Avaya Cisco Technology Comparison

Avaya Cisco Technology Comparison
Larry Esquibel Corporate Systems Engineer Avaya Technology and Consulting

“We obtained this information from industry consultants, customers, published research, trade journals and internal research. To the best of our knowledge, this report is based on the most current information available. Although every effort has been made to assure freedom from errors, Avaya Inc. is not responsible for the accuracy of all the information contained in this document.”

Acknowledged Leadership
Magic Quadrant for North America Enterprise Telephony, September 2003, Gartner M The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2003 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Analyst Observation - Gartner
Magic Quadrant for North American Corporate Telephony, August 2004, Gartner Markets, M The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2003 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner Lists Avaya in Leaders Quadrant for North American Corporate Telephony, 2005
Magic Quadrant for North American Corporate Telephony, 2005 Jay Lassman, Rich Costello, Jeff Snyder August 12, G Full report is available at The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 8/12/05 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This Magic Quadrant graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research note and should be evaluated in the context of the entire report. The Gartner report is available upon request from Avaya.

2005 Business Communications Review Edwin E
2005 Business Communications Review Edwin E. Mier: Which Large PBX Rules?

2005 BCR Test Highlights Avaya scored the highest ever in 6 years of BCR testing Avaya scored a full 3 points ahead of #2; previous tests were decided by ½ point Avaya scored #1 in 3 out of 5 categories, #2 in others Avaya 2nd in security by ½ point Nortel did not show

BCR 2006 Report

Gartner Lists Avaya in North America Contact Center Magic Quadrant
Gartner Contact Center Magic Quadrant 17 June 2003, Gartner M Evaluation Criteria included: Network routing, virtual call center Universal queue Internet contact support CRM & application integration Ability to integrate 3rd party, best-of-breed components IVR, CTI Quality monitoring, WFM, messaging & other support applications & tools

Gartner Lists Avaya in North America Contact Center Magic Quadrant
North America Contact Center Infrastructure Magic Quadrant, 2004 Bern Elliot, Drew Kraus 23 September 2004, Magic Quadrant for Contact Center Infrastructure, NA, 2004 Full report is available at or The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 9/23/04 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

2005 – Gartner Lists Avaya in North America Contact Center Magic Quadrant

Avaya Receives Frost & Sullivan's Top Award for Contact Center Excellence – Jan 26, 2005
“The overwhelming favorite in every category measured” Best overall solution Customer service and training Easiest and most open integrated solution. Other excellence awards from Frost & Sullivan 2005 Contact Center Company of the Year Award 2005 Enterprise Infrastructure Company of the Year Award 2004 Award for Market Leadership "The results of our survey show that customers see Avaya as the leader in delivering advanced IP contact center capabilities that drive the highest levels of satisfaction -- from implementation, to execution and across every customer interaction," said Darren George, research analyst for Frost & Sullivan. "According to these decision-makers, Avaya led every measure in the survey by significant margins."

Cisco CallManager

Discussion Points Strategy Scalability
Reliability, Availability, Survivability (Large Scale, Small Scale, and QoS) Security System Management Focus: Multiple Points of Administration Features and Applications: Differentiators

What do they all have in common?

The birth of Cisco’s IP PBX … the acquisition of Selsius Systems

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Strategy
Cisco’s Path to IP Telephony Acquire a company that has built a small IP-PBX (Selsius), and scale it to handle large enterprise telephony. Acquire other companies to fill the voids inherent in CallManager Heavy reliance on 3rd parties and/or external application servers for applications Avaya’s Path to IP Telephony Starting with a rich, full-feature enterprise telephony software suite, add support for another transport protocol: IP DRAWBACK: Need to make rich Feature and Application portfolio work over a protocol (IP) not designed for real-time performance RESULT: Market leader in Enterprise telephony, including IP

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager
SCALABILITY

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Scalability Considerations
Avaya Communication Manager Software scales to 370,000 BHCC with one Avaya™ S8720 Media Server Cisco CallManager advertises only 250,000 BHCC per cluster (only 125,000 BHCC per server) Configuration dependent Source: BCR, 01/05 Issue (Miercom study)

