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Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business

aoyawale
Level 1
Level 1

I'm designing a integrated voice/data/video network for new SMB with initial 50 users that easily scale up in future. I cam across the Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business and was wondering if this can effectively meet my requirement? I notice that the max. user supports is 48 so how can this soltuion be impolemented to support 50 users and also expand as the number of users increases in future?

11 Replies 11

Rob Huffman
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Hi

The UC500 series is really great but will not scale to meet your future needs (max 48 users). You may want to look at Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express which is built on a 2800 or 3800 Series Router or Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition which is more of an all in one solution.

Unified Communications Manager Express (with video)

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/solutions/small_business/products/voice_conferencing/uc_manager_express/index.html

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express offers a range of features including:

Support for up to 240 employees in a single office, multiple offices, or at branch locations

Support for the latest telephony technology including Cisco Unified IP Phones and the innovative applications that run on them

Ability to support four-digit extension-based dialing, even between different locations

Call forwarding and "find me, follow me" groups

Elimination of long-distance charges for calls made between different locations

Conferencing, call-center, and customized voice response systems also available

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/voicesw/ps6882/ps6884/prod_qas0900aecd805e69cf_ps7273_Products_Q_and_A_Item.html

There are some good links here;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns151/networking_solutions_unified_communications_home.html

Business Edition is a "single server" solution for small to medium sized businesses up to 500 users. It comes packaged with Unity Connection for Voicemail.

Here is a clip;

"Cisco Unified Communications Manager Business Edition is an easy-to-manage solution that combines voice, video, mobility, and messaging on a single server to simplify system administration and reduce hardware and operating expenses. This solution provides cost-effective deployment options for medium-sized organizations with smaller IT staffs that require all the advanced capabilities of Cisco Unified Communications Manager (formerly Cisco Unified CallManager), Cisco Unity Connection, Cisco Unified Mobility (formerly Cisco Unified MobilityManager), and integrated management on a single server to expedite migration to unified communications."

From this good doc;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7273/products_data_sheet0900aecd805e6985.html

Hope this helps!

Rob

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your kind response. There are currently 12 users and the maximum number that the building can accomdate is 50 user. The number of users is not expected to get to 50 in 3 years. Cost is a big issue so the UC500 offers significant cost savings on hardware and support as only the IP Phones need to be purchased seperately. By the way, is there a need to buy seperate licenses for the phones or are the bundled with the UC500?

Hi Adetola,

You are most welcome my friend! Given your current parameters the UC500 would be an excellent choice then :)

When you order a pre-configured UCS 5XX is does come with **all applicable Licensing including the IP Phone Licenses.

Have a look at this as well;

Various fixed configurations are offered, eliminating the guesswork from configuration.

Each configuration is equipped with the appropriate number of feature licenses for call processing, voicemail, and Cisco Unified IP phones, simplifying the product structure.

For example;

UC520-8U-2BRI-K9

8 User configuration with 2 BRI trunks (BRI), 4 Analog ports (FXS), 8 PoE ports, 1 VIC slot for expansion

Feature licenses for call control, voicemail and **Cisco Unified IP Phones

Or

UC520W-8U-4FXO-K9

8 User configuration with 4 PSTN trunks (FXO), 4 Analog ports (FXS), 8 PoE ports, 1 VIC slot for expansion, Integrated Wi-Fi Access Point

Feature licenses for call control, voicemail and **Cisco Unified IP Phones

From this good UCS 500 doc;

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps7293/products_data_sheet0900aecd8061fb06.html

Hope this helps!

Rob

Excellent!!! However, it seems the 24-port Cisco Express 520 switches does not have PoE ports and alternative power supply is required for the IP Phones.

Hi ADETOLA,

Sure they do :) Have a look at this PoE version;

Cisco Catalyst Express 500-24PC Switch = WS-CE500-24PC

Twenty-four 10/100 PoE ports

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6545/index.html

Hope this helps!

Rob

Who's da man? Rob is da man!!! You've been of great help. Is there anyway to provide redundancy as the UC500 is a single point of failure?

Tola

Hi Tola,

Thank you for your very kind words my friend!

As with most SMB solutions there are some drawbacks with the UC500. This lack of redundancy carries all the way up until we get to multi server cluster Unified Communications Manager deployments. These Enterprise deployments are in the hundreds of thousands and up type configs, so you sort of "get what you pay for".

Have a look at this interesting Q & A doc;

Cisco Smart Business Communications System Overview

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/ns339/ns637/networking_solutions_products_genericcontent0900aecd806122df.pdf

Hope this helps!

Rob

Please remember to rate helpful posts.....

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the link, the doc is quite useful. I observed that the 48 users option actually has 52 phone licenses. It seems the 48user limitation applies to IP-Phones and additional 2-4 analog phones can be connected through FXS ports to achieve 50 telephones. Is this correct? Maybe it might be worthwhile to buy a 16 user option as spare backup.

The 48 user model allows you to use 48 phones + 4 "remote teleworkers." (IP communicator clients or 851/871 routers at remote locations running telephones. You can additionally support up to 8 FXS ports. I believe that an FXS port configured with SCCP support counts as a "User" however, so the FXS ports are typically only used for faxes, true analogs, and not stcapp functionality. One of the features that many of our customers have enjoyed is the addition of a power fail-over port. In the event of a power outage of the 520, there is an FXO port that will map to an FXS port which you can hook up an analog phone to to provide calling in the event of an emergency.

Hi Slongewa,

Thanks for your contribution....looking at my requirements it seems the UC500 is the optimal solution.

Hi Tola,

I think your idea of purchasing a second 16 user box for a backup is very good :) The other great safety net is to ensure that you have the top Smartnet maintenance available.

Take care and best of luck!

Rob

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