services.”

MarketScape Vendor Analysis

We work hard here at Cisco to give customers the tools they need to be successful. Whether you are working from the Cloud, from an on-premise device, from your mobile, desktop, or tablet, we want to ensure that we’re providing you with the products and experiences you need.

Let me tell you more about why Cisco continues to be recognized as a leader by the IDC MarketScape and other industry watchers.

SOURCE: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing 2020 Vendor Assessment, by Rich Costello, July 2020, IDC Doc# US46691620.

IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market, and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. The vendor market share is represented by the size of the icons.

Making the Workplace Experience Better 

We understand that the tools you use every day need to make your life easier, not harder. Webex combines calling, meetings, messages, and devices into one single unified experience, so you can work better, faster, smarter. While you are scheduled for back to back video meetings from home, you can see who is already waiting for you in the next meeting, and if you are running late, just send a message in your Team space to let them know while they wait in the security lobby, or attach a file from your Enterprise Content Management system for them to review in the meantime. And if you have a few extra minutes before the next meeting, you can video call a colleague for a quick discussion with a single click. The ease of use of Webex makes connecting and collaboration simple and frictionless. It combines both hardware and software to fit today’s workstyles, workflows, and workspaces.Our unified platform provides all the collaboration tools needed – with just one, modern, unified application.

Our Customer’s Needs are our Top Priority – Simple Buying Model 

This is an unprecedented era, where remote working collaboration tools — video conferencing, devices, phones, headsets — have become the lifeblood for businesses to stay connected and productive. That is why we have formulated a simple purchasing model.

HaaS: offers industry-leading collaboration endpoints with a more affordable payment plan and a better user experience through our Webex® unified platform. Set up your remote office with devices such as the DeskPro.

Flex plan: use Cisco collaboration tools with one simple subscription-based offer. It helps with transitions to the cloud, and investment protection, by including cloud, premises, hosted, and hybrid deployments, with the flexibility to use them all.

You have an easy way to access the tools you need. Our repeat recognition as a Leader means that we’ve demonstrated a seamless, intelligent portfolio for every type of workspace that meets market demand. Remote work is the new normal way to work and the Cisco Webex portfolio was purposefully designed to make interacting and collaborating with your teams effortless.

Increase Market Coverage

Our team has a focus on making Webex available to companies of all sizes.

The IDC MarketScape also notes that our recent acquisition and integration of BroadSoft has expanded our global carrier partnerships with a large base of cloud calling users who can now “create a compelling calling and meetings bundle with an integrated experience”. I am proud to say that we are a leader in cloud calling – with over 30M users served through our cloud calling platforms by over 400 carriers worldwide. We are working diligently with our partners to bring the complete Webex collaboration experience to all these cloud calling customers.

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Cisco Meeting Server 3.0 Feature Release

Premise-Based Conferencing Option with Cisco Meeting Server 3.0

“Going to the cloud” seems to be the talk of the town; however, the cloud is not everyone’s cup of tea. If that’s your case, we hear you, and we care about you. Cisco continues to offer a premise-based conferencing option just for you.

Let me tell you about our latest Cisco Meeting Server 3.0 feature release.

Just because you are not on the cloud, doesn’t mean your platform can’t be like the cloud. Cisco is working hard to align user experiences between Webex and CMS in order to simplify scenarios where customers use both. With this new release, we have a greater number of concurrent web app sessions, new web app in-meeting controls, and branding capabilities to give meetings your companies look and feel.

Better Meeting Experiences

The engineering team has been hard at work delivering agile feature releases every four months, with features you can use now while working remotely or from home. We are also continuously working to keep CMS a user friendly and intuitive platform.

Scalability – CMS extends its industry-leading scale with the web app. The web app scales to the same capacity as SIP calls on the CMS callbridge for internal calls and calls over a VPN.

Web App – Anyone can join a meeting quickly without installing anything by using the web app powered by WebRTC technology. With web app, users can create, join, and manage their meetings using their preferred browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, or Yandex. New in-meeting features with the latest release include:

◉ Add/drop participants
◉ Mute others or all
◉ Branding
◉ Start a recording or streaming session
◉ Name labels
◉ Lock / unlock
◉ Making participants important

More Advanced Features with the 3.0 Release

The 3.0 release also brings more advanced features like separate windows for video and content to allow users to use two screens or just to optimize how they use their desktop. Below is an example of branding now available with the Meeting Server web app.

Self-management – Administrators can provision templates allowing users to create their own spaces based upon admin defined templates. Other options include setting PIN’s for hosts or guests and adding additional members to the space.

Smart licensing – This release also changes licensing, where Cisco Meeting Management (CMM) is required with all deployments for licensing usage reporting, plus integration with Cisco Smart Licensing.

Smart licensing is a new way of thinking about licensing. It can be applied to all Cisco products and is now available through CMM for CMS clusters. Smart licensing simplifies managing licensing for CMS, which means no more license files must be applied to servers. It provides key information about software entitlement and utilization in one centralized process. CMM will be mandatory for all new customers. Smart Licensing is required for new customers, optional for existing customers.

TMS - Cisco TMS provides centralized control for on-site and remote video systems and a deployment and scheduling system for your entire video network. TMS for scheduling now supports Oath authentication with O365 & Exchange hybrid deployments. TMS for higher education customers allows CMS recording to be configured when scheduling with the help desk.

In Conclusion

All of these new Cisco Meeting Server features gives your company the tools you need for getting business done, weather meeting in the office, from home or on the road. Existing customers with valid support contracts can find this new version on the software download center.

Cisco Meeting Server Web App – Feature List Comparison

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Enhancing the Single Pane for Webex Edge for Devices

Bringing the Most Modern Experience of Webex to any Device with Webex Edge for Devices

Earlier this year, we released Webex Edge for Devices with our CE 9.10 software release for Webex Rooms. This enabled administrators to easily link their on-premises registered devices to the Webex Platform, delivering an enhanced feature set which included device analytics and diagnostics for on-premise deployed rooms.

Webex Edge for Devices is bringing the most modern experience of Webex to any device regardless of how it is provisioned today. We have had an amazing uptake of this new deployment model, which has in turn generated a wide range of feature requests, and I couldn’t be more excited to announce a new set of features that Webex Edge for Devices customers will receive from the Webex platform.

Creating a Better Experience for Administrators and End-Users

With the 9.12.3 release, we released the ability to use a HTTPS proxy on the device to connect to the Webex Platform. This gives more flexibility for administrators to allow traffic to flow through proxies as it leaves their corporate network!

For Webex Meetings 

The next two features are related to Webex Meetings. Now, customers can search for a PMR (Personal Meeting Rooms) directly on devices which have been linked with Webex Edge for Devices through the “Join Webex” button. This makes it even easier to join Webex Meetings!

For Administrators

The other Webex Meetings feature is for the administrators. When you need to troubleshoot a device, you can now get access to the same data our full cloud registered systems have. This includes drill down minute by minute diagnostics over packet loss, jitter, latency and even resolution for all Webex Meetings!

For Configurations

The next one is a big one. Our customers have been asking for a while when they will be able to configure devices from Control Hub? Well, now is the time! With CE 9.13, customers can opt into configurations controlled from Control Hub instead of UCM or TMS. This truly makes Control Hub the single pane of glass to manage every workflow. The ability to bulk edit configurations for Control Hub is also just around the corner. This paired with the upcoming configuration API means it is possible to add programmability if you want to make large sweeping changes.

Workspaces

The final feature I want to mention is something we just recently released, namely Workspaces! People have been asking me if this works for both cloud registered and Webex Edge for Devices linked workspaces? The answer is Yes! Workspaces delivers real time metrics directly from your workspaces into Control Hub and brings value for every activity in the space.

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Tips on How to Host a Great Virtual Event

Hosting a Virtual Event with Webex Events

Let’s face it… hosting a virtual event can sound pretty daunting. But don’t stress, we are here to help! Let’s pretend the big day is right around the corner and so far, you’ve scheduled your virtual event/webinar with Webex Events and the attendees are registered.

Now you may be trying to figure out “how can I keep everyone engaged?” or “how will I be able to reach my full audience?” or simply “OMG – How do I NOT screw this up?”

Well, sit back, relax, and let us help you navigate your way through hosting a great virtual event.

Days Before the Event

Recruit an event team– It may be helpful to have team members at your side during the event. Look into having a moderator to help with introductions, to transition between talking points, to interact with audience members through chat, and to deliver closing statements.  Also, identify a Q&A response person(s) who will manage the polling and Q&A panel. This will help you focus on delivering the best quality content. The “event team” (Q&A responders, moderators, etc) should be invited to the event as panelists instead of attendees.

Set up a time to rehearse- Schedule a 30-minute “practice event” through Webex Events with those that are helping you with the event (panelists). Make sure everyone understands the event format, which controls to use, and what their role is.

Check internet connection- Run the “health checker” report during your rehearsal to make sure you are fully connected. For optimal internet connectivity, we suggest hardwiring your internet connection.

Day of the Event

Minimize background noise – Ensure you are in a quieter location with minimal distractions. Less background noise will give your audience a better chance of hearing you clearly.

Check-in with the preview window- Chose your audio and video delivery platform whether that is your computer, video device, phone, or headset. We suggest using a headset/mic for optimal audio. The preview window also gives you a chance to check your background. Your kids’ playroom doesn’t make the best virtual event background? We get it. Customize your background by choosing one of the virtual backgrounds or apply a simple blur effect.

Be camera-ready- If you look good, then you will feel good. If that means jeans and a tee-shirt, great. If that means a blazer and a tie, then that is cool too. However, solid colors do work better for the camera. Being camera ready will help set the tone for the entire event.

Showtime – During the Event

Turn on video – Now that you are dressed for the part, make sure your video is actually turned on. Face to face interaction goes a long way. Turning on video creates a more intimate, realistic environment.

Join early and Turn on the practice session – Host, panelists and other event team members can join a practice session, while the audience is joining, without being seen or heard by the attendees. This session allows the host and panelists to communicate with each other without the attendees being able to listen in. It allows the host and panelists to connect, get on the same page, and make sure things are working properly before going live. When you’re ready to go live, end the practice session. Now it’s showtime!  (You can now be seen and heard by the attendees.)

Join your audience early- Once you are finished with the practice session, close the practice session to join in with the attendees. Join your attendees 15-25 minutes early to allow the audience to get settled and figure out audio/video before the session begins.

Identify the schedule- Create a clear event agenda and stick to it. Be clear as to what the purpose of the event is and what information will be covered.

And if need be, don’t forget to record!

Extend Your Reach

Live stream capabilities – Reach as many people as possible by live streaming your event through platforms such as Facebook Live or LinkedIn. (link to live streaming article) Live streaming your event will enable you to reach a wider audience.

Engage Your Audience

Emphasize the Q&A panel – Highlight the Q&A panel to encourage your audience to ask questions that may come up along the way. Designate a team member to help answer questions.

Videos/Content Sharing – Show a video or share content that you have created for the event. Break up the pace to keep your audience on their toes.

Ask for interactions (hand raise) – Work in commentary that allows your audience to identify with a statement using the hand raise feature. For example, ask your audience to raise their hand if it is their first time joining a virtual event or if they are tired of being stuck at home. The chat panel and polling feature also facilitate event interaction.

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Enabling Cisco Enterprise Calling from Microsoft Teams and Slack Messaging

Strategic Alliances and Integrations Enable Comprehensive Calling, Meetings, and Messaging Capabilities

In my role as a product manager here at Cisco, I regularly talk to customers about their collaboration environments. One question I get asked is what they can do to bring together collaboration tools from different vendors…

The Webex unified app is providing our customers with comprehensive calling, meetings, and messaging capabilities that integrate with our award-winning video devices and IP phones. The result is seamless and consistent workflows.

But we are also aware that many customers have existing investments in place with collaboration tools from other vendors, and we are committed to making sure that Webex is an open platform, that integrates with 3rd party applications to ensure our mutual customers have a solution that delivers the best possible outcomes.

Earlier this year one of my colleagues talked about how we are enabling organizations with Microsoft Teams and Slack messaging users to start Webex Meetings from these applications.

Now, new Cisco calling integrations allow you to use all your enterprise-grade voice and video calling features in combination with these messaging platforms.

Cisco Calling Integrations

Calling integrations allow you to expose Cisco calling buttons directly in other vendors messaging apps. We’ve built the Cisco calling integrations to provide you with flexible solutions plus we’ve made them very easy to deploy. We started with Microsoft Teams and Slack messaging apps. To deploy a Cisco calling integration you simply select the Cisco client you are using for calling and the calling platform you want to use.

Figure 1. Cisco Calling integrations for Webex and Jabber in the Microsoft Teams app store

When you have added the Cisco calling integration, you can launch a Webex Teams or Cisco Jabber call directly from your messaging app. When you click the call button, the integrations identify who you’re chatting with, resolves their calling address, and passes this information to your installed Cisco client which starts a Cisco voice or video call. The integrations support all Cisco calling platforms including Cisco Unified Communication Manager (UCM) based on-premises and hosted deployments, and Webex Calling for cloud.

There are no complex back end changes to make as these are client integrations. There are no call routing policies or dial plan changes to make, no additional licenses required, and no new hardware to manage. You can even use the calling integrations with desk phone control, which means your users don’t have to replace their handsets.

Cisco Calling from Slack

Slack has made its messaging platform very open to integrating calling providers like Cisco. Adding the Cisco calling integration to Slack means you use the native Slack call button to start a Cisco call directly from Slack.

Figure 2. Placing a call using Cisco Jabber from Slack

This could be using Webex Teams or Cisco Jabber as your softphone or controlling your desk phone. If your Cisco client is controlling your Cisco desk phone clicking the call button in Slack causes your Cisco desk phone to go off-hook and call your colleague.

Slack is popular with developers where users tend to like keyboard commands to take actions like making calls. Talking to Slack users it becomes clear this is a requirement for Slack users so we implement “/jabber” and “/webexteams” slash command allowing you to make calls at the command line.

We are continuing to work in partnership with Slack and plan to implement Slack’s new shortcut controls shortly. This will give you more calling destination selectable directly in Slack.

Cisco Calling from Microsoft Teams

The Cisco calling integration for Microsoft Teams has been available from the Microsoft Teams app store for just over a month now. This month we have extended it with new features and functionality. In addition to supporting Microsoft Teams desktop and web users, this month we added support for mobile and tablet devices. We also added new contact search capabilities, you can now search your Microsoft 365 Outlook contacts and call them using your Cisco calling platform via the integration.

Figure 3. Placing a call using Webex from within Microsoft Teams

Building Bridges with Webex

These two new calling integrations are just examples of the many integrations that the Webex platform supports, enabling people to enhance their communication and collaboration within their everyday workflows. For example, we’ve also worked with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions into Webex team messaging services to streamline collaboration on documents.

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Workspaces in Control Hub— What’s in it for you?

Optimize your Workspace Through Control Hub

As announced at Cisco Live, we have introduced a new range of intelligent features in Control Hub under the new Workspaces tab. This will revolutionize the way IT, facilities, and HR work together, making the transition back to the office as seamless and safe as possible.

Control Hub is the single pane of glass management platform that provides administrators a view into their Devices, Meetings, Calling and Messaging environments, all without transitioning to different tools. Administrators have the ability to deep dive into analytical trends or troubleshoot reported issues directly in the platform. On the devices side, Control Hub has mostly focused on technical issues, such as packet loss and jitter. Now, we are expanding that to include what is happening in the physical workspace! By giving visibility into what is happening in the workspace, you will gain deeper insights into emerging and existing trends within the four walls of your workspace. Knowledge is power, and with these new insights, you can make better strategic decisions.

How to Navigate the Workspaces Tab

The first part of this new Workspaces section is the ability to set a “Workspace Type.” You can choose between a plethora of room types, such as “Meeting Room”, “Huddle”, or even “Desk.” This allows for effortless filtering and reporting on different workspace types to easily find trends. For example, if a certain style of workspace is not being adopted, or it is all the rave being spoken about around the coffee machine!

The other new attribute you can add to a workspace is capacity. Now administrators can easily find out their capacity in certain locations or find out if their workspaces are being utilized correctly. If the capacity is exceeded, you will be notified with visual indicators. This makes it easy to ensure you are staying in line with the recommended people counts in different rooms.

Real-Time Utilization and Environmental Data

That leads me to the next new change in Workspaces, and that is the ability to see real time usage of utilization and occupancy directly in Control Hub – no need to refresh! This data is not just limited to showing whether the room is being occupied or by how many people, but it also has environmental data like ambient noise level and sound levels. This data is vital to ensure the workspace is the set up for collaborative success. A workspace with ambient noise above a certain dBA level will impact the quality of the meeting experience, both for in-office and remote participants. No one wants to work in a noisy environment. It is simply distracting!

Let’s say you need to install some acoustic treatment based on the recommendations of our advanced troubleshooting tools to test the reverb of the meeting space. Then it is useful to know whether the workspace is booked for later, so that you can schedule the best time to intervene. We got you covered! You don’t even need to leave Control Hub to view the calendar in a different application – booking information for the next 24 hours is right at your fingertips. For privacy reasons the meeting title won’t be exposed, so no worries there.

These are just some of the changes, all designed to give administrators a better experience and help manage their workspaces and devices more efficiently. With the ability to see data directly on one page, it really is like a virtual cockpit for your workspace!

This is just the start of a journey. We are investing in bringing more tools and metrics of the workspace to the fingertips of administrators, the next thing on our roadmap is bringing historical metrics and APIs to connect to existing workflows.

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Webex Cloud-Connected UC: Add the Power of Cloud to Your On-Premises UC Systems

Enabling the Workforce with Cisco Webex Cloud-Connected UC

The last ninety days have transformed business operations, globally. Enterprises are adjusting to the new “work from home” reality and are working around the clock to enable their workforce with the tools they need to be successful. Customers and partners are looking for an easy way to understand how their unified communications usage pattern is changing and how their network is handling the increased traffic load. The need for a single-pane view of business and operational insights is more important now than ever.

This is the first, of a two-part blog series where we will discuss how Cisco is meeting this need, through the introduction of Cisco Webex Cloud-Connected UC, a suite of cloud services that provides global business and operational visibility for our unified communications (UC) customers.

The Unified Communications Landscape

Cisco is the market share leader for on-premises UC, in large part because we have the broadest and deepest UC portfolio. We have helped many on-premises customers migrate their calling and messaging workloads to Cisco cloud offers – Cisco Webex Calling, Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS), or Cisco Unified Communications Manager Cloud. For a variety of reasons, many customers intend to continue to operate their UC applications on-premises on their own or their partner’s data centers. We continue to invest and innovate to deliver compelling values for these customers.

