Existing Customers Migrating FAQ

This FAQ addresses common questions from organizations migrating from legacy speech platform software to the current Capacity Private Cloud containerized architecture. If you have questions not covered here, contact your account manager or reach out to support@capacity.com.

Overview

Why did Capacity Private Cloud move to container technology?

Capacity Private Cloud is built on a containerized microservices architecture for the following reasons:

To provide a current, future-proofed unified stack with simplified access to multiple product resources through unified APIs.
To better support public cloud, private cloud, hybrid, and on-premise installations.
To enable elastic computing, giving customers more control and flexibility over ROI from compute resources.
To enable seamless collaboration between all speech and voice biometric products, delivering state-of-the-art capabilities.
To enable easier implementation for partners and their customers.
To streamline audio acquisition across multiple telephony stacks including CCaaS, CPaaS, UCaaS, and others.
To simplify the complexity of audio spanning associated with traditional passive voice biometrics.
To meet small, medium, and large customer requirements for this technology.

How does the migration benefit my organization?

The Capacity Private Cloud architecture offers users a more efficient and secure experience. Additional benefits include:

Faster models and transaction processing.
More accurate DNN models.
Transcription is available.
Text normalization, redaction, punctuation, and capitalization are available.
More ASR languages available for ASR & transcription, including Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian. The full list is available here: Languages Available.
gRPC is available alongside MRCP, offering higher scalability and more control.
Multi-channel audio handling is available.
Dialect spelling is available for ASR and Transcription.
Access to the latest product changes, including patches and security vulnerability updates.
Enhanced transcription, augmented by grammars for keyword and phrase detection, is available.
Neural Text to Speech (TTS) voices are available.
Access to our SaaS environment.
Integration with other Capacity products.
Additional capabilities including Sentiment Analysis, Intent/Slot extraction and Call Summarization.

What makes Capacity Private Cloud the right choice?

Capacity Private Cloud is differentiated from competitors in several key ways:

On-premise or cloud deployment options.
State-of-the-art DNN models offering superior accuracy and performance.
Dialect-agnostic models.
Grammar-based ASR as well as Transcription.
Enhanced Transcription option augmented by grammars for keyword and phrase detection.
Responsive support, unlike large cloud providers.
Flexible pricing models suited to a range of business needs.
Both gRPC and MRCP connectivity options available for integration.

Licenses & Usage

Will my software stop working when end of support is reached?

No, your existing software will continue to work and existing support agreements will still be honored. Please work with your account manager if you have any questions or concerns. Our goal is to make migration as seamless as possible for your business.

Will my software stop working when end of life is reached?

Legacy software has reached end of life. Older software is no longer being enhanced or receiving security patches, and once decommissioned, legacy software will stop working as the associated licensing and support systems are retired.

If this impacts your business needs, please work with your account manager so we can understand how to support a workable transition timeline.

What happens if I have an existing perpetual license?

Perpetual licenses are not available on the current architecture. Costs will be similar to existing maintenance costs for legacy perpetual licenses. Please discuss this with your account manager, who will be happy to walk through the options available.

What happens if I've stopped paying maintenance?

Maintenance contracts provide a number of benefits, including access to newer versions of the platform and more direct access to Technical Support services.

Please allow one of our account managers to help you understand how the platform has improved and why it makes sense to migrate and restart maintenance — providing access to all features and security vulnerability patches.

Existing perpetual license users will be provided subscription licenses, competitively priced at approximately the level of legacy maintenance costs. Please discuss your specific circumstances with your account manager for details on customizing a package that is right for your business.

Is the software priced in the same way as previous versions?

We aim to maintain parity between legacy products and the current software. Flexible licensing options have been added to be more competitive.

Our primary goal is to make the migration process as simple and sensible as possible for customers and partners. Please reach out to your account manager with any questions, or if you are interