Cisco Unified Communications Collaboration Release 12.5 (CUCM 12.5) will be released later this year and some of the features and changes that Cisco has announced sound very exciting and beneficial to existing Cisco customers.

In this article, I have briefly summarised some of the most interesting announcements. It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with what’s coming in the near future so you can be fully prepared for what’s to come!

There’s no longer a need to perform upgrades on a server-by-server basis anymore but they will rather be performed at an entire cluster level now.

Firmware and headset management will be performed directly from Call Manager with seamless operation and roaming between Phones, VC’s and soft clients. See here.

With this update, the Network Admin is no longer required to perform manual configurations and registrations of endpoints/users devices. Essentially, the user has the ability to register their device based on an activation code that can be sent via email etc.

Now, there is no need to programme esoteric XML based files anymore. Management of Jabber is within the CUCM GUI.

When your users are in Cisco Webex Teams and also in Cisco Jabber, you can use the interoperability setting to allow people in both apps to communicate with each other.

The Room 55, Room Kit, Room Kit Plus, will now support on premises registration with CUCM not just Webex’s Cloud.

PSTN Voice quality can be monitored and actioned directly from within CUCM, no need for third Party SIP voice monitoring tools.

There is no longer a need for disparate LDAP or SAML integrations anymore. OAuth support is for interoperability with any cloud-based applications i.e. a single password can be used to authenticate all your cloud services and on-premises applications, such as the password you use to login into your Webex account can also now be used to login into your Jabber account etc. Click here for more a more in-depth explanation.

Click here for a discussion regarding this new development.

All your UC Servers, Device license purchases, usage and tracking can be managed directly from within your Call Manager Smart licensing server, which synchronizes with Cisco’s Cloud licensing service, so there is no need to go through multiple channels and wait to acquire licenses for your UC platforms. Licenses can now be acquired directly from your Smart License server. See here for information on how it works.

These features will have likely been in the pipeline for some time now so it’s good to see that Cisco is now at a stage where they are ready to roll them out. This is especially true with regards to the wide release of Broadsoft within Europe later this year. I am expecting Cisco UC based Cloud services to start playing a major role in the SMB market in the near future.

For more information on the changes that will be coming with CUCM 12.5, see here.

Click this link for an upgrade guide to CUCM 12.