What’s New in Cisco Collaboration System Release 12.5

For months now, Cisco CSR users have been eagerly awaiting the release of Collaboration Systems Release 12.5, with all of the changes within the collaboration spectrum of Cisco’s portfolio of products, version 12.5 promised to take collaboration to new levels. In this blog post, we will spotlight some of the enhancements, changes and new features of CSR 12.5.

Cisco approached version 12.5 with the key objective to simplify administration and reduce total cost of ownership; version 12.5 offers numerous new and exciting enhancements designed to facilitate the daily undertakings of both the administrator as well as the end user.

What is new and exciting in CSR release 12.5

Enhanced mobile experiences 

Media path optimization – In Cisco Jabber mobile-mobile calls, media travels between the devices without “hairpinning” to Cisco Expressway. The result is lower latency for improved user experience and more efficient utilization of your resources.

Jabber mobile persistent chat – Chat rooms remain available, even when all participants have exited the room. This capability is now supported with Jabber Mobile clients.

Jabber multiline for mobile and remote access (MRA) – This feature extends Jabber’s support of multiple lines to users outside your firewall.

Cisco Webex Teams interoperability

Interoperability between Cisco Webex Teams users and Cisco Jabber users via Cisco Unified Communications Manager IM & Presence Service – Using the IM&P Service, Webex Teams and Jabber users can IM each other.

Presence translation. This feature allows the Presence status of Webex Teams users to be reflected in the user interface seen by Jabber users.

Jabber team messaging mode is a new Jabber operating mode in which the user can get a subset of Webex Teams messaging features delivered by Jabber -This mode includes persistent 1:1 messaging, support for Spaces, and file support.

Security and compliance

Cipher control – With CSR 12.5, the system administrator has the ability to select the specific ciphers used to meet a company’s security guidelines. 

Audio call forking to multiple recording/media appliances – This feature supports customers’ compliance with the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) requirements and can also enable new use cases such as speech analytics.

Simplified administration

One-touch streamlined upgrade – Utilizing capabilities such as a one-touch pre-upgrade check, a one-touch cluster-wide upgrade, and a one-touch cluster-wide reboot users can simplify and accelerate the upgrade process.

Streamlined Jabber configuration management – This upgrade supports Jabber configuration templates and eliminates the need for XML file uploads.

Simplified, secure activation of phones – This feature uses activation codes to register phones, reducing administrative costs while maintaining security.

Provisioning of video endpoints via Unified Communications Manager – This advancement simplifies migration from VCS to UCM for call control, thus making endpoint maintenance easier.

Cisco Headset management enhancements – With this innovation, system administrators can manage headset user-profile templates, perform firmware updates, and query inventory status from Unified Communications Manager.

Should you require any help with your next Cisco Unified Communications infrastructure upgrade the Stack8 team of experts is here to help you.