Product Assessment:

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express

Report Date:

July 06, 2012

Analyst:

Riggs, Brian

Service:

Hot Topics , Business Technology and Softw are

Market:

Unified Communications & Collaboration , Unified Communications and Contact Center

Class:

Business Communications Solutions

Summary
Current Perspective
Vulnerable
The Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express is vulnerable in the market for communications platforms for SMBs. Its softw are runs on
Cisco 1800, 2900, and 3900 Series Integrated Services Routers, can scale up to 450 IP lines, and is based on a proprietary operating
system. Communications applications and functionality included on the platform include firew all and VPN, data connectivity via gigabit
Ethernet sw itch and softw are-based router, voice mail, auto attendant, basic automatic call distribution softw are, mobility (single number
reach), IVR, eight-party ad hoc and 32-party meet-me audio conferencing, and point-to-point video telephony on Cisco Unified IP Phone
9951, 9971, and 8961 terminals. Such a range of integrated softw are makes it easy and cost-effective for businesses and the reseller that
support them to deploy and maintain the solution. Available November 2011, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express 9.0 added
support for single number reach and paging for SIP phones and improved support for shared lines betw een SCCP and SIP phones and
native video telephony features to SIP-based endpoints.
How ever, Unified Communications Manager Express is no longer being positioned as a communication platform for SMBs. Rather, Ciscos
Business Edition series has become Ciscos go-to-market platform for SMBs seeking a unified communications solution. Now relegated to a
branch office solution for Unified Communications Manager systems deployed in the enterprise, Unified Communications Manager Express
no longer directly competes against rival communications platforms. Existing Unified Communications Manager Express customers w ill likely
need to transition off of the platform in time as the resellers w ho support them cease to actively sell and support the product. This is likely
to disrupt Ciscos position in the SMB market.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

UC Manager Express is a very mature product, having

been on the market for many years. W hile this w ill no
longer benefit the product in the SMB market in w hich it
w as previously sold, it w ill contribute to making the
platform a stable branch office solution for Ciscos
enterprise customers.
UC Manager Express can be reconfigured to operate as
SRST branch office nodes off a centralized Unified
Communications Manager call control platform, w ith UC
Manager Express licenses convertible to SRST licenses at
no extra cost.
UC Manager Express leverages Ciscos strong w ireless
netw orking and video portfolios to provide an optional
integrated w ireless LAN access point for voice over W iFi
and video-enabled end points for point-to-point video
conferencing.
UC Manager Express is highly scalable for a
communications platform. Support for up to 450 lines
should allow it to meet the needs of organizations on the
higher end of the enterprise branch spectrum.

Metrics
Business Communications Solutions
Software
version
Primary target
market

9.0
Enterprise Branch Office

UC Manager Express is no longer sold as Ciscos

communications solution for SMBs, but rather as an adjunct
branch office platform for its enterprise offering. Cisco
resellers w ho for years actively sold the product to their
SMB customers w ill need to retrain to sell and support
Ciscos Business Edition line of platforms, and gradually
transition their customers to the new systems.
UC Manager Express runs on a range of Cisco Integrated
Services Routers, each of w hich has specific scalability
limitations. Businesses outgrow ing the model they have
deployed w ill need to purchase and install a new hardw are
platform for greater scalability.
UC Manager Express is based on a proprietary operating
system rather than on Linux, like a number of rival
products in the market for communications solutions. Linux
is generally favored as an OS for communications systems
because it is comparatively stable platform and costeffective to deploy.
UC Manager Express has no integrated corporate IM and
presence server. This does not compare w ell against rival
platforms in the enterprise branch space that include IM
and IM presence as part of the platform.

Secondary
target market
Installed base

Enterprise branch office

Approximately 60,000 customers usings Cisco ISR G2
(2900/3900)

Scalability
IP lines per
controller
Digital lines per
controller
Analog lines per
controller
Soft phones per
controller
Number of
controllers that
can be
internetworked
IP lines per
networked
system
IP trunks per
controller
Digital trunks
per controller
IP trunks per
networked
system
Digital trunks
per networked
system

450
0
450
450
No limit

No limit

No limit
24 per gatew ay
No limit

No limit

Platform characteristics
Underlying
hardware
platform(s)
Switch type
Operating
system
Proprietary
protocol
SIP trunk
support
SIP line support
BHCC/BHCA
Maximum
Number of
Simultaneous
Calls
COTS option
Data center
server option
Router
deployment
option
Data switch
option
Session
management
option
Branch office
deployment
KTS
configuration
option (SMB PBX
only)

Integrated communications platform

IP
Proprietary (Cisco Internetw ork Operating System (IOS))
Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP)
Yes
Yes
Not know n
450

No
n/a
Yes. Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express runs on
router
No
n/a

Yes
Yes

Communications Applications
Voice
mail/unified
messaging
application
IM application
Contact center
application

Unity Express

Unified Call Connector (UCC)

Unified Contact Center Express

Audio
conferencing
application
Web
conferencing
application
OCS/Lync
support
Sametime
support
Exchange-based
UM

Built-in for basic meet-me and ad-hoc conferencing (includes

video too)
W ebEx (not directly integrated)

No
No
No

Management
Name of
management
software
SNMP support
Web-based
management
console

CLI, Cisco Configuration Professional, Cisco Configuration

Engine , ArcanaNetw orks iManage and other partner offerings
Yes
Yes

Security
Signaling
encryption
between IP
phones
Media
encryption
between IP
phones
Signaling
encryption
between
gateways
Media
encryption
between
gateways
Media
encryption on
WiFi end points
Media
encryption on
soft phone
Media
encryption on IM
client
Native
encryption
Encryption
standard/optional
IP phone
authentication
Embedded
firewall (SMB
platforms only)
Embedded VPN
server (SMB
platforms only)
Embedded
intrusion
protection
software (SMB
platforms only)
Embedded proxy
server (SMB
platforms only)

TLS

SRTG

TLS

SRTP

SRTP

SRTP

Not know n

Yes and possible to integrate into separate server as needed

Optional w ith data encryption on router
Yes
Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Reliability
Hot standby
option
Warm standby
option
Active/Active

No
Optional, via second Cisco router configured as a redundant
call processor
Optional, via second Cisco router configured as a redundant

(or 1+1)
redundancy
Active/Passive
(or N+1)
redundancy
Automatic
failover between
redundant
servers
Hot swappable
hardware
Redundant
power supplies
Redundant hard
drive
Redundant
processors
Redundant call
processor
Local redundant
server
Geographic
redundant
server
Calls preserved
during failover
Automatic PSTN
failover
RAID support
Server
clustering option

call processor
Optional, via second Cisco router configured as a redundant
call processor
Yes

Yes
Yes on Cisco and 3900 Series of ISR platforms
N/A
n/a
Yes for redundant call control. In-built redundant call
processor is not available.
Optional
Optional

Standard
Standard if hardw are configuration supports it (multiple PSTN
connections or redundant CME's)
No
No

Virtualization
Hypervisor
Supported
Comms apps
supported
Comms apps not
supported
VDI software
supported
Thin client
devices
supported
Comms apps
supported via
VDI

Not an SMB PBX feature

n/a in SMB platform
n/a in SMB platform
None
None

None

Pricing and Support

System list price
Software
warranty
Hardware
warranty

Approximately $5,195 for low est-end hardw are-softw are

bundle
3 months
1 year

This report is tagged to the follow ing vendor(s):

Cisco

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