Mitel Communications Director (MCD) 5.0: Licensing, Scalability, Mobility

By Sandra M. Gustavsen
Analyst, Business VoIP

Mitel (News - Alert) focuses on key business challenges and customer requests, updating and improving its flagship Mitel Communications Director (MCD) with a new software release (MCD 5.0) that simplifies licensing for groups of MCD systems and expands the scalability of its virtualized MCD (vMCD) to handle 150-2,500 users (previously, vMCD scaled from 300-1,000 users). Mitel also introduces some capabilities for mobile workers and a new centralized hospitality architecture that supports larger, analog deployments. Read more below.

Mitel Communications Director (MCD) is the company’s flagship call control software and a single software package that can run on a selection of hardware platforms per the customer’s choice, either the Mitel 3300 Communications Platform (ICP) hardware (AX, CXi, MXe Base, MXe Expanded Controllers or MXe Server) or on an Industry-Standard Server (ISS) such as from Oracle Sun, HP or IBM (News - Alert). 

A virtualized solution, Virtual MCD (vMCD), consolidates voice and non-voice (data) applications on a single VMware vSphere platform. The MCD platform functions in single site or in distributed or hosted environments, targeting companies with as few as 10 employees to 5,000 using the Mitel MXe Server and can support very large organizations with as many as 65,000 employees by clustering controllers/servers.

What’s new for MCD 5.0?

• Licensing: MCD 5.0 introduces shared Enterprise System licensing such that groups of MCD systems can be combined into a single Application Group at the Applications Management Center (AMC) with one system acting as the Designated License Manager (DLM) that controls licensing for the group for easier administration.
• vMCD: Mitel’s Virtual MCD (vMCD) 5.0 adds a single vMCD instance that scales to 2,500 users (previously, vMCD scaled to 1,000 users). vMCD also introduces a vMCD for smaller businesses (150 users) with embedded voicemail for a convenient, all-in-one solution.
• Hospitality: Mitel adds several new capabilities for hospitality environments, including a new Industry Standard Server with redundant components, available from Stratus Technologies (News - Alert). Also, MCD adds support for a centralized hospitality architecture in which a single IP controller known as the Suite Hospitality Controller locally manages the call processing for one or more connected AX Controllers and associated analog devices (External Hotdesking is used to extend calls across the cluster to analog ports on the AX nodes). The central MCD supports up to 5,000 devices total and over 2,000 suites – all managed as a single standalone hospitality solution. Additionally, Mitel improves Property Management System (PMS) capabilities and introduces a Multi-device Suite License that allows six devices per suite with only a single suite license, as well as a new Mitel 5505 Guest IP Phone (News - Alert).
• Mobility: Mitel extends some RIM BlackBerry capabilities with MCD 5.0 by adding automatic WiFi/Cell Handoff (requires RIM MVS 5.1) and single button access (Join and Rejoin) to Mitel Audio and Web Conferencing (AWC) calls. There is also a new Bluetooth module that fits into the back of Mitel 5330, 5340 and 5360 IP Phones to integrate a Bluetooth headset with the desk phone (up to 30 foot range).

MCD 5.0 is available now worldwide for the Mitel 3300 Communications Platform (ICP) hardware (AX, CXi, MXe Base, MXe Expanded Controllers or MXe Server), an industry-standard server such as from Sun, HP or IBM or the virtualized solution, Virtual MCD (vMCD) on the VMware vSphere platform.

In related news, Mitel is planning improvements to its Contact Center Solutions (R6.0) that will include External Hotdesking for ACD agents. This integrates agents connected to a third party PBX (News - Alert) (requires a client application on the agent’s PC). Also, ISS deployments will support increased agent capacity up to 500 active agents.