Goodbye to my Avaya Environment :(

I’m very sad to say farewell to my Avaya environment.

In 1999, I left EarthLink Network and made the leap into telecommunications consulting. It was very scary – my wife and I wanted to buy a house and start a family. It was a risky move but I’m glad I did. I had a rewarding career and learned a lot.

In 2010, I began consulting for a financial company in Century City, CA. They had several small offices with an Avaya system in each. I was able to get the gig because I had worked with Avaya systems in the past. Over the next seven years, I worked with them to build an amazing Avaya network.

In 2016, they began to explore Cisco to replace their aging videoconferencing network. It was a compelling return on investment calculation. Due to the complexity of the video equipment, this client was using a video bridging service for 100% of their video calls, which resulted in huge operating costs. Naturally, Cisco was able to convince them to install simple-to-use Cisco video gear and they could eliminate the bridging usage fees.

As their voice consultant, I was not involved in the sales process. But from what I saw, I was amazed. As you read this in 2020 or later, you may not appreciate the genius of the Cisco’s sales process in 2017. They simply gave my client a VMWare server and a bunch of videoconferencing equipment. “Just assign some IP addresses and plug this server into your network”, they said. And amazingly, they were right.

The VMWare server had all the virtual machines necessary to have a working Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) network. A small tweak to DHCP options, and all the loaner video endpoints worked fine!

Say what you will about Cisco, and I was no fan at the time, but that was something Avaya could not have done. Of course it doesn’t hurt that the networking equipment and edge routers were already Cisco. It was a pretty easy sale – the demonstration basically sold itself. My client agreed to replace the videoconferencing network and hired a CUCM engineer to oversee the project.

I could see the writing on the wall. It wouldn’t be long before Cisco convinced them to replace the phones as well. Since the video infrastructure would also handle voice, it would be a no-brainer to add Cisco telephones and shut down all of the Avaya systems. And there was a lot of Avaya gear – and the maintenance and support costs to go with it. And, to be honest, I was the only guy who knew anything about it. Nobody said anything, but they were a bit exposed if anything happened to me, their only voice guy. I knew my days were numbered. I knew that, five minutes after the Avaya was shut down, I’d be politely asked to reduce my billable hours to zero.

Around this time, I got a call from a buddy I met while consulting. He had moved to a large healthcare organization and said there was an opportunity for a voice guy to handle the migration from PRIs to SIP. It sounded like a lot of fun, but it was a full-time job. Many times during my consulting career, I had been asked if I was interested in full-time work. But I always politely and humbly declined. I loved consulting. But at this point I was pushing 50 years old and going into “sales mode” and hitting the Los Angeles streets wasn’t as exciting as it used to be. I loved this client. I loved the people and the network. I like to think that they loved me. But I didn’t know Cisco very well. And they were filling up their network team with Cisco engineers. Alas, my future there as a consultant was doomed.

So, for the first time in 17 years of consulting, the idea of full-time work sounded appealing. Ironically, the healthcare organization was all Cisco. It was a long shot, but I went ahead and applied. It turns out that my friend’s recommendation carried a lot of weight. Also, my potential boss and I hit it off immediately. He was an old-school telephone tech and used to manage the outside cable plant for one of the Bell companies. My hero! And I knew SIP and AT&T IPFlex quite well. So even though I didn’t know the Cisco SBCs specifically, I got the job!

The new job was work-from-home. My client was 60-90 minutes away in Los Angeles traffic. I suppose I could have pursued a full-time job at my client, but saving 2.5 hours of commute time per day was a huge factor.

Unfortunately, my client wasn’t happy with the news, and they seemed genuinely surprised that my crystal ball showed no future there after the Avaya was disconnected. But I had developed pretty good prediction skills and was confident in my decision. I helped with the transition to a new Avaya contractor (several times, as it turned out), and gracefully exited the consulting business.

However, I knew everyone at that place and had all the credentials necessary to remotely support their Avaya network. I was always friendly, as available as possible, and never hoarded information about their systems. For the last three years, I’ve been trying to write up some of my favorite things I did in that network – things like

  • Automatically building labels on 9630 phones
  • Config extraction to a database
  • Automatic station configuration change and history reports (like, what was the extension we assigned that intern last summer?)
  • CDR processing
  • Tons of Perl scripting
  • Asterisk integration
  • Help Desk routing based upon an Active Directory attribute (this was done in Asterisk and then passed back to the CM)
  • Audio recording/playback for conference room testing (again, through Asterisk)

And through it all, I’ve always been able to connect to the Avaya network and look at the existing configuration. I’ve been able to capture screenshots to answer your questions here on this blog. I’ve been able to assist my client with the transition to Cisco by making small routing changes here and there to keep my skills sharp.