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Scalability Considerations
CallManager supports 30,000 IP sets across a cluster of PC servers Clusters can be linked across WAN but don’t support full Cisco feature set inter-cluster (H.323 v.2 / QSIGoIP) Only 2000 IPCC Enterprise contact center agents can be supported on a full 8-CallManager cluster (500 per server) Avaya supports 36,000 sets on a single S87XX server 12,000 of 36,000 can be IP sets Large number of transparent features between networked systems A single server supports up to 5,200 contact center agents

Typical IPCC Enterprise Configuration – 2000 Agents
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 CallManager Publisher Server CallManager Subscribe Server CallManager Subscriber Server CallManager Subscriber Server CallManager Cluster ICM Agent Peripheral Gateways PG ICM Router/Logger Side A ICM Router/Logger Side B ICM Central Controller ICM Dist Admin Workstation/ Hist DBServers Cisco Emergency Responder E911 Servers JTAPI CT I Locations Voice Gateways GED -125 CTI VRU PG & VR/Q Mgmt Servers (Configuration Dependent) JTAPI CTI

Reliability and Scalability the AVAYA Way
One active Call Processing Server 100% Memory Shadowed Media Server Redundancy Full Call State Preservation Up to 36,000 Endpoints (IP, Digital, Analog) 370,000 BHCC Integral ACD Up to 5,200 Agents Up to 8,000 Trunks 12,500 Dynamic Queue Slots 3,000 Announcements Actual Mileage Will Vary Capacities to increase substantially in next major release Single Point of Administration 2 Servers for High Availability Reporting X Servers for CTI, Multi-channel Up to 64 survivable sites with ESS A Pair of Appliance Servers

RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, SURVIVABILITY Don’t get caught without a safety net!

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Reliability, Availability, Survivability – Large Scale Cisco redundancy achieved by distribution across servers 30,000 sets backed up Eight clustered CallManagers required (1:1 redundancy) Careful partitioning (CCM Groups) must be administered across servers Connection-preserving (call preserved with no features at time of failure) Connection preservation is not supported across the following devices: Annunciator, H323 devices, CTI applications, TAPI applications, JTAPI applications, some IOS gateways. Failover in minimum of 30 seconds Avaya S8720 Server Pair One server for call processing, one for failover Virtually instantaneous failover Up to36,000 sets backed up Call-preserving (all functionality maintained on calls in progress at time of failure)

Reliability by Design: Avaya ACM Server Platform Elements
Component Mean Time To Failure Media Processor board years Protocol Preprocessor Board (C-LAN) years Digital Line/Trunk boards years S87XX Server Complex: "duplex" / "high & critical” / 90+ years Avaya MultiVantage Power Supplies years IP Server Interface board (IPSI) years *(Industry) LAN weeks *Taken from "Microsoft High Availability Operations Guide"

Source: BCR, 01/05 Issue (Miercom study)

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Reliability, Availability, Survivability – Small Scale Cisco SRST (Survivable Remote Site Telephony): Router-based Does not support various Cisco CallManager applications or services Example: Cisco IP Contact Center Supports a small number of phones on routers When more than 1 CallManager is in a set’s failover list, 30 seconds per CallManager will be added to the failover time 7902, 7905, and 7912 sets take approximately 2.5 minutes to failover In SRST mode, only basic features survive Avaya LSP (Local Spare Processor) Each Media Gateway LSP supports 450 phones In LSP mode, all features survive

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Reliability, Availability, Survivability – SUMMARY An Enterprise running Avaya Communication Manager Solutions with main and branch locations With LSP if the main location fails, all the endpoints at the main location can be controlled and maintained by the processor at the branch location Link Bounce Resiliency results in “connection preservation” Stateful redundancy vs. connection preservation Avaya offers stateful server duplication with patented memory shadowing – voice path plus features are preserved during failover Cisco preserves only the voice path during failover

Why move CallManager to Linux? Security Concerns Stack of Pain
Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager CallManager and Linux CCM 5.0 announced March 2006 CCM 5.0 is Linux-based Why move CallManager to Linux? Security Concerns Stack of Pain Security Concerns + Administration Costs __________________ Higher TCO!

