Nowadays, millions of employees use audio-video conferencing solutions. However, there are some organizations for which the Cloud platforms from this category are not the optimal choice, mainly due to the strict IT security requirements and the confidentiality and data sovereignty conditions that they must comply with. This type of cases is more frequent in the financial-banking field, in health, insurance, public administration, the defense industry, etc. For such situations, Datanet Systems recommends the Cisco on-premises audio-video conference solution, which is installed on the IT infrastructure of the beneficiary, who can directly manage and control all resources. Cisco has been the market leader in audio-video conference solutions for 15 consecutive years, being currently the only supplier that delivers both Cloud and on-premises solutions, with a wide-ranging of professional communication equipment.

 

 

Cisco on-premises solution architecture

 

Datanet’s recommended solution includes hardware and software products and has the advantage of being natively compatible both with Cisco applications dedicated to collaborative work, such as the Webex suite, and with applications from other manufacturers, such as Microsoft Teams. Here are the main components of the Cisco on-premises audio-video conference solution:

Cisco Meeting Server

Is a scalable hardware platform that provides the support to deliver advanced audio-video conference and web communication functionalities, ensuring the required performance. Cisco Meeting Server can support up to 21,000 concurrent HD calls (when clustered), and offers the largest single server capacity available on the market today, up to 875 HD ports.

The solution is designed to be simple to use and ensure optimized bandwidth consumption, offering multiple licensing options (including the per-meeting model) as well as additional functionality that can be activated on demand, as needs arise for the client, such as setting up a dedicated service for recording conferences hosted on the platform (Cisco Meeting Server Recorder).

 

Cisco Meeting Management

Represents a key component of the Cisco on-premises audio-video conference solution and is one of the main differentiators compared to other alternatives from the market.

The solution supports two types of users:

• Administrators – that have full access to the management functionalities, they can make configuration changes, carry out maintenance, troubleshooting operations, etc.
• Video operators – that have limited access to the administration functionalities, only for managing sessions, performing simple troubleshooting operations, or viewing statistics.

Cisco Meeting Management delivers real-time information about ongoing sessions and allows operators to manage and control the deployed Cisco Meeting Server component, without the need for advanced technical skills.

The Cisco solution provides comprehensive information about:

• All active and planned sessions up to 24 hours before the scheduled start time;
• List of participants in active sessions;
• The speakers in the sessions;
• Statistics about the mode of communication (audio, video, or presentations);
• Type of license used.

The included management functionalities allow to:

• Add or exclude participants;
• Move participants between sessions;
• Enable or disable sound (for individual participants, groups, or video sessions);
• Change the layout of the session (on an individual level or for all participants);
• Record or live transmission of the session;
• Perform advanced searches, filtering, and sorting of data and results obtained, etc.

 

Cisco Expressway

Is a solution through which users within the internal network (LAN) can communicate with those outside the firewall systems, via the Internet, without the need to create a VPN connection. The solution allows companies to extend connectivity to mobile users and employees working remotely, but also to other external participants, such as partners, collaborators, end-customers, etc., under high-security conditions. Expressway offers Single-Sign-On functionality (for mobile Cisco Jabber users), allows connection with video equipment from various manufacturers, and ensures compatibility with several audio-video protocols.

 

Cisco Desk Pro

is state-of-the-art video equipment, with 4K interactive displays, and is specially designed to facilitate collaboration and high-standard audio-video conferences. The equipment is all-in-one, as it integrates an HD video camera, a wide range of microphones and the audio playback system – offers intelligent functionalities, such as Webex Assistant or facial recognition, and allows real-time collaboration with the help of Digital Whiteboarding technologies. The Cisco offer includes a wide range of equipment, covering from solutions dedicated to small companies or employees working remotely, such as the Webex Desk Mini mobile solution, to equipment for multi-participant sessions. These devices can be used both with the presented Cisco on-premises solution and with Cisco Webex Cloud.

The software components of the Datanet recommended solution – Cisco Meeting Server Recording, Cisco Meeting Management, and Cisco Expressway – can run as virtual instances on physical servers in the client’s infrastructure.

 

Analysis, installation, and customization services provided by Datanet Systems

 

With Cisco on-premises audio-video conference solution, companies benefit from flexibility, scalability, and security in use. Thus, the Cisco solution provides all participants, internal or external, easy access to sessions, regardless of Cisco usage or third-party video terminals, Cisco Jabber clients, or a browser that supports WebRTC. The Cisco Expressway component allows the use of older video equipment, both from Cisco and other manufacturers, ensuring the profitability of the investments already made and the possibility of performing an upgrade to the new generation of Cisco Desk Pro solutions. At the same time, Cisco’s firewall traversal technology allows internal equipment to call equipment outside the LAN network, and vice versa, in a secure manner.

In terms of resources, the Cisco solution automatically optimizes bandwidth usage to reduce costs. The number of participants that can join a session is given by the capacity of the hardware component, and Datanet specialists can recommend the appropriate configuration for your company’s needs.

Datanet Systems’ delivered services include, apart from the solution’s architecture design, its implementation and configuration, as well as a series of custom services that generate added value, such as:

• Integration with Microsoft Active Directory (AD) and Open Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (OpenLDAP) for creating role-based permissions. The synchronization with AD allows the import of users and the automatic creation of virtual personal meeting spaces on the Cisco Meeting Server.
• Set up the session scheduling service, through which end users can set, view, and modify upcoming meetings directly from the web application and create invitation templates.
• Customized welcome audio messages that the video conference participants hear, in the desired language, as well as the interface of the Web application used, by inserting a logo on the login page, personalized messages, and hyperlinks, etc.
• Ensuring the interoperability of the Cisco on-premises solution with Microsoft Teams and Webex suites. Thus, with Microsoft Teams, the users benefit from the Office 365 functions, while with Webex they can continue to use the hardware infrastructure, VoIP phones, and video conferencing solutions from Cisco. Basically, users of Cisco Desk Pro video equipment can log into Microsoft Meetings via WebRTC.

These are a few customizations that our team can make – we are the local Cisco partner with the largest market share and the largest team of Cisco specialists in Romania, with various implemented audio-video conference projects in different industries.

For more technical or commercial information about the Cisco on-premises audio-video conference solution and services provided by the Datanet Systems team, we invite you to contact us at sales@datanets.ro.