Cisco Unified Presence Fundamentals
Authors: Brian Morgan, Shane Lisenbea, and Michael C. Popovich III
Softcover: 268 pages
Publisher: Cisco Press (June 2010)
ISBN – 10: 1587140446
ISBN – 13: 9781587140440
List Price: $60.00; Amazon: $48.35
Reviewed by Jeff Owen, Independent IT Consultant
Cisco Unified Presence Fundamentals provides an excellent overview of UC and Cisco’s view of the next evolutionary step; Unified Presence. The authors provide detailed, step-by-step instructions (with screen shots) for installing and troubleshooting Cisco’s Presence solution. However, this book was written for networking professionals already proficient with Cisco Systems and UC. The authors assume the reader is already familiar with several Cisco Systems and UC technologies/functions such as the Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) trunking and Computer Telephony Integration (CTI). Therefore, a considerable level of prior knowledge and proficiency is advised. (This reviewer recommends at least CCNP.)
This is a well laid out book that will be useful not only to learn how to install Cisco Unified Presence (CUP), but also as an ongoing reference. Divided into nine chapters, the book starts with an overview of UC and the CUP solution in Chapters 1 and 2, respectively. Chapter 3 provides step-by-step instructions for installing Cisco Unified Presence Server (CUPS) 7.x, the backbone of CUP, and its interface to a CUCM. Chapter 4 goes into greater detail about the combined capabilities of CUP and CUCM and provides instructions for integrating the CUPS with the CUCM as well as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and client configurations. Chapter 5 goes through step-by-step configuration instructions for the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator (CUPC) application; discussing the interdependencies between the user, desk phone and CUPC client. Chapter 6 goes back into a higher level overview mode and gives the reader some basic scenarios to better understand how CUP can be employed in various situations to benefit the organization. Chapters 7 first describes what Federations are, both intradomain and interdomain (including Microsoft OCS), and then provides step-by-step instructions to set up various Federations between the CUPS clusters and/or other services/functions. Chapter 8 returns to the high level overview mode and describes how Presence can benefit three vertical markets: Healthcare, Public Sector (e.g. education and other government organizations), and Retail. Chapter 9 concludes the book with a description of some of the available administrative tools for the CUPS and applications as well as step-by-step instructions to resolve several common installation and configuration issues with the CUPS, CUPC, and CUCM as well as the interdependencies between these three elements of CUP.
As can be seen by the number of acronyms in this short review, this book was obviously written for networking professionals already knowledgeable of, and proficient with, Cisco Systems and UC. That said, it is a useful primer, installation how-to, and ongoing reference for anyone serious about implementing the Cisco Unified Presence solution in their organization. Like VoIP, Unified Communications (UC) has arrived and is here to stay. The quicker your organization implements UC, the quicker you’ll reap the benefits. If you are a Cisco user, this book can help.
Jeff Owen is an independent consultant with 20+ years experience in telecommunications/networking and IT. He has worked in engineering, project management, and management positions for major corporations in the telecommunications, finance, aerospace, and IT consultancy industries. As an industry analyst for Datapro and Gartner, Owen authored numerous analytical reports published for international consumption. He can be reached at
