I wrote this article just after the acquisition of Acano by Cisco, as always in the Tech industry a great deal seems to have changed since then:
- Cisco have lost their Collaboration leader (Rowan Trollope) and have rebranded Spark back to Webex
- Microsoft arguably made a more dramatic shift and replaced Skype for Business with Teams
In the mean time Cisco and Microsoft customers have become thoroughly confused about what to do next – especially those large enterprise who have Microsoft for Productivity and Voice and Cisco for Video. Three years ago Acano was a perfect solution to marry the two technologies together. This was especially important for large organisations who invested millions of dollars in Cisco video rooms and Lync/Skype for Business.
Today those large organisations face a challenge as they look at the current upgrade cycle of Cisco TelePresence and Skype for Business. Do they:
- Invest in Skype for Business 2019 and Cisco Meeting Server (formerly Acano) which will provide a maintainable service but ultimately shifts an upgrade decision in to two or three years time.
- Begin a programme to replace Skype for Business and Cisco Telepresence/Meeting Server given that both sets of products are either implicitly or explicitly not going to be the primary product in the future.
- There isn’t a single route to take as it depends on the circumstance of the the organisations who have deployed. However as a working principle unless the upgrade is part of a bridge to innovation the Skype and Meeting Server upgrade option while safe is driving an organisation down a dead end. There is going to be so much innovation taking place in the market over the next three years not just with suppliers such as Google, Microsoft, Workplace, Zoom (alphabetical order/to name but a few) but with devices and meeting rooms that some organisations who choose to invest will be one or most likely two generations ahead of those who choose to upgrade and not invest in the latest developments.