CallManager 5.0 (the good)
Major features: Appliance (No more Windows patches!) SIP and (basic) presence capabilities Japanese, Chinese, and Korean localization (for phones; needs new models) Copied several Avaya features True appliance Dual partitions Ability to copy in new software while the system runs Ability to go back to a previous version even in smaller single drive servers No root access (even more limited than Avaya; no Linux access) Single image (OS and Application) upgrades Internal firewall Cisco Unity Call Transfer Rules* • Define rules to route incoming calls by caller. • Define rules to route incoming calls by time of day. • Define rules to route incoming calls by your calendar free or busy status (Microsoft Exchange only) Call transfer rules are not available with the European regional feature packages. Voice-Enabled Messaging (Optional)* • Use voice commands to call others in the Cisco Unity Connection directory or personal contact list (imported from Outlook). • Use voice commands to play and process messages (play, record, reply, forward, delete, save, etc.). Voice-enabled messaging is available for U.S. English only. The Advanced user option adds the following features: • Voice-enabled dialing for other Cisco Unity Connection users, corporate contacts, or personal contacts • Voice-enabled voic browsing • TTS access to Microsoft Exchange messages

CallManager 5.0 (the not so good)
Does not have feature parity w/ CallManager 4.2 (Windows) until CallManager 5.1 or 6.0 release (5.1 rumored for early 2007; 6.0 late 2007). Creates several logistical problems If customers choose CallManager 4.2 there is no clear upgrade path to 5.0 (for some time) IPCC Express v4.5 required (no technical upgrade path from previous versions, no HA, or expansion) Some apps are not supported. Examples: Personal Assistant: Workaround is to use Unity Connection (Unity Enterprise does not offer find-me/follow-me). UC has call transfer based on caller, ToD, Calendar (Exchange only). Conference Connection: Must upgrade to MeetingPlace Most 3rd party management products need new versions to work with the new API’s and ways to manage them (no 3rd party agents supported) Many of the other adjunct servers are still Windows based: Emergency Responder, IPCC, Unity. Cisco Unity Call Transfer Rules* • Define rules to route incoming calls by caller. • Define rules to route incoming calls by time of day. • Define rules to route incoming calls by your calendar free or busy status (Microsoft Exchange only) Call transfer rules are not available with the European regional feature packages. Voice-Enabled Messaging (Optional)* • Use voice commands to call others in the Cisco Unity Connection directory or personal contact list (imported from Outlook). • Use voice commands to play and process messages (play, record, reply, forward, delete, save, etc.). Voice-enabled messaging is available for U.S. English only. The Advanced user option adds the following features: • Voice-enabled dialing for other Cisco Unity Connection users, corporate contacts, or personal contacts • Voice-enabled voic browsing • TTS access to Microsoft Exchange messages

What Doesn’t Change Cluster approach with multiple servers to maintain
Single point of failure with one database (Publisher) Lack of feature richness results in adjunct server applications and interfaces to manage E-911 (Emergency Responder) Extension to Cellular (Mobility Manager with Mobile Connect app) Enhanced Presence – (Presence Server for CCM 5.0 only) Small Contact Center (Customer Response Suite) Large Contact Center (ICM, IP IVR, CVP) Result: Complexity of management, call flows and interactions

New CallManager 4.2 Features (not in 5.x)
Directed Call Park Log in/out of Hunt Groups Call Forward on Non Registered or No Bandwidth Cisco Unified CallManager Assistant on a phone [no PC app req.] Cisco Communication Media Module Department of Defense features (DSCP values depending on priority, and other misc enhancements) Cisco IOS® Software and Cisco Communication Media Module support for inbound Hookflash for Cisco Unified CallManager and Cisco Integrated Services Routers Device mobility improvements (intra-cluster) Complex passwords and password aging using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Call Pickup Notification (Audible/Visual) Voice quality statistics

