Cisco Cius Revisited – Good News or Bad News for UC?
Cisco Cius Revisited – Good News or Bad News for UC? by Jon Arnold
Aside from the farce of the LeBron James “Decision” last week, the biggest news item on my radar so far this summer has been Cisco’s Cius announcement. While not earth-shattering, the launch was part of the keynotes during their C-Scape conference, and with only 100 analysts being invited to attend, I was part of a pretty small group to see it for the first time. A few other UCStrategies contributors were there too, and from what I can tell, Cius was news to everybody. It sure looks like Cisco is learning to steal a few pages from Apple’s playbook when it comes to product launches.
Cius is not news at this point, but this is when my monthly contribution to the UCS portal is getting done, and from what I’ve seen written so far, I think I can add a few things to the conversation. I’m not going to re-hash the basics here, and will first point you to fellow UCS contributor, Marty Parker, who has written a series of pieces about Cius, UC and video – all of which are worth reading.
I agree with Marty in that there are a number of challenges making Cius additive for a UC solution. No doubt, it’s a powerful, sexy endpoint that will make UC more interesting for end users, but for large enterprise deployments, it’s not clear how well – if at all – Cius will integrate with other vendors. There’s also the element of confusion that will inevitably arise in terms of how much this will compete with that Cisco IP phone on your desk – or any other IP phone for that matter. The last thing most of us want is yet another device to manage, especially one that is so video-centric. I’ve long contended that video is a generational thing, and not everyone is keen to jump on that next concall using Cius.
As you can probably tell, my analysis is focused more on the end user experience than the technical aspects, and I believe this has a lot to do with the success of Cius, either as part of a UC solution or otherwise. I really should back up here and talk about the name. For some reason, we live in an age where products – and even companies - get launched with names that seem nonsensical, have no obvious connection to the product and are even difficult to pronounce. I would argue that’s by design, since many launches are now global, and the name needs to resonate across multiple languages and cultures. Just a few that come to mind include Skype, Aura, Fring and Jajah. I’m sure you can think of plenty more.
I would add Cius to that list, but if you get the pronunciation right – “see-us” – it’s well-named, considering that it’s primarily a video tablet for collaboration. Actually, if you think it sounds vaguely Greek, you’re right. Turns out there was a famous town in ancient Greece named Kios, and like many long-gone places from that time, it was conquered more often than anyone cares to count. Being the cradle of Western civilization, I’m not sure if that was part of Cisco’s thinking with the Cius name. I mention this for good reason. For those in attendance at C-Scape, the Cius demo was surely a major highlight. Jim Grubb – with color commentary from John Chambers – gave a very compelling demonstration – complete with a primary school desk, blackboard, etc. - of the multitude of ways that Cius can truly enhance the classroom learning experience.
We all know that Cisco likes to think big, and maybe they do see Cius as the savior of our education system. I just hope they have more common sense than LeBum James – but I digress. As history tells us, Kios had its golden era, but the Applonians and Googlites of their time passed them by, mainly because in those days, the sword was mightier than the pen.
Back to the classroom. Is this application of Cius UC? I would argue that it is, but just not in a business setting. We all know it’s more promise than reality since cash-strapped school boards could never afford to go down this road without a lot of help from Obama or Cisco. Of course this raises the moral – and ultimately political issue of the cost we’re willing to bear as a society to educate our children. Anyone following Cisco knows they make the same argument for health care, another pillar of modern society. They’re very much taking the high road here, and if enough deep-pocketed stakeholders buy into the vision, somehow, somewhere these wonderful technologies will come to life.
Returning to our world of UC, I think Cius can be somewhat additive, but as Marty has already addressed, there are a number of fundamental challenges and tradeoffs involved. Pricing wasn’t mentioned at the launch, but you have to think that Cius will be on par or more expensive than most IP phones. Nobody is advocating swapping out devices here, but there’s a fine line in knowing when to use your IP phone and when to use your Cius. In many regards, Cius will need to be carefully positioned in order to enhance the value proposition of an enterprise UC solution.
There’s another way to look at things here. As mentioned, I saw the classroom demo as another form of UC, and maybe that’s where Cius’s true value lies. There’s no doubt that Cisco needs something like Cius to keep up with Apple and everyone else in the smartphone/tablet market. They can’t afford to concede such a valuable link in the user experience chain, and cooler IP phones are not the answer. Much like how the iPad is changing the way we interact with endpoints, perhaps Cius can do the same for broadening the UC concept. Rather than talk about UC as a horizontal enterprise solution, Cius can tie into all of Cisco’s other products and applications as a vertical UC solution, tailored for sectors like education and health care. That’s a topic for more debate, and I’ll leave that thread out there for others to pick up.
Moving off the UC tangent, I wanted to add a final thought about Cius. I sense that I’m in the minority who sees Cius being equally attractive for consumers as for business users. When you look at how Cisco is going to market with Flip, and how easily it integrates with Cius, it’s clear to me that Cius is another cornerstone for their broader ambitions to become a major consumer brand. That’s another conversation, and I’m happy to keep that going as well!