[cisco-voip] End of the PBX

Tue Feb 17 13:27:15 EST 2009

It's the same, but different. I think Cisco reacts a bit quicker to bugs and threats than MS does. It could be unsubstantiated, but I think it's true. So Cisco apps running ontop of Windows in my opinion are a bit more hardy than an MS App in my opinion. That's not always the case, but most of the time it is. 

On top of that, if MS comes out with a solution that is 10x cheaper than Cisco's, one of three things is going to happen: 

    • Cisco will come out with a powerpoint showing all the hidden costs of an MS deployment. 
    • Cisco will lower their price 
    • Cisco will loose market share quickly 

Many enterprises are watching the MS solution as it matures and will drop a Cisco deployment on a moments notice for many of the things you mention below. Even if it does mean losing a few features or only getting 4 nines instead of 5. 

Cisco will not be able to turn a blind eye on this. MS is likely going to be in this for the long run and will probably even lose money in the short term to get the market share. 

Remember O/S2 vs Windows? ;) 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
"Bad grammar makes me [sic]" - Tshirt 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason Aarons (US)" <jason.aarons at us.didata.com> 
To: "Lelio Fulgenzi" <lelio at uoguelph.ca>, "Scott Voll" <svoll.voip at gmail.com> 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:54:48 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: RE: [cisco-voip] End of the PBX 

The irony here I’ve ran CallManger under Windows for years. Never had it go down except for having to apply Cisco upgrades every couple weeks (remember CallManager 3x, 4x you had a bug fix every 4 weeks). When CallManager did go down another server took over and it was mostly transparent to end users. I went thru Welchia/Nachia and all the other worms and never had an outage, I monitored security bulletins from Symantec and ISS and applied security updates from vendors regardless of platforms (Unix, Linux, Windows, OS X). 

You can get hardware that is everything hot swappable like the IBM x440/SAN and run non-stop Windows, Linux, Unix or VMWare ESX, etc. 

I’m used to see more application issues (memory leaks, reboots in 248 days) then Windows or Linux core OS itself going down once and a while! 

Going back to the original question, will CTOs choose to pay more to have Cisco over Microsoft or will they force a move to OCS as it would reduce their IT budget ? I can see it happening in smaller shop first that couldn’t afford SmartNet or CallManager to start with. This is like when Nortel was Legacy and Cisco could save you money with this open-platform Selsius Communications Box… 

From: cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net [mailto:cisco-voip-bounces at puck.nether.net] On Behalf Of Lelio Fulgenzi 
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:20 PM 
To: Scott Voll 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] End of the PBX 

Good points. I agree. I think MS will have to concentrate on hardening their systems before people will jump to running their PBX on it. Then again, if they can tolerate the system going down once and a while, maybe they won't care. 

The other thing is, as far as I know, MS is not going to be producing hard phones. Something to consider. 

--- 
Lelio Fulgenzi, B.A. 
Senior Analyst (CCS) * University of Guelph * Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1 
(519) 824-4120 x56354 (519) 767-1060 FAX (JNHN) 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
"Bad grammar makes me [sic]" - Tshirt 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Scott Voll" <svoll.voip at gmail.com> 
To: "Tim Ritter" <timritter at gmail.com> 
Cc: cisco-voip at puck.nether.net 
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 12:05:04 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: [cisco-voip] End of the PBX 

I don't know if I can give you much. 

M$ does do a good job of Presence, and IM. I think that Unified messaging still has a little to be desired, but in 3 to 5 years I think they could nail that down. I do have a school using Exchange 2k7 for there UM system. works well for them. We use OCS for Presence and IM and am working on integrating it with CM when I have time. 

I don't think I like the idea of runing my call processing on M$ now that I'm on the appliance based CM. But that doesn't mean that there won't be a mix and match of systems in the future if both M$ and Ci$co don't do things to make one system or the other, truely the best. 

MS doesn't currently have any contact center stuff to my knowledge so that will have to come if they really want to contend in the PBX market. 

just my 2 cents 

Scott 

On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 5:12 AM, Tim Ritter < timritter at gmail.com > wrote: 

I have been looking all over for a forum to ask other Cisco PBX people about Microsoft and their PBX plans... this is the only one I can find that seems right. I hope you will give me your opinions and not kill me for not asking a technical question... 

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/275963/microsoft_rounds_voice_assaul 

After reading this article it is obvious to me Microsoft intends to replace the PBX. The timeline looks like 3 to 5 years before they are in a position to fully replace the PBX and go head to head with the leaders of the PBX industry. 

My company is a MS house and this type system will gain a lot of interest especially since it is "free", not free as in free beer but free as in you already pay for it in your Microsoft CAL enterprise licenses so why not use it and decommission the Costly PBX... 

Your thoughts and sugestions about how to combat this... 

Tim 

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