Well, I did not see this coming, but it makes sense for all parties, and most importantly, customers. Cisco will become a partner in the Certified for Microsoft Teams program for the first time.

For those who don’t know, before being deep in the Microsoft UC world, I worked for a Cisco partner, one of the originals to launch Call Manager. I cut my VoIP teeth on Cisco before doing more and more Exchange UM and OCS and then moved over to the Microsoft UC side.

In the first half of 2023, Cisco and Microsoft will soon offer the ability to run Microsoft Teams Rooms natively on Cisco Rooms, Certified for Microsoft Teams. For these devices, Customers will have the option to make Microsoft Teams Rooms the default experience. Much like other device vendors in the Teams Ecosystem have the option of running in Zoom mode or Teams mode. This is not just an improved join experience.

In Teams mode, it will be full Microsoft Teams Rooms running on Android. The Rooms will also have an improved Cisco Webex join experience, running a Webex client for a Webex meeting join, rather than just the current Direct Guest Join. After the Webex meeting, the Room will return to the standard Microsoft Teams Rooms experience. Cisco has no Windows-based devices, so all devices will be Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android.

All certified devices will be manageable in the Teams Admin Center and the new Teams Rooms Pro Management Portal, as well as through the Cisco Control Hub device management.

Cisco will initially certify 6 meeting devices and 3 peripherals, with apparently more to come.

No, there will not be an additional charge to run Cisco devices in “Teams mode”. This question comes up a lot as there is a charge to switch Cisco IP phones to standard SIP firmware which is required to run those phones signed into Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway.

There are a lot of Cisco Phones out there, and lots of customers that would like to use their existing investment of Cisco IP phones with Microsoft Teams. In theory, those phones run android and could run the Teams Phone software, but there is no news or comment on this, and I don’t see it coming soon.

Also, you can run select Cisco Phones with Microsoft Teams today via Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway.

Got a question or thoughts? Let me know.

Cisco landing page for Teams Devices: https://www.webex.com/solutions/microsoft-teams-rooms-cisco-devices.html

Cisco press release: New partnership brings Microsoft Teams to Cisco meeting room devices

Cisco blog: Hybrid work, elevated. Cisco and Microsoft partner to bring customers more choice

Microsoft press release: New partnership brings Microsoft Teams to Cisco meeting room devices

A Microsoft MVP and Microsoft Certified Master, Tom Arbuthnot is Founder and Principal at Empowering.Cloud as well as a Solutions Director at Pure IP.

Tom stays up to date with industry developments and shares news and his opinions on his Tomtalks.blog, UC Today Microsoft Teams Podcast and email list. He is a regular speaker at events around the world.

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