Alas, three days ago, on June 24, 2020, my SIP phone sitting here on my desk in my home office went dead. Actually, it just said “Acquiring Service”, which means my client has finally shut off the Session Border Controllers and presumably, the Communication Manager. While I did not expect the system to last this long into 2020, it is still an emotional blow to me.

My first PBX was a ROLM 8000. I cared deeply for that switch from 1990 through 1995. When it was replaced with a Siemens HiCom 300 in 1997, I brought it home to my condo (and wonderfully understanding wife) where I continued to love it as one might love a classic car in their garage. It moved into our garage when we bought a house in 2000. I finally disposed of it in 2010 when we converted our garage to an apartment for my father. That was difficult.

I’m surprised to find myself mourning the loss of this Avaya network in much the same way. I tended that network lovingly like a gardener might take care of a large estate. And now it has been deleted. Decommissioned. It happens all the time. But some of my soul went into that network and it makes me very sad.

I am also sad that I have no more Avaya network for you, either. I cannot simply “try it” when you have a question. And my Avaya skills have atrophied – I find myself looking up even the simplest commands that used to spring from my fingertips from muscle memory.

So begins a new chapter for “Roger the Phone Guy”. No longer Avaya, I will likely lose many of you. I have entered the world of Cisco. But perhaps many of you are also making this same transition. To be honest, it was difficult wrapping by head around Cisco. But I am teaching my new Cisco network some “stupid phone tricks” that I look forward to sharing with you.

Anyway, thank you for all of your attention and kind words for the last several years. I hope to share some amazing things about Cisco and perhaps even help to introduce some of you Avaya-heads to the drastically different topology and vocabulary of Cisco.

With affection,

Roger

21 thoughts on “Goodbye to my Avaya Environment :(

  1. Heron Leal

    Roger.
    thank you for all the posts about avaya and all the sharing knowledge.
    I wish you the best on your new career.
    a mind that expands doesn’t retract anymore.

    Reply
  2. Nestor Guzman

    Thank you for all the Avaya tricks shared here. I’m also in the transition from Avaya to Cisco and also my customer is thinking to use MS Teams as a phone system and exploring the option to use MS Team conferencing to replace WebEx.

    Reply
  3. Tom Lynn

    Sorry to hear this, Roger. We had them come at us at least 1/2 a dozen times, but that seems over now. Good luck!

    Reply
  4. Janos Tarjanyi

    You are a smart guy, and I’m sure you will be good at Cisco as well as you were in Avaya. Your personality not changed 😉 Thanks for to good tips it saved lots of time for us.
    Hovever my connection with the Avaya is still strong, but we (our company) are moving more fastly to Teams. After the virtualization the future is the full cloud service, and unfortunately Avaya is not a leader in this segment. However everybody know the trends they react slowly and the solutions are far from ideal.

    Reply
  5. Jon L

    Hi Roger,
    I’m reading your blog as I am prepping my resume for a Cisco CUCM job. My background is 10 years of Avaya CM and call center. I have been working my way to obtain a Cisco CUCM position. I currently practice daily on a CUCM 12.5 lab the basics such as creating device pools, DN, Partitions, CSS and other basic configurations.

    Do you have any tips on successfully transitioning from Avaya to Cisco? I’m starting to get the two mixed up at this point 🙂 It’s been challenging obtaining a Cisco position as a Avaya eng. I have earned a CCNA and practicing CUCM on a lab but it seems employers want someone with “hands on” experience.

    Anyways thank you for sharing your knowledge.

    Reply
    1. roger Post author

      Oh thank you for the kind words, Jon. I was fortunate that the guy who hired me was looking for “seasoned telecom engineers” rather than someone fresh out of CUCM training. I think 10 years of experience in call centers is more valuable than certifications. After all, we just route calls, right? A mechanic at a Toyota dealer should have no trouble getting a job at a Chevrolet dealer.

      Are you having trouble getting interviews? I would hope that, once you get the interview, you should be offered a position based upon your experience in call centers. CUCM and UCCE are so complicated that people may specialize in a particular area (that is certainly the case where I work) with little opportunity to cross-train. So even if you had been working on Cisco for the last 5 years, it may not be exactly what they’re looking for. Hopefully you can convince the hiring manager that a “telecom engineer learning Cisco” is much better than a “Cisco engineer learning telecom”.

      Good luck. It breaks my heart to see what is happening to Avaya. I am now an outsider so I don’t really know how they’re doing or how their new products are. They may be awesome and just what the customers need. I wonder if Cisco will ever go through this kind of pain someday?

      Roger

      Reply
  6. Brian Browne

    Wow! What a blog post! 3:45 am and I should be sleeping but like a really good book I could not put it down. You write well Roger.

    And as expressed many times over the years, your contribution to the Avaya Support community has been invaluable. Thank you so much for your selflessness.

    I think guys like you will do well anywhere. Its the mindset.