Cisco Webex Cloud-Connected UC is one such innovation that enables on-premises customers to reap the benefits of cloud-delivered services while retaining their on-premises investments. For them, it is the best of both worlds. Powerful, agile, innovative management, delivered from the cloud, serving their own secure, reliable, private UC platform.

What is Cisco Webex Cloud-Connected UC?

Cisco Webex Cloud-Connected UC is a suite of cloud services that allow Cisco Unified Communications on-premises customers & partners to connect their UC deployments in their data centers to the Cisco Webex cloud and consume value-added services from the cloud. These services include:

1. Management services, that improve the experience of the UC administrator, and
2. UC supplemental services, that improve the experience of the enterprise end-users.

In this blog, we will focus on management services. We will cover supplemental services in part two of this series.

UC Management from Webex Control Hub

Our UC customers have been asking for an administrative tool that gives them a centralized, single-pane view of their entire deployments, across regions, in order to simplify their administration. Cisco and other industry vendors offer various UC management products. While these tools were fine for handling management requirements in simpler times, they fall short, when compared with the latest cloud technologies and the rapid innovation cycle offered by cloud services.

Cloud-Connected UC addresses this by centralizing and simplifying the on-premises management workflows on Cisco Webex Control Hub. Now, Control Hub can bring you the “single pane view” for on-premises deployments, in addition to the centralized management it already provides for Webex cloud and edge services.

The initial release of Cloud-Connected UC offers the foundational ability to connect on-premises systems to the cloud to get a rich, global cloud analytics service dashboard. We will build upon this foundation by adding various operational workflows to simplify the life of the UC administrator.

Webex Cloud-Connected UC Analytics

Webex Cloud-Connected UC Analytics provides historical insights into business and operational metrics that will serve customer and partner IT administrators, as well as the IT buyer.  Cloud-Connected UC Analytics serves the IT mission by answering the following questions:

For IT Administrators:

◉ What is the operational health of my clusters & servers?

◉ What is the Quality of Experience for my users?

◉ Are there any issues I need to act upon (expired certificates, missing security fixes, etc.)?

For IT buyers:

◉ How are my assets being utilized? How can I optimize my asset usage?

◉ Are users adopting and engaging with new endpoints and features?

◉ Do I need to increase my service capacity to prepare for increased usage?

Tying back to the increased “work from home” usage situation that we started with, the analytics dashboard also provides enterprises the necessary insights to enable work from home usage and manage their users’ return to the office.

Cloud-Connected UC Analytics is built with intelligence to recognize patterns in the historical data, identify potential issues, recommend resolutions, and proactively notify the administrator. We are continuously exploring new ways to leverage cloud technologies, like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Natural Language Processing to simplify the life of an administrator. The possibilities are practically unlimited.

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Smart Parking: A Cisco IoT Solution with LoRaWAN

I’m going to give you a behind the scenes look at the architecture of this small, but real, IoT application. It shows an easy way to get a digital output from an analog action. But first, let me introduce you to the problem and solution components.

Do you know the feeling? When you’re in a large parking garage and looking for an empty parking space? You are circling around with your car. Perhaps you’re late! You know there’s an empty spot somewhere. But where?!

There’s a Cisco IoT solution for that

Well, there is a Cisco IoT solution for that which we implemented for our e-parking spaces in our Cisco office in Frankfurt, Germany. There, we have 4 parking spaces where you can charge your e-car. That’s good, but 4 spaces are too few to meet demand, and can be occupied quite fast. To solve the problem we implemented a solution using LoRaWAN parking sensors. The solution helps our visitors and employees with the following:

Website

The website is where the user can check live data on what parking spaces are empty and occupied.

Web-Dashboard with historical data

By simply storing data in a time-series database (InfluxDB), the web-dashboard (Grafana) can showcase the number of parking processes per parking space and time/date. As you can see below, because of the Covid-19 crisis nobody went to the office the last months.

