Five years after Avaya’s acquisition, enterprises still have options for upgrading their Nortel communications infrastructure.
We have all experienced this: You read or hear about something that occurred years ago and your immediate reaction is one of utter surprise. "What do you mean that happened in 2009? I could have sworn it was only last year."
I call it the "Michael Jackson Syndrome." Michael Jackson has been dead for more than five years, but we remember the tragic event as if it was yesterday. Soon, we will be saying the same about Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and other celebrities who have recently passed on. Their deaths will exist in an alternate time.
We experience the Michael Jackson Syndrome here in the world of communications, too. For instance, Avaya completed the acquisition of Nortel Enterprise on Dec. 18, 2009. That's right. Nortel ceased to exist in the very same year as did the Prince of Pop. And also like the Gloved One's departure, the transition from blue to red seems like it was only yesterday.
This event is especially relevant to me since I was a Nortel employee at the time of the transition. I began working for the former jewel of Canada way back in 1983 (yes, I was only 12 at the time). For me, its passing wasn't just an industry shakeup, but a personal shakeup, as I left my employer of nearly 27 years for the world of Avaya business partners. Thankfully, I landed on my feet pretty quickly and enjoyed coming out from under the emotional weight of bankruptcy.
So, what has happened with Nortel technology since that fateful day? Millions of telephones, servers, gateways, and applications don't just up and disappear overnight. The vultures were out in strong forces trying to pick away at the carcass, and while a number of Nortel systems have been removed and replaced, quite a few are still out there humming away -- and will be for some years to come.
The Death of the CS1000 Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Contrary to what you may have been led to believe, the CS1000 is still a fully supported system. The current release, 7.6, has been generally available since 2013, and Avaya continues to release service packs. In fact, Service Pack 6 is coming out this month. The previous release, 7.5, has been End of Manufacture since September 2013, so customers need to upgrade to obtain new features and software fixes.
In terms of hardware, the story is still fairly rosy. The CP-PIV call processor is scheduled to go End of Sale in 2015. Avaya announced this back in 2011, so the news should not come as a great surprise to anyone. However, it does not go to End of Manufacture Support until 2018. Since this processor is only used in old Meridian and CS1000-M systems, 2018 should be ample time to transition to the CS1000E.
CS1000E systems use the more recent CP-PM and CP-DC processors, and Avaya has not issued End of Sales or End of Manufacture Support for either of them. The same holds true for other hardware components such as the MG-XPEC and the MGC.
In terms of applications, CallPilot voice mail goes to End of New System Sales in June 2015. Software support continues until June 2016, and expansions are supported all the way to June 2018.
However, Avaya has been promoting the move from CallPilot to the Aura Messaging platform for quite some time. Users can continue to use the familiar CallPilot telephone user interface (TUI) on Aura Messaging, which makes the transition fairly painless. Also, from the IT standpoint, Aura Messaging runs on an existing CallPilot 1006r server. This eliminates the need to purchase a new server to run the new software.
The next major CS1000 application is the Avaya Aura Contact Center (AACC), and its story is still very bright. No End of Sales or End of Support dates have been announced for AACC, and since it is not tied to any particular hardware platform, there are no concerns in that regard, either.
Physical endpoints are often a significant investment, and Avaya has done a number of things to keep the Nortel 11xx series of IP telephones relevant. This is especially true when those telephones are repurposed on an Avaya Aura system. The most recent SIP firmware release adds a substantial number of new features and bring a great deal of new life to those older telephones.
Let's Get Real
Despite the fact that Avaya has yet to announce an End of Support date for release 7.6, the likelihood that it will continue to release service packs forever is nil. While it may do so for a few more years, Michael Jackson Syndrome reminds us that those years will go by quickly and the day of reckoning will one day be upon us. Smart IT directors know this and are already planning their next move.
Timeframes, motivation and capital resources vary from company to company, but everyone is left with two basic choices. The first is to rip out all Nortel components and replace them with something new and different. That, of course, involves physical resources such as processors, gateways, and applications servers. It also involves reprogramming dial plans, endpoints, contact center scripts, voice mail prompts, IVR flows, and whatever else it takes to logically move communication applications from one platform to another. So, not cheap, but there are a variety of reasons why an enterprise might go this route.
This rip-and-replace approach might involve new on-premises equipment or it might be a shift to the cloud (or both). While cloud communications is still relatively new, there are a variety of offerings that may prove to be an enterprise's best fit.
The second approach is the one that Avaya has been promoting these past five years. Instead of ripping and replacing everything all at once, a company can use a session management layer to add newer, SIP-based applications as it slowly phases out its existing Nortel components.
My previous mention of migrating CallPilot to Aura Messaging falls into this approach. An Avaya Aura Session Manager acts as the "SIP glue" between the core CS1000 and Aura Messaging. The same is true for applications such as IVR, video and conferencing. SIP and session management allow a company to modernize what it needs without having to go through the cost and pain of starting from scratch.
I am a huge fan of this approach to modernization for any SIP-enabled system. As applications go virtual and the need for dedicated hardware disappears, the modern day PBX becomes a loosely connected collection of applications. This allows enterprises to adopt a "best of breed" mindset and move from being brand conscious to feature conscious.
Not Unique to Nortel
The issue of an aging communications infrastructure is certainly not unique to the Nortel installed base. I am no longer surprised when I run into ancient Definity systems or older-than-dirt Avaya MCC and SCC cabinets. Heck, it wasn't that long ago when I ran across a functional Option-51, and that beast was declared end of life years ago. Those systems could take a lickin' and keep on tickin', but they are sorely in need of some serious updating.
In the end, decisions must be made, and enterprises will do what makes sense for their business. However, this old Nortel guy appreciates the fact that five years later, my beloved CS1000 still has some life left in it.
Will that always be true? Of course not. The Michael Jackson Syndrome is lurking just around the corner. For now, though, there are a number of good migration and stay-current strategies to choose from and no one need be left high and dry.
Now, isn't that a thriller?
Andrew Prokop writes about all things unified communications on his popular blog, SIP Adventures.
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