July 14, 2023
All good things must come to an end, Avaya have announced that from June 2018 they will no longer support the CS1K, the end is finally here for a longstanding giant in the traditional on-premise PBX market. The CS1K, originally a Nortel solution acquired by Avaya, has seen a great deal of change and upgrades and has kept millions of users connected for a sustained period of time.
So just how many people are using the CS1k? This is a product that has been around so long, with so many iterations in a market where traditional telephony has been left as second fiddle to core IT systems and let’s be honest it’s been robust enough to survive. The result of course is that there will be a vast number of these systems, happily working away gathering dust, with companies simply renewing their support agreements and forgetting about it for another year.
However this announcement from Avaya moves the goal posts, where do those CS1K users go from here? Certainly considering the recent exit of Avaya from chapter 11 bankruptcy and BT’s announcement to cease delivering PSTN and ISDN lines from 2020, businesses cannot afford to have an aging legacy system that is completely un-supported for something that is so business critical.
So just how many people are using the CS1k? This is a product that has been around so long, with so many iterations in a market where traditional telephony has been left as second fiddle to core IT systems and let’s be honest it’s been robust enough to survive. The result of course is that there will be a vast number of these systems, happily working away gathering dust, with companies simply renewing their support agreements and forgetting about it for another year.
However this announcement from Avaya moves the goal posts, where do those CS1K users go from here? Certainly considering the recent exit of Avaya from chapter 11 bankruptcy and BT’s announcement to cease delivering PSTN and ISDN lines from 2020, businesses cannot afford to have an aging legacy system that is completely un-supported for something that is so business critical.
- No Patches or Software Updates to Address New or Existing Bugs
- No Replacement Parts
- No Technical Support or Troubleshooting
There are suggestions of hybrid solutions that are available to fix the CS1K problem, enabling companies to utilise the hardware a little longer, but with the shift to pure cloud solutions and all the benefits these bring it’s very hard to understand why you would opt for a hybrid offering (or any kind of on-premise solution) in today’s technology landscape.
Moving your communications to the cloud can be planned and executed alongside your current system in a controlled way (assuming the transition is made before failure of the legacy system of course); far easier and less risky than moving to another on-premise solution.
Cloud communications technology will not only solve the immediate CS1K problem, but will also bring a wealth of features that can transform your business and the way it communicates both internally and externally. In addition, it’s highly likely that you will benefit from a new cutting edge solution whilst saving money on your current OPEX costs. It is often the case that maintaining older technology costs more than embracing newer technologies, especially when business efficiencies are considered alongside operational costs.
If you are one of the many organisations still running the old, soon to be unsupported CS1K systems, we would urge you to consider the replacement process now. There is plenty of time to not just plan the installation but to also assess business short, medium and long term goals and implement a communications strategy that meets and exceeds them. This inevitably is an education process aiming to develop an understanding within the business of how new features offered by cloud technology can change the way you see your communications platform.
There is often a perception that moving your telephony to the cloud is going to be a difficult and painful process. This is not the case, it is considerably easier than moving your core IT systems.
Of course technology and features are important, but not at the expense of quality, ongoing support and product development. This will only be as good as the vendor you choose to work with. Today Unified Communications (UC) is not only expected but is the norm, however vendors that are really ahead of the curve are delivering additional functionality such as collaboration tools and even entry level contact centre features, all within a standard license. This cutting edge technology is available, as a service, ever evolving, constantly supported, typically for less than you have been paying to support your old CS1K technology.
Should you wish to discuss this in more detail please do get in touch. We can help you with the selection process, we work with you firstly to understand your requirements then determine which of our leading technology partner solutions best matches your requirements. This is absolutely not a case of one size fits all.