Proactive and reactive Webex Teams Bot

Users get notified via push-messages if only one parking space is still available and if all parking spaces are occupied. The same is also possible the other way around: Users can reactively ask the ParkingBot what parking spaces are empty or occupied.

Architecture & Behind the Scenes

In this scenario, the data is being sent from the LoRaWAN sensors to our Cisco IXM LoRaWAN gateway which is directly connected to the industrial router IR829. Both devices are managed by the IoT Field Network Director with zero touch deployment. Then, the sensor data is sent via the cellular network to the LoRaWAN network server Thingpark Enterprise (Cisco Partner Actility). The cellular connectivity of the IR829 is managed by the Cisco Control Center which is an industry-leading SaaS SIM-card management platform. The SIM card was provided by our partner KPN.

After decrypting the LoRaWAN sensor payload, the data is forwarded via MQTT to the Python script and to InfluxDB, where the sensor data is stored for long-term. The python script also orchestrates the Webex Teams bot notifications and serves as the back-end to the website for sending the latest parking information data. Grafana is directly connected to InfluxDB.

◉ Special thanks to Michael Eder who helped building this showcase application.

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Stay Flexible and Prepared with Virtual Education by Webex

There is so much more to the world than the four walls of our classrooms. Distance learning is expanding the world for students, teachers, and administrators. More educational institutions of all types and sizes around the world are turning to Cisco Webex as their remote learning tool of choice. 

Virtual classroom doors never close, ensuring the continuity of our education systems. Whether your institution needs to serve summer school classes or wants to ensure a smooth and prepared entry into virtual education next school year, Cisco Customer Experience (CX) team is here for you.

Keep Your Students Safe and Secure

You want to make sure your remote learning platform is an enabler, not a vulnerability. Built by the pioneer in video conferencing and industry leaders in cyber security, Webex is structured on various security frameworks, including end-to-end encryption. Always-on security runs unobtrusively in the background to keep all Webex participants safe and sensitive data secure. Let us help make sure you are satisfying the most stringent remote and distance learning security requirements. 

Cisco CX QuickStart Implementation Services 

Education can’t wait. The CX team can facilitate the rapid and secure deployment of your remote and distance learning environment. So, you can go about your core business of providing education to students, even if it is via an alternate means.

Users can leverage free on-demand self-help resources to get started, including recorded training sessions, quick–start guides, tips and tricks, and IT can attend Business Continuity Ask the Expert (ATX) webinars, including a special “Enabling Virtual Education” session.

But you don’t have to go it alone. We recognize that educational IT teams are under a new level of pressure to serve their communities, students, faculty, and staff, and may not have the network infrastructure in place or be familiar with Webex solutions and tools. Our CX team offers multiple levels of QuickStart Implementation Services for smooth, simplified, and rapid deployment. 

We’ll help IT with these essential services:

1. Efficiently onboard students, faculty, and staff to a remote learning experience.  We will introduce you to the administrative portal for user provisioning, which allows you to efficiently control adding, updating, and deactivating users. Avoid the security vulnerabilities born of executing changes manually for recurring school enrollment and staffing fluctuations.

2. Seamless integration with your single sign-on (SSO) system to the Cisco cloud. This will allow users to easily authenticate with their institutional credentials (username and password), while reducing calls to your helpdesk.

3. Focused hands-on training for your staff and students. Cisco will show teachers how to successfully get started, so your team can focus on other critical IT issues.

For schools and learning institutions who want to use Webex for administrative collaboration, such as holding faculty meetings remotely, we can help with integrating your business systems such as: 

1. Hands-on help with integrating Microsoft Active Directory to the Cisco cloud. Meeting organizers can then easily look up staff from the school directory for scheduling administrative meetings.  

2. Expert assistance integrating your local calendar to the Cisco cloud. This will help your faculty and staff avoid calendar conflicts between virtual school meetings and regular activities. 

3. Leverage Cisco guidance and expertise to help with testing and overcome any technological challenges that emerge in the first two weeks after going into production, making the transition as seamless as possible.

