Competitve Analysis: Cisco Session Mgt. Edition
Yesterday, (through an article on NoJitter.com) I became aware of Cisco’s Session Manager Edition for their Unified CM solution . This comes on the heals of an August announcement by Avaya of their Aura Session Manager solution that seamlessly connects multi-vendor solutions under a grouping of SIP enabled applications. There was also another (not so well publized) update to Avaya’s Session Manager solution that includes the capability to do application sequencing. More on that in a moment.
First, Cisco’s Session Management Edition for their Unified CM offering at first glance seems to do everything that Avaya’s Session Manager solution does like supporting a common dial plan and consolidating communication trunks. Great. Well maybe not. If you look closely at the written description the word SIP seems to only show up once! This is intriguing because I was under the impression that “session” was a reference to SIP (as in Session Initiation Protocol). So, if their Session Management Edition was meant to do the things they mention, wouldn’t SIP be more prevalent? (like in Avaya’s solution)
Second, Application Sequencing update to Session Manager. At last weeks VoiceCon show Avaya unveiled the ability to write a voice application and deliver it to a Cisco phone (connected to their Unified CM) through Aura Session Manager! This is the REAL value of session management. The ability to make third party communication features available to any manufacturers telephony solution. This is what differentiates the Avaya Session Manager solution from Cisco and it is what customers will see as the real value that Avaya is delivering. This is important to remember.
My last comment is in terms of market confusion on Session Manager. My hope is that Session Manager functionality doesn’t become the next “UC” and loose the value of its meaning. I half expect other vendors to rename their solutions to “Session Management”. The good news is that Avaya has applications running today through Session Manager that actually give features to third party telephone systems. So much for vapor-ware. Way to go Avaya! Don’t forget to connect to the podcast below to hear more.
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Jim Sevier
a respected advisor, he has
built a successful consulting
practice providing direction
on communications technologies
to businesses in the United States,
Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Hi Jim
From listening to your podcast & first impressions of the Cisco session manager I suspect a couple of things; Cisco, in not showcasing this at VoiceCon suggests their lack of confidence with their product or at least the maturity of it. They appear to be avoiding a head to head with Avaya. Secondly, and most importantly; It appears the Cisco solution architecture with multiply disparate servers is not adjustable enough to get anywhere close to the Avaya Aura Architecture today. It is simply another “bolt on”. I do not underestimate Cisco’s ability to throw funds at a problem but Cisco does not usually build from scratch and therefore I cannot see how they will fully reach the level of product development that Avaya has. But they are Cisco – we need to keep the enemy close!
Colin Jeffs
Avatel - Avaya SME Business Partner of the Year 2009.