CUCM Topology Question

hypnotoad

Ok, this might be a dumb question, but we have ~20 clients spread around the area who we'd like to all get running Cisco phone systems. They are all small businesses with ~50 employees maximum.

So the question is, would it be a bad idea to centrally host 1 CUCM cluster and have all their phones use it? In other words, we act as a phone provider for them (using SRST?) and keep their existing extensions/dial plans....

Could this be done using partitions/calling search spaces -- or is this a bad idea and we should stick to CME/UC500's at client sites and keep them seperate?

pitviper

hypnotoad wrote: »

Could this be done using partitions/calling search spaces -- or is this a bad idea and we should stick to CME/UC500's at client sites and keep them seperate?

Technically, yes (to BOTH ) - Using Partitions and CSSs you could effectively keep each site in its own "bubble" giving the phones access to their own site, the PSTN, and maybe you (for support).

I wouldn't do it though - If they are truly different businesses then I would keep each site completely isolated (CME/UC500). Plus if you are going to spend the $$ on gateways that are capable of running SRST, you can just run CME on them instead and eliminate the cost of the UCM cluster (and licensing).