For many companies, Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) has been a vital tool for connecting and empowering teams for a number of years. The flexibility of the solution, combined with its excellent security features has made CUCM a key part of the evolving UC landscape.
However, as agility and scalability become increasingly crucial in the business world, many companies are starting to examine the benefits of moving to a cloud calling solution, such as Webex or Microsoft Teams. With its pay-as-you-go pricing model, and ability to adapt to a wide range of scenarios, cloud calling gives organizations more freedom to thrive in a fast-paced world.
The biggest challenge is figuring out how to successfully migrate your technology from an on-premises environment into the cloud, without compromising on functionality, or security.
Here’s how you can prepare for a migration, the right way.
Step 1: Assessing Your Goals and Requirements
The first stage in migrating from CUCM to a cloud-calling environment, is examining your specific needs. Cisco allows companies to migrate their FLEX licensing from CUCM to Webex calling, the company’s comprehensive cloud-calling system. However, Webex isn’t the only option available.
Depending on the structure of your current workplace and the needs of your team, you may want to consider other platforms, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Determining what you want to achieve with your cloud migration, and which features and functionality you need
At the same time, you’ll need to ask yourself which hardware and solutions you’ll want to take with you into your cloud environment. Tools like Variphy’s reporting system can help you identify phones compatible with multi-platform phone firmware, so you know what you can take with you from Cisco Unified Communications Manager, to Webex or another platform.
“With our migration offering, we provide administrators with a detailed view of their Cisco UCM environment. This visibility gives organizations valuable information about their existing UC environment and reduces manual tasks while gathering requirements before migration,” said Danny Tran, President and Co-founder of Variphy.
Other points to consider include:
- Do you need to migrate all your phones, including dormant hardware?
- How many licenses will you need on your new cloud calling platform?
- How much support will you need during the migration?
Step 2: Ensuring Feature Parity and Consistency
Once you’ve established your goals and requirements for a CUCM to cloud migration, the next stage is getting a clear view of your current ecosystem. Taking a configuration snapshot of your CUCM solution, with a platform like Variphy, will give you a benchmark you can use to ensure settings are configured correctly in your cloud calling environment.
Your snapshot should help you to identify:
- The specific calling plans needed by each user (internal, long-distance, international, etc).
- The types of phones users operate (Soft phones, hard phones, mobile clients, etc).
- Your hunt group configurations, resource staffing, and usage statistics.
- Common areas and workspaces that are needed or regularly used.
- UCCX configurations and key performance indicators.
With Variphy’s reporting technology, you’ll be able to preserve your in-depth report long after your CUCM instance is decommissioned. This ensures you can consistently refer to your previous configuration in case issues arise with your new cloud ecosystem.
Step 3: Monitoring Your Platform Through the Transition
When you begin moving through the migration process, it’s important to continue monitoring and collecting data. You’ll need a comprehensive selection of reports outlining your configurations, users, and devices, so you can keep track of your progress. You’ll also need to be able to track the utilization of phones, trunks, and licenses within the system.
“Our application allows for multi-platform support within the same interface,” said Tran.
“This functionality will enable you to monitor calling information on your Cisco platform and our cloud calling integrations while you migrate.”
A comprehensive reporting strategy will help you to determine how employees are using the system, so you can decide whether any changes need to be made to your environment. Working with the right migration partner will be helpful in this instance.
For instance, Variphy offers access to change management reporting, so you can confirm all of the changes made within your calling ecosystem. Plus, the company offers multi-platform reporting, so you can report on both your on-premises and cloud environment during the transition.
You can even review reports based on a variety of filters, such as end-user, location, and more, and track the usage of different cloud platforms simultaneously.
Step 4: Ensuring Ongoing Compliance After the Migration
Once you’ve completed your transition from CUCM into a cloud calling environment, the work isn’t entirely over. You still need to be able to validate that call volumes and call flows are operating according to your expectations in your new cloud environment.
Additionally, you’ll need to be able to constantly access in-depth analytics into your cloud system, so you can make cost-effective decisions about how to assign licenses, access new technologies, and decommission solutions that aren’t being used.
A comprehensive reporting system should help you to ensure your system is running smoothly, and allow you to compare your new performance metrics to your previous KPIs using CUCM. This will help to validate the value of the migration. Plus, it will ensure you can remain compliant with industry standards after you’ve shifted to the cloud.
Simplifying your CUCM Migration
Migrating from an on-premises solution to a cloud calling platform can be an excellent way to improve productivity, reduce costs, and even enhance the agility of your organization. However, a significant change to your calling infrastructure can be complicated to implement alone.
The key to success is finding the right partner to help illuminate and optimize every stage of the migration journey. Variphy’s experience as an expert in reporting, analytics, and change management gives them the power to guide companies through the migration process with ease.
With Variphy’s help, you can maintain comprehensive visibility into your entire migration journey, preserving compliance and productivity, while keeping operational costs low.