    Reply
  7. ivan ramos

    Thank you very much for the time you took to teach your knowledge, thanks to you I learned great things, good luck in all your upcoming projects

    Reply
  8. Charlie

    It’s difficult to come from Cisco and go to Avaya as well.

    I am glad I found this! I have been a Cisco Voice guy since 2008 and now have a contract with a hospital running Avaya CM 6.3. They are having me help upgrade them to Avaya Aura 8.X – The hospital is a complete Cisco shop aside from the G450/430 Gateways, Avaya servers and phones.

    I feel like I am starting over again using Avaya Site Administrator (definitely looks like it is from the 70’s/80’s) and the other admin tools. I don’t think the Managed service provider that handles their phone system has done a solid job for them. They have been on 6.3 since it came out and no one has ever used a softphone, sip endpoint of any kind, etc. They are paying $150K in a week to do a CM 8 upgrade. Essentially, they are just upgrading the software and said they’d be using the same configurations, etc.

    I asked the managed service provider and the hospital why they have paid for and are again upgrading things and not using them. Such as a session manager, Avaya SBCE, CM, system manager, CC Elite, the list goes on….(All virtualized – We are providing all the virtual servers, etc). However, I just don’t have the Avaya knowledge to back up my assumptions (seems like they are being oversold and under utilizing at the managed service providers recommendation).

    Just yesterday I got Avaya one-x communicator working for myself and it is the first time 99.9% of the people there have seen it at the hospital. Maybe I’m trying to fight an uphill battle but I hate doing bad business and I feel like going along with this upgrade and not slowing them down to make the right decision may be just that.

    On a different note….I can’t wait to look at all the resources, info, etc you have here.

    Thanks Roger!

    Reply
    1. roger Post author

      Thank you, Charlie! That means a lot coming from you. I cannot imaging the culture shock you must feel looking at Avaya after such a long time with Cisco. Yes, it’s definitely from the 70s/80s, which I find completely charming. I often wish for a real Cisco command-line for managing stations. But it’s just too complicated and not realistic. I think Cisco has done as much as they can with batch uploading, and APIs to let people script directly, but I suspect few people use it. So you have a lot of data-entry taking place. I could build dozens of Avaya phones or re-arrange the line appearances for a department in the middle of the day in just a few minutes. It doesn’t feel like you can do that with Cisco. But I’m not an end-user support guy anymore and I kind of miss it. I’m in the “Planning” department so I’m one of the propeller-heads behind the scenes. I miss interacting with users.

      It suppose it seems expensive, but $150k is no more than Cisco would charge for the same thing.

      One-X communicator! I haven’t seen it in at least 3 years. I hope it’s better now.

      Reply
  9. Mark T

    Roger,

    I’m a phone guy who started out in 1979. Started on 1A2 and boy how it’s changed. I too took care of some ROLM system for a local energy company. Anyway I came across your blog in the last couple of years. I took a position maintaining an Avaya 6.3 system about 3 years ago. It was my first Avaya experience. But you know a phone system is a phone system. Just different interface for the most part. I did have questions and stumbled across your blog on numerous occasions in searching for answers. It’s always been an interesting site. An actually last week I returned to your site. I had a site where they would come in mornings and some phones would not have a dial tone. Clearing the arp cache on that gateway fixed the issue! So I’m grateful for your knowledge and experience. We too are moving to Cisco. So I look forward to continue to come to your site for information. I’m happy to be moving to Cisco as I have past experience on it. That’s kind of funny about you bringing a phone system home. But I can relate. We have a passion for this business. It’s been a wonderful journey and I’ve seen some crazy things along the way. Congrats on your transition. Keep posting!

    Reply
    1. roger Post author

      Thank you, Mark! What an amazing career you’ve had! I learned 1A2 in 1991 from someone just like you. I was young and needed help with the Sears Auto Center phones. My first experience was making them “square”. Fortunately I didn’t have to deal with the ring matrix. Ugh! And I had plenty of spare parts since the walls were full of dead 1A2 equipment. Yes, amazing career.

      Until I met Cisco, I thought “a phone system is a phone system”. Even after four years, I don’t know if I could articulate the architecture and integration. I suppose I should try to write something called “introducing your Cisco phone system to a seasoned telecom engineer”. I think I’ll do that.

      I’m so glad I was able to help with dialtone. That’s our primary product and we must deliver. What state are you in?

      Reply
  10. Marc G.

    Howdy, Roger! I’m just checking in, it has been almost ten months since your last post.
    Hoping that all is well.
    Best wishes from another innovative & adaptable “Phone Guy.”

    Reply
    1. roger Post author

      Aww – how nice. Yes, I’m still around. Focused on Cisco. I am an employee now so my innovations are not necessarily my own. I must be careful what I share but I think I’ll get back into posting soon.

      Reply

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