What is Microsoft CVI (Cloud Video Interop) and how should I be leveraging this as a Microsoft Teams customer?
If you aren’t sure what CVI is or you aren’t sure if you need it, that is probably why you are reading this post and looking for more information. And there a lot of confusing marketing messaging around what CVI is and its intended use.
CVI definition
Very simply, CVI is defined by Microsoft as:
“Cloud Video Interop (CVI) is a Microsoft Qualified third-party solution that enables third-party meeting rooms (telepresence) and personal video devices (VTCs) to join Microsoft Teams meetings.”
This can be confusing to some customers whom might not know exactly the technology that they have in their video enabled meeting rooms and are confused over where this fits into the entire Microsoft Teams roadmap. Things like Cisco room systems or legacy Polycom (now Poly) room devices are meant to use this CVI as a bridge while customers finalize their plans to get to the official native Microsoft Teams Room (MTR) solution. Some customers have mistaken the message and are told by others that since CVI is supported, this is how they are meant to use Microsoft Teams in their conference rooms or meeting solution, but this is not the case.
How this fits into the Microsoft Teams Roadmap?
It is very clear that in the views of Microsoft, the goal is for their customers to get to an official MTR solution and CVI is an intermediary step for customers whom might have some legacy systems that are still amortizing and might not want to rip and replace as that is sometimes a financial burden that customers aren’t quite ready for. They have defined those scenarios in the following manner:
Cloud Video Interop is intended for customers who meet the following criteria:
· Have a large deployment of meeting room devices and personal video devices deployment (50+ devices) that are not qualified for direct integration with Microsoft Teams
· Are supported by one of our Cloud Video Interop partners
· Want to retain the value of their investment in their current meeting room devices and personal video devices during the migration to a native Microsoft Teams solution
While Cloud Video Interop provides a great intermediate solution, we encourage our customers to look into our native Teams Meeting solutions, such as Teams Room Systems, for the long term.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/cloud-video-interop
Who provides the official CVI solutions?
Right now, there are 3 partners that Microsoft has certified as their official gateway into Teams for video, audio and content sharing. They are Polycom, BlueJeans and Pexip and each have their own mix of abilities they can offer, but it is still not the same solution as an official MTR and will not provide the same meeting room experience that a native Microsoft Teams Room system provides.
But with the announcement at Ignite that Cisco is now also a CVI partner means that Microsoft continues to expand their offerings and even be open to new partners to help customers adopt their native platforms.
Expanding the Cloud Video Interop (CVI) partnerships to include Cisco the newest partner to help customers use Teams meetings with Cisco Webex Room devices and SIP video conferencing devices in the meeting rooms, starting in early CY 2020.
Why get to an official MTR?
So why does Microsoft want you to get to an official MTR solution? Well there are features that they are bringing to Teams at a record pace. Do you know Teams is only 2 ½ years old? That’s how fast this platform has both gained adoption and have gained features.
Features like:
· Digital white boarding which was just announced and is currently GA.
· Proximity join from all devices and being able to transfer the call from a device to the room system.
· Teams content sharing
· These systems are purpose built for the companies that are migrating to Teams and helps users in that transition from Skype to Teams as the hardware runs both types of meetings. And now add Zoom and Webex to that list of one-touch join capable meetings and these systems are built for those adopting Teams.
These are all perfect examples of what have been officially announced in the MTR solutions that CVI systems will not be able to take part in and a perfectly good reason why you need to get to a native Microsoft Teams Room system for your deployment. A great video highlighting these features can be found here.
If all you ever want to in a conference room is have an audio and video meeting (circa early 2000's) then CVI might be a good option, but if you truly want to adopt and see the true power of Microsoft Teams as a solution and collaboration system, then the native MTR solutions are where you want to get to. I wrote a full article on No Jitter about making a case for moving to native systems found here.
Use CVI as your intermediate solution while your previous investment is amortizing but start looking into the MTR systems as if all this has been seen in 2 ½ years, imagine what’s coming in the next 2 ½ years.
WANT TO HEAR ABOUT MORE?
If you want even more detail and description, there is an audio podcast available here where Ilya Bukshteyn — Head of Product for Teams Devices at Microsoft, and Adam Jacobs, Principal Microsoft Architect at Poly speak about some of the announcements at Microsoft Ignite and goes further into detail beyond just CVI. You can hear how CVI fits into the Microsoft model of how to get to an official MTR solution.
