Case Study: Cerence — Migration from On-Premise SBC to Cloud SBC

Industry: Automotive AI / Voice Assistant

Locations: Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu (China)

Cerence is the world's leading provider of automotive assistants, creating intelligent, flexible and intuitive in-car experiences for the world's leading automakers. With deep integration with the car itself and the flexibility to bring drivers' expansive digital life into the car.

The Challenge

Before working with CTS, Cerence's China operations faced significant infrastructure challenges:

• 3 separate on-premise SBC devices deployed across Shanghai, Beijing, and Chengdu offices
• Complex E1 line management with local telecom providers in each city
• High maintenance overhead — managing 3 SBC devices was a "mess" for the IT team
• High operational costs from maintaining separate E1 connections in each location
• Lack of centralized management — each office had its own independent voice infrastructure

The CTS Solution

CTS proposed and implemented a comprehensive cloud migration strategy:

• Cloud SIP Trunk — Applied for cloud-based SIP trunks from China Telecom, eliminating the need for physical E1 lines in each office
• Single Cloud SBC — Consolidated 3 on-premise Audiocodec SBCs into a single Ribbon Cloud SBC hosted on Alibaba Cloud
• Full Maintenance by CTS — CTS takes full responsibility for SBC maintenance as a managed SaaS service
• Zero Hardware on Premise — No SBC hardware required in any Cerence office

Before vs After

Preserving Existing Investment: Polycom SIP Phones

Cerence had 10 Polycom IP 6000 Conference Phones that needed to remain operational. CTS deployed a SIP Cloud PBX to connect these Polycom devices to the new cloud-based voice infrastructure, ensuring a seamless transition with zero disruption to existing conferencing capabilities.

Technical Architecture

The final solution provides Cerence with a fully cloud-based voice infrastructure:

• Phone numbers in the cloud — All DID numbers are hosted in the cloud, not tied to physical office locations
• SBC in the cloud — Ribbon SBC hosted on Alibaba Cloud
• Full maintenance by CTS — CTS manages the entire SBC lifecycle as a managed service
• Microsoft Teams integration — Direct Routing connects cloud SBC to Teams

Key Outcomes

• Reduced operational costs — Eliminated E1 line fees and reduced SBC licensing costs
• Simplified management — 3 devices reduced to 1, centralized cloud management
• Improved reliability — CTS provides 24/7 monitoring and maintenance
• Scalability — Cloud infrastructure can easily scale as Cerence expands
• Zero office hardware — No SBC equipment required in any Cerence office

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