Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony

Name: Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony
Brand: Cisco

Leader

We securely connect everything to make anything possible.

Est 1984|Valuation $449.2B|Raised $49.2B

LinkedIn 7.6M|Website|Web traffic 11.8M|FTEs 95,663|HQ San Jose, California, US

MarketsVoice & Video Calling (VoIP, UCaaS)

Cisco Unified Survivable Remote Site Telephony screenshot

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative competitive analysis

Strengths / areas of suitability - Most applicable when CUCM is the control plane and the organization already standardizes on Cisco IOS XE branch gateways. - Documented in Cisco reference architectures with published platform support and scaling guidance. - Security capabilities are explicit in documentation (TLS/SRTP; TLS 1.3 support in newer SRST releases for certain scenarios). Where competitors can be comparatively advantageous - Cloud-first UCaaS providers (Zoom Phone, Teams Phone) may offer survivability options that are operationally simpler within their own ecosystems, particularly for organizations seeking to reduce Cisco-specific telephony engineering. - Organizations standardized on Microsoft Teams may prefer Teams-certified SBA patterns rather than operating Cisco SRST/CUBE/CUCM components. Pricing/value considerations - Cisco SRST pricing is difficult to normalize because it is tied to hardware, IOS XE, and subscription/licensing models; public third-party prices are inconsistent. - Some competitor components (e.g., SBA license reseller listings) present clearer single-item price anchors in reseller listings, but enterprise agreements remain negotiated. Sources: Official vendor product and support documentation; Vendor survivability technical libraries; Reseller product listings and marketplace pages.

	Cisco Unified SRST	Zoom Phone Local Survivability (ZPLS)	AudioCodes Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) for Teams Direct Routing
Starting Price	Quote-based (licenses + IOS XE platform + support); public pricing varies across channels	Not published as a simple public SKU; typically sold as part of Zoom Node / enterprise services	Reseller listings show virtual appliance license pricing; enterprise pricing varies
Most applicable to	Organizations using CUCM / Cisco branch gateway infrastructure that need WAN-outage continuity and local PSTN/E911	Zoom Phone customers requiring intra-site calling survivability when cloud is unreachable; integration with SBC typically required for PSTN	Teams Phone/Direct Routing customers needing local resiliency via certified SBA patterns
Key Strength	Integration with CUCM architectures; documented survivability design; security features for SRST (TLS/SRTP)	Survivability model for cloud-unreachable scenarios; designed to operate within Zoom ecosystem	Designed for Teams Direct Routing resiliency; Microsoft certification ecosystem; purpose-built survivability appliance
Key Weakness	Operational complexity (dial plan, certificates, IOS XE); licensing and administrative overhead; limited feature set versus full CUCM	Depends on local network and PSTN integration; PSTN survivability requires SBC integration and design	Additional appliance to manage; pricing and operational integration considerations; dependence on local PSTN/SBC design

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative competitive analysis

Strengths / areas of suitability

Most applicable when CUCM is the control plane and the organization already standardizes on Cisco IOS XE branch gateways.
Documented in Cisco reference architectures with published platform support and scaling guidance.
Security capabilities are explicit in documentation (TLS/SRTP; TLS 1.3 support in newer SRST releases for certain scenarios).

Where competitors can be comparatively advantageous

Cloud-first UCaaS providers (Zoom Phone, Teams Phone) may offer survivability options that are operationally simpler within their own ecosystems, particularly for organizations seeking to reduce Cisco-specific telephony engineering.
Organizations standardized on Microsoft Teams may prefer Teams-certified SBA patterns rather than operating Cisco SRST/CUBE/CUCM components.

Pricing/value considerations

Cisco SRST pricing is difficult to normalize because it is tied to hardware, IOS XE, and subscription/licensing models; public third-party prices are inconsistent.
Some competitor components (e.g., SBA license reseller listings) present clearer single-item price anchors in reseller listings, but enterprise agreements remain negotiated.

Sources: Official vendor product and support documentation; Vendor survivability technical libraries; Reseller product listings and marketplace pages.

	Cisco Unified SRST	Zoom Phone Local Survivability (ZPLS)	AudioCodes Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) for Teams Direct Routing
Starting Price	Quote-based (licenses + IOS XE platform + support); public pricing varies across channels	Not published as a simple public SKU; typically sold as part of Zoom Node / enterprise services	Reseller listings show virtual appliance license pricing; enterprise pricing varies
Most applicable to	Organizations using CUCM / Cisco branch gateway infrastructure that need WAN-outage continuity and local PSTN/E911	Zoom Phone customers requiring intra-site calling survivability when cloud is unreachable; integration with SBC typically required for PSTN	Teams Phone/Direct Routing customers needing local resiliency via certified SBA patterns
Key Strength	Integration with CUCM architectures; documented survivability design; security features for SRST (TLS/SRTP)	Survivability model for cloud-unreachable scenarios; designed to operate within Zoom ecosystem	Designed for Teams Direct Routing resiliency; Microsoft certification ecosystem; purpose-built survivability appliance
Key Weakness	Operational complexity (dial plan, certificates, IOS XE); licensing and administrative overhead; limited feature set versus full CUCM	Depends on local network and PSTN integration; PSTN survivability requires SBC integration and design	Additional appliance to manage; pricing and operational integration considerations; dependence on local PSTN/SBC design