Which CallManager Version? – A Customer Dilemma
If customer chooses 4.x Comes with Windows headaches and higher TCO cost Per server, 167 minutes per upgrade and $67,559 3 year TCO No support for SIP endpoints or Presence If customer chooses 5.0(4) Enterprise is running on an unproven platform and considered experimental by customers and partners Less features than 4.x Native SIP support but still needs external server for presence Advanced SIP features for Cisco phones only Interoperability issues with other applications No support for IPMA and Conference Connection Requires specific version of IPCC Express (no hot standby IPCCX option)

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager CallManager and Linux - TCO
“Linux is 40% less expensive than a comparable x86-based Windows solution …” 46 Data based on a 3-year period of ownership for a system supporting 100,000,000 operations per second on the SPECjbb benchmark …

Typical IPCC Enterprise Configuration – 2000 Agents
Tier 1 Tier 2 Tier 3 CallManager Publisher Server CallManager Subscribe Server CallManager Subscriber Server CallManager Subscriber Server CallManager Cluster ICM Agent Peripheral Gateways PG ICM Router/Logger Side A ICM Router/Logger Side B ICM Central Controller ICM Dist Admin Workstation/ Hist DBServers Cisco Emergency Responder E911 Servers JTAPI CT I Locations Voice Gateways GED -125 CTI VRU PG & VR/Q Mgmt Servers (Configuration Dependent) JTAPI CTI

FEATURES and APPLICATIONS: Differentiators Communication Manager is a Many-Layered Thing CurrentAnalysis says: “CallManager remains a work in progress.” “Cisco has only recently started to add features common to all traditional PBX platforms.”

Features and Applications - Synopsis Avaya Communication Manager Software supports over 700 features Cisco CallManager 4.2 data sheet lists 169 Avaya’s IP Soft Phone supports dual-connect mode for improved work-at-home audio Unless Mobility Manager is added Cisco’s phone must put the audio path onto the IP media stream Mobility Manager is another application and server platform to manage Avaya’s Crisis Alert feature is standard and easy to implement; a critical feature for organizations concerned about safety and the ability to rapidly respond to emergencies Unless Emergency Responder is added no E911 support is available Emergency Responder is another application and server platform to manage

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Telephony Feature Differentiators
Avaya’s support of sophisticated bridging and extensive call coverage paths versus simple call forwarding from Cisco provides significant power in customizing call handling operations Only Avaya offers Whisper Page to allow a secretary to convey a message to the principle without the person he/she is talking hearing the Whisper Page Only Avaya has sophisticated Night Service, Send All Calls, Manual Signaling, Service Observing, and many more Only Avaya allows Group Paging to utilize the speakers of the telephones as a paging system Only Avaya has an integral “Hoteling” feature Unlike Cisco’s Extension Mobility feature, no administration and external authentication application is required

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Security / Privacy / Safety Differentiators Avaya has E-911 built into Communication Manager and works equally well with any IP infrastructure Cisco requires a separate Emergency Responder server which has to be duplicated for redundancy For complete redundancy every site with CallManager servers requires duplicated E-911 servers to safeguard against losing E911 support in the event of a WAN outage Small locations relying on SRST survivability software in routers lose E-911 capability in the event of a WAN outage The server administered separately from CallManager Cisco’s solution is optimized for performance on their own infrastructure

When CallManager 4.0 was announced, Cisco touted the Malicious Call Trace feature No support over QSIG No support over MGCP gateways No support over Analog gateways No support inter-cluster Crisis Alert feature is Emergency Responder based, external to CallManager Security Bottom Line: Malicious Call Trace only works when the malicious caller is calling from the same cluster.

