The impending end of support for the CentOS Linux Distro within Cisco Collaboration applications presents a significant event affecting numerous industries. Federal customers using legacy versions of Cisco Collaboration tools (versions 11.x through 14) face critical decisions regarding the End of Life/End of Support status of their infrastructure. Cisco offers two main options: upgrading to Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM) 15 or migrating to the Cloud, with well-defined roadmaps for Webex Calling and Webex Contact Center products.

For government customers, FedRAMP authorization for Cisco’s cloud-based solutions (Webex Calling, Webex Contact Center, UCM Cloud, etc.) is crucial. FedRAMP authorization ensures compliance with stringent security requirements when handling sensitive government data, thereby meeting federal regulations for cloud services.

Key Milestone Dates:

• • CentOS end of support: June 2024
  • End of Life notices for Cisco UCM releases with CentOS:

    • • 12.5: EOL notice issued March 2023
      • 14.x: EOL notice scheduled for Q1 2024

Other Cisco collaboration applications and tools impacted include Cisco Session Manager Edition (SME), Cisco Instant Messaging & Presence (IM&P), Cisco Unity Connection (CUC), and Cisco Emergency Responder (CER).   

Cisco Customer Experience products impacted are Cisco Unified Contact Center Express (UCCX), Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE) and elements of Cisco Dedicated Instance (DI), to name a few.

Implications for Federal Customers:

1. 1. Upgrading On-Premises Infrastructure (UCM 15):
   2. Requires a well-developed roadmap to maintain On-prem collaboration environments.
   3. Address compatibility issues with Cisco phone firmware, routers, analog gateways, and potentially refresh old and unsupported endpoints and devices.

• • Transitioning to the Cloud (Webex Calling, Contact Center, Meetings):
  • Requires roadmap development with a thorough evaluation of existing voice service use cases and potentially business processes.
  • FedRAMP Moderate authorized versions of Webex provide secure end-user experiences for calling, messaging, and meetings, meeting stringent government security requirements.
  • Webex Contact Center Enterprise for Government operates as FedRAMP authorized U.S. trusted cloud infrastructure, providing modern experiences to federal and state agencies.
  • Cloud solutions remove barriers for government agencies by offering security, compliance, and trust, coupled with modern features enhancing operational efficiency and employee productivity.

Making any change to the technology environment supporting any government agency can be a complicated task. It can also create a ripple effect across the organization.  For these reasons, Presidio Federal recommends that both commercial and government customers should use a technology roadmap to strategically plan any complex adjustment to its IT environment.  Developing a technology roadmap can help an organization plan out the best way to introduce a technological change to the environment and technology consumers. 

Presidio Federal’s roadmap scopes typically include current state documentation reviews, existing future state plans, regulatory requirements, business goals and detailed workshops with stakeholders focused on current technology capability strengths & weakness, capability gaps, risks, goals for the organization, and proposed future state investments.

Here are a few benefits of Presidio Federal’s technology roadmap projects:

• • It provides a clear case for the technology change.
  • It identifies gaps in client goals against current architecture/deployment.
  • It provides a perspective on the implications of the technology plan.
  • It helps the project team stay on track during execution of the road map milestones.

Ready to get started? Connect with our experts today via Contact Us and ensure your agency has a smooth transition to the cloud.