Cisco ūmi: Bringing Family and Friends Together at The Touch Of a Button

Video is the new voice !

Following the insights from John Chambers on consumer TelePresence at CES 2010 last January, following the many rumors on industry blogs and news sites recently and as you now most probably have seen else where on the Web, Cisco announced today its new solution for Consumer Video Collaboration: Cisco ūmi

Cisco ūmi will change the way we live, work, play and learn in a way we never could have done it before. Bridging your living-room with the ones from your friends and family, but also allowing people from remote place to access services such as healthcare and education in a totally new way.

Even Greenpeace also posted on their blog about the positive impact Cisco ūmi will have on climate by eliminating some portion of global travel.

Please find below some more details on the product itself :

umi codec

Built-in microphone array with software beamforming
Embedded speaker for incoming call ringing

Compatible with high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080p or 720p with available HDMI port.

Video resolution

Full HD 1080p video calling (1920×1080 pixels) and 720p recording at 30 frames per second.
Dynamic resolution scaling based on available bandwidth (1080p, 720p, and 480p supported)

umi camera

Camera

Optical zoom
Multi glass lens
Auto focus, auto exposure and auto white balance
Motorized aim –pan, tilt, and zoom
Motorized shutter for privacy control

Learn more on Cisco ūmi at umi.cisco.com

Borderless Collaboration #3: Cisco VPN Phone

Hello,

In this third article about Borderless Collaboration, we will discuss about the Cisco VPN Phone solution, one of the new feature of the Cisco UC Manager 8.0 release.

Cisco VPN Phone is a cost-effective solution for extending the reach of your UC environment outside the perimeter of your Firewall. It permits to establish a Secure connection from any location to your Intranet. It adds an other option for the teleworkers or small branches office communications needs and complements the existing teleworkers offering  like CVO, AnyConnect or  OfficeExtend.

Cisco VPN Phone is a fully enabled VPN connection between remote locations and HQ. It is, unlike its predecessor Phone Proxy, encapsulating all the traffic from the phone. Permitting the use of phone xml apps (like Extension Mobility)  ontop of secure signaling and VoIP.

How it helps your business ?

Cisco VPN Client for IP Phones is easy to install, to use and to manage. No more headaches when providing Unified Communications to teleworkers, remoter contact center agents, small branches, temporary deployment, sales events or disaster recovery plants.

You will be able to implement remote connectivity without extra hardware then an IP Phone !

Let’s take the example of road winter maintenance keeping role; a group of people have to wait for the GO from HQ before staring spreading salt on the road. now if those people can wait, truck loaded, at home instead of staying in a regional dispatch station…

What do you get ?

Happier employees, diverse location for quicker and more efficient actions and lower costs from keeping the employees at home !

How to implement it ?

With only a few simple configuration steps you will activate the VPN client on IP Phones (and #1 being already covered for you data VPN needs)

Step 1: Configure Anyconnect VPN access on ASA to provide network access. This can be achieve using CLI or ASDM GUI

Step 2: Upload VPN certificates to UC Manager: from OS admin page, choose Security > Certificate Management.

Step 3: Configure the VPN gatway in UC Manager: in CUCM admin page, under Advanced Features > VPN > VPN Gateway.

Step 4: Create a VPN group in Advanced Features > VPN > VPN Group.

Step5: Configure the (optional) VPN Profile under Advanced Features > VPN > VPN Profile.

Step 6: Assign VPN group and profile into common phone profile. this is done under Device > Device Settings > Common Phone Profile

Then apply the configuration on your IP Phone

You can use your Cisco IP Phone to establish a VPN connection.

VPN client is supported on 7942G, 7945G, 7962G, 7965G, 7975G and 99xx/89xx IP Phones. Require UC Manager 8.0.1 and Phone firmware equal or above 9.0(2)SR1S.

More information can be found at:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/security/8_0_2/secugd/secuvpn.html

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-9124