Cisco Spark is no more as the company announces the convergence of the platform with Webex-- bringing about new Webex Meetings and Teams applications, a new Webex Assistant and the Share hardware device.
The company insists the unification is not a mere rebrand, since "significant technical work has gone into combining these platforms." For instance, the meetings come through a unified feature set, including roster, meeting controls and PSTN connectivity, and are joinable via either Meetings or Teams applications. Teams also supports a new kind of meeting dubbed a Webex team meeting providing a space both secure and easy to use.
All applications run on a Webex backbone IP network promising the best quality, lowest latency experience. The Control Hub supports customers using both Meetings and Teams, and offers a "significant jump forward" for analytics functions, while users joining meetings from SIP endpoints, Cisco cloud connected video endpoints or Teams app connect through the hybrid media service previously only employed on Spark.
In addition, Webex Teams puts all users in a single cloud instance. Each user has a single account, with no guest accounts, and B2B collaboration comes built-in. The system even detects and remediates any case of users sharing confidential information outside the company.
Finally Cisco has Share-- a hardware adapter turning TVs into a Webex meeting display available by end 2018.