Cisco failed 14 of the 18 tests conducted by Tolly “Avaya exceeds FCC accuracy guidelines in all cases” “In G.711 testing, Cisco only meets guidelines if no packet loss” Cisco requires separate telephone numbers for TTY and voice messaging Accessibility Tolly tests TTY Bottom Line: “Test results show that the Avaya TTY over IP implementation provides dramatically more accurate and robust transport when compared with both Cisco offerings…” The Tolly Group TTY users in a Cisco environment can not simultaneously use both an IP phone and their TTY device “In G.729 testing, Cisco significantly misses guidelines even with no packet loss”

Test Avaya Digital Avaya IP Result Cisco Result Voice Carry Over (VCO) Pass Fail Hearing Carry Over (HCO) Speed Dial Touchtone Operation Accessibility Tolly tests TTY “Avaya is able to leverage its long-standing support of “logical bridging” to provide a high degree of integration between its IP telephony (and digital telephony) environment – including messaging – and TTY” “Cisco’s lack of support for bridging deprives its TTY users of even basic functionality when used with its IP sets.” The Tolly Group

Accessibility Tolly tests TTY “Avaya’s results are dramatically better than Cisco’s because Avaya’s technological approach is fundamentally different than Cisco’s” The Tolly Group

2005 Business Communications Review Edwin E
2005 Business Communications Review Edwin E. Mier: Which Large PBX Rules?

Security Analysis Detail

Key Points on BCR Security Analysis
At the time Avaya Communications Manager, per BCR “does not, strictly speaking, encrypt H.323 call control”, resulting in loss of 1 point Encrypted H.323 call control was added in CM 3.1 Cisco lost 1 point for lack of universal media encryption, still not available Avaya lost ½ point for “other” such as documentation, services offered, affiliation with 3rd party vendors, documented enhancements, etc Six Cisco engineers spent several hours deploying security on site in preparation for the BCR testing Reason: Overall security for CallManager is heavily dependent on L2/L3 network infrastructure components and firewalls, some of which are optional, added cost components Traditional security risks, i.e. toll fraud protection factored lightly by Mier

CallManager Security Issues
Cisco IPT security approach is heavily dependent on security defenses integral to its Layer 2 and 3 devices and firewall platforms Conclusion: properly deployed these defenses can be leveraged with any IPT platform, including Avaya’s Relies on integral ‘host-based’ intrusion-prevention-system (HIPS) software modules to protect server from high-level assaults No ability to physically isolate call processing servers from “public IP network” Reason: IP Phones register directly to CallManager servers Media Encryption Not supported on all IP phone models Only supported on certain gateways No encryption for conference calls and between clusters Voice quality drops significantly with encryption enabled (MOS 3.2 vs Avaya 4.3) 15 to 20% reduction in system performance when activated

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Security / Privacy / Safety Differentiators Only Avaya supports Security Violation Notification to notify administrator of repeated failed attempts to enter authorization/account codes Only Avaya supports an optional security code to access Meet-Me-Conferences Only Avaya makes it possible to physically secure an IP telephone

Physically Securing the IP Telephone
Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Security / Privacy / Safety Differentiators Physically Securing the IP Telephone Security Only Avaya endpoints can be locked - requiring password access

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Security - Encryption
796x 794x 797x 7912G 7905G 7910 Security ATA-188 ATA-186 7936G 7935 LIMITED ENDPOINT SUPPORT 7920G IP Softphone 7911G Do not support Cisco encryption Support Cisco Encryption

Avaya Communication Manager Solutions / Cisco CallManager Security - Encryption
CISCO ENCRYPTION IS VERY LIMITED 29 No Conference call support (ad hoc or Meet Me) No CTI devices No transcoders No media termination points (e.g. MOH) No SIP or H.323 gateways No inter-cluster trunks (encryption doesn’t scale) Security

In Summary, BCR 2006 Report Says it All

Cisco Claim Rebuffed Claim: A Cisco single-vendor approach has
lower TCO … Infotech says 57% of enterprises have multi-vendor environments. Gartner says that Cisco has sought to promote lock-in to their offers “where not appropriate.” ComputerWeekly survey of 800 senior IT executives: 58% had negative experiences with single supplier lock-in 35% had to purchase products that did not meet their needs 18% had to purchase unnecessary hardware 67% said they had experienced pressure from vendors to buy only from them Avaya solutions work in multi-vendor environments, require no forklift, enjoy many years of vendor support, and use lower-cost (and lower-downtime) Linux operating systems. Back to Strategy Page

Thank You!

Avaya Cisco Technology Comparison

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