Exactly one year back, we had brought you the news of a fresh Microsoft Teams-Cisco integration that would allow interoperability between Webex devices and Teams. These erstwhile competitors joined forces to build a solution that was more than the sum of its parts, and there has been no looking back. This year, at Microsoft Ignite 2020, the company announced another move that will tighten the partnership with Cisco: cloud video interoperability.
Why Video Matters Today
The number of video calls witnessed a massive spike in the last few months, increasing almost 10X times between January and April (UK). In the face of lockdowns and social distancing, video turned out to be extremely popular in both personal and professional use cases. Today, even as we explore ways to unlock, there is no forgetting the convenience and seamlessness of cloud-based video calling.
Video conferencing at scale could save companies millions in travel and infrastructure costs while opening up new audiences. Clearly, Microsoft plans to capitalise on this opportunity during and beyond the pandemic.
What is the New Partnership All About?
To be clear, Microsoft hasn’t only made an incremental improvement to its video capabilities – the partnership goes far deeper. At Ignite, Microsoft announced Azure networking enhancements that introduce native support for Cisco SD-WAN within the Azure Virtual WAN hubs. It is now available in preview, letting you optimise your central policies and path selection. Further, Microsoft has launched a Global Load Balancer to improve traffic distribution on the cloud.
Coming to video interoperability, Microsoft updated its documentation in September of 2020 to reflect its new capabilities on Teams. Cloud video interoperability works for any company deploying 50+ video devices, looking to retain the value from this investment, while also gaining from Teams’ rich collaboration features.
In addition to Cisco, cloud video interop is available for select Poly, Pexip, and BlueJeans solutions. The following list gives you some more detail:
Deploying the Integration: a Quick How-To
- First, make sure you have all the prerequisites in place, including a Microsoft 365 tenant, an active Cisco Webex organisation, etc. (see the full list)
- Set it up on your Control Hub; you might need to open a powers session to enable privileges and other policies
- Now, you can add Webex devices to the integration, including a desk device or Cisco whiteboards
Microsoft’s open ecosystem philosophy finds fresh energy with announcements like these. Despite the two companies operating in similar segments (with sometimes barely differentiated products), their goal is the same: maximise customers’ investments and increase product adoption. Secure cloud-based video is now a must-have at every organisation, regardless of size and industry. If you are among the many users who have Cisco infrastructure in place, along with a pretty robust Microsoft 365 license, this partnership extension is excellent news.
Interestingly, Microsoft mentions that this solution will keep you going “until you are ready to upgrade” – which hints at a stronger focus on Microsoft’s own hardware later down the line.
See all our Microsoft Ignite Teams News