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Cloud vs. Hybrid Collaboration. Which is Right for You?

Understanding Cloud and Hybrid Collaboration Solutions

The world is changing, and the way organizations collaborate and communicate is now different. In-office meetings or traveling to meet with colleagues or customers have been replaced with video conferencing solutions. Organizations are relying on collaboration tools to get their work done, whether they are working from home, in-office or on the go.

Most businesses have a mix of hardware, software and data centers that have been added over time. It is important to look deeper and understand the solutions you currently have available and the changes required to prepare for your new collaboration solution. It will be valuable to define your company’s needs and the capabilities required to best serve your employees and customers and make a decision on the necessary hardware and software required for the transition.

The Right Collaboration Solution with Cisco Webex 

The right collaboration solution accelerates the pace of business and increases productivity and engagement within your workplace and allows you to attract and retain the best talent. Cisco Webex provides a single, unified platform integrating all your collaboration needs to deliver a simple, intelligent, and delightful experience for customers. Our platform enables you to call, meet and message from one single application.

Webex integrates seamlessly into many industry-leading applications, allowing your team to keep their current workflow without missing a beat. Our integrated solution provides complete collaboration without compromising your convenience, security, and privacy. We provide flexible deployments giving you the option to take advantage of our cloud or hybrid collaboration solutions based on your business needs.

Cloud Collaboration Deployments

Cloud Collaboration deployments allow customers to move their resources, data storage, applications, servers and networks to the cloud. Cloud deployments have been proven to be secure, reliable and cost-effective. More and more organizations are moving their infrastructure to the cloud because cloud collaboration solutions provide lower upfront costs, less maintenance, and reduced infrastructure requirement, with the option to scale up and down as needed. They also enhance team collaboration and increase employee productivity and engagement.

With cloud video conferencing, your system can be up and running in minutes, allowing you to connect with your colleagues and customers with high-quality audio and video. Users are able to seamlessly communicate face to face, while administrators have an easier way to manage and provide effective collaboration.  Video conferencing solutions transform your meeting experience and provide you with the freedom to communicate effectively with multiple locations and collaborate with remote stakeholders.

Capabilities You Can Trust 

Cisco Webex provides a modern and easy to use interface to meet, call and message and it seamlessly integrates with your current workflow and applications. Cisco Webex delivers powerful AI and machine learning capabilities across the Webex portfolio. With capabilities such as voice intelligence, real-time transcription, People Insights, Facial Recognition, and Webex Assistant, Cisco Webex helps teams work smarter and better, no matter where they are. Administrators can take advantage of the intuitive, single-pane-of-glass management portal with real-time actionable insights to scale up and down, and provision, administer and manage their Cisco Webex services. Our built-in security and compliance requirements provide you with strong encryption, compliance visibility, and control while collaborating inside and outside your organization.

Hybrid Collaboration Deployments

Moving to the cloud does not have to be an all or nothing solution. Many organizations have made significant on-premises investments and they leverage the hybrid approach, transitioning some systems to the cloud while continuing to run others on their on-premises infrastructure. Hybrid deployments allow you to make the transition to the cloud at the pace suitable for your organization while maximizing your existing investments. According to Nemertes Research, “Hybrid enables organizations to adopt cloud strategically, delivering less disruption and faster access to specific capabilities like meetings and team collaboration from the cloud.”

About the Best Migration Path for Your Business

Cisco Webex allows customers to select the best migration path suited for their business needs and goals. Our flexible deployments enable customers to connect to the Webex Cloud and take advantage of the latest cloud innovations while protecting their existing investment and infrastructure. Cisco Webex Cloud is secure, reliable and highly available with unmatched performance.

The Webex Cloud is built and optimized for real-time media, with a global network that is engineered for effective meetings. It provides greater quality, reliability, and security that is impossible to achieve on the open and public internet.

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