Cisco Collaboration Systems Release

Cisco Collaboration System Releases (CSRs) provide a comprehensive set of unified communications infrastructure, applications and endpoints. Together, they are a Cisco Validated design and preferred architecture that delivers outstanding interoperability, a superior user experience, and simplified deployment decisions for customers.

CSR 12.6 is the latest in the ongoing evolution of Cisco's portfolio of collaboration products and solutions. CSR 12.6 continues Cisco's focus on key qualities that matter: enhanced user experience, simplicity of administration, security and compliance, together with the integration with WebEx cloud collaboration services.

The new features delivered in CSR 12.6 are in the documentation release notes of CSR 12.5.

Here are some of the reasons you should upgrade to CSR 12.6.

Simplified administration

Administration should not be a burden; it should enable deployment and management of solutions in a fast-paced world. Recent enhancements that build on this approach include:

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

Provisioning of video endpoints via Unified Communications Manager. System administrators can now manage the configurations of video endpoints the same way as they manage IP endpoints – via Cisco Unified Communications Manager. This reduces the administrator’s workload, and allows easier migration of video endpoints’ call control from Cisco Video Communications Server (VCS) to Cisco Unified Communications Manager.

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

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, administrators benefit from a simplified and accelerated upgrade process of Unified Communications Manager.

Simplified, secure activation of phones. Registration of new 7800/8800 series IP phones is performed using simple 16-digit activation codes or QR Codes, reducing administrative complexity while maintaining security.  This same process can be used whether the IP phone is on premises or deployed outside the corporate firewall via Mobile Remote Access (MRA).

Enhanced User experiences include

At Cisco we continually strive to deliver simply, easy to use, delightful experiences for our customers in our solutions and the following enhancements build on our approach.

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

Jabber mobile persistent chat. Chat rooms remain available, even after 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.

ActiveControl for Jabber over MRA. ActiveControl allows the end user to see a list of participants and other information during a conference. On certain endpoints, including the Jabber client, the user can change the conference layout displayed locally, and disconnect other participants.

This latest release now allows Jabber users who are outside the firewall (connected through Expressway via Mobile and Remote Access) to have these same capabilities.

Security and compliance

We have added elliptic curve cryptography support, granular controls for cipher management, encrypted instant messaging archiving, and several other enhancements that keep our solutions secure for enterprises.

Cipher control. To augment prior Collaboration Systems Releases’ support for Transport Layer Security TLS 1.2, the system administrator now has the ability to select the specific ciphers used in order to meet the customer's InfoSec 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 for recording, and can enable new use cases such as speech analytics.

Encryption of Data at Rest. With today’s rapidly evolving threat landscape, protecting sensitive data from improper access is a growing concern.  UC deployments based on Cisco UCS servers can take advantage of self-encrypting disks, which encrypt data at the hardware level, preventing unauthorized access should a server be stolen or decommissioned without the drives being properly erased.

Cloud Connectivity with Cisco WebEx Teams

Enable messaging interoperability between Cisco WebEx Teams users and Cisco Jabber users via Cisco Unified Communications Manager Instant Messaging & Presence Service (IM&P). Cohorts of users of WebEx Teams and Jabber users can now send messages to each other, while presence translation allows users to view the status of their colleagues.

As an alternative, Jabber also supports a new operating mode in which Jabber users can get a subset of WebEx Teams messaging features in their Jabber application. This mode includes persistent 1:1 messaging, support for Spaces, and file support.

Find out more about Cisco Collaboration Systems Releases

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