Four Cisco & Microsoft Interop FAQs
Written by Iqbal Javaid, Cisilion’s Head of Collaboration
I’ve been asked a lot of questions from my clients following the news that Microsoft and Cisco are set to release an interoperability between their leading collaboration platforms could not be more welcome.
This partnership sees Cisco Webex introduce an interop solution that is certified as a Microsoft Cloud Video Interop (CVI), allowing Cisco Webex Room devices and SIP video conferencing devices to join Microsoft Teams meetings with a reliable interop experience.
With familiar trends every time this topic comes up, I‘ve answered the four most popular questions:
1. Can I use Cisco video endpoints to join a Microsoft Teams Meeting?
Yes, absolutely.
Many of my clients who have already made investments in Cisco video endpoints are asking whether they can continue to use them while being able to join Microsoft Teams meetings. Ultimately, with these recent announcements, that’s now possible with the cloud video interopt that’s due to be launched in January next year.
With the native joint experience using WebRTC from Cisco video endpoints, there’s the ability to enable calling services via direct routing as well.
2. Do I need any bridging infrastructure to enable the interop?
The short answer is no.
The Cisco endpoints will have the capability of joining Microsoft Teams meetings natively using WebRTC. Now, it’s important to recognise that there will be some limited functionality with that, but it will be available for organisations wanting to enable video and content share.
For some of the advanced features, there could be advantages having multiple people joining from different types of endpoints using the cloud video interrupt bridging capability.
3. Can I join Webex Meetings using Microsoft Teams Rooms System?
Absolutely yes, and one of the great things about this announcement is that clients who are on the journey to Office 365 looking to deploy Microsoft Teams, and looking at Microsoft room systems, will have the capability of not just joining Microsoft Teams meetings, but also Cisco Webex – fact Zoom as well.
So all this will genuinely now offers you the flexibility of being able to pick a piece of hardware that is flexible enough to join multiple applications – Cisco Webex is certainly part of that.
4. Can I pick elements from every vendor?
This is a very common question from many of my clients. The important thing from my perspective is that we help clients make the right decisions based on the business outcomes that they would like to achieve.
We do that by understanding the different use cases and try and help them make the right decisions – but ultimately with this announcement, clients have the flexibility of choosing one or the other. There can also be a mix of a Microsoft Teams and Cisco room system and being able to deliver a standardised experience across the business.
Your Next Steps:
I hope you’ve found this useful, if you’d like to get in touch to discuss any of the four key areas above, or have a wider conversation about Cisco and Microsoft integration, please fill in the form below and we’ll get back in touch.