So, you've decided to introduce a collaboration solution to your organization. You've thought about the benefits you want it deliver: flexibility, expandability, and interoperability. And you want the user experience to be easy enough for everyone to use - not just the engineers or executives.

Great. You are on the right path. But what next? Now it's time to become familiar with the components that make it all work.

Ciscohas created a collaboration core infrastructure that provides the intelligence behind the experience. It powers the industry's leading collaboration portfolio, which includes flexible cloud services and endpoints to fit any need or budget.

The Cisco Collaboration core infrastructure has four key components:

• Call control and session management
• Conferencing
• Collaboration gateways
• Unified management

These components form the foundation of a single architecture for unified communications and collaboration. It's this foundation that ensures that both users and administrators get the best possible experience.

Let's look at each component in a bit more detail:

Call control and session managementact as the "glue" that connects applications and devices in the Cisco Collaboration portfolio.  Product: Cisco Unified Communications Manager (UCM) provides the IP telephony functions.

Conferencing componentsdeliver video across diverse endpoints and devices in on-premises, hosted, and hybrid deployments. Products: Cisco TelePresence Server video-conferencing bridge; Cisco TelePresence Conductor for configuration and scaling; and Cisco TelePresence Management Suite for provisioning and scheduling.

Cisco collaboration gatewaysenable secure, yet simple, access to services to anyone, anywhere, on any device-inside and beyond your network. Products: Cisco Expressway for firewall traversal; Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE) for session border control; Cisco TDM gateways; and Cisco VG Series analog gateways.

Unified managementallows you to simplify management across your entire collaboration deployment. It helps automate and accelerate provisioning, perform real-time monitoring and proactive troubleshooting, and conduct long-term trending and analytics.  It also provides tools to assist upgrades and migrations, and offers centralized license management. Product: Cisco Prime Collaboration.

Deliver Value from the Core

When deployed, this core infrastructure approach enables you to deliver the most value across your organization. Support teams and individuals -both inside and outside your company - across diverse endpoints and devices.

Want to learn more about Cisco's collaboration core infrastructure approach or its components?  Read the Collaboration Core Infrastructure: Empower Your Collaboration Experience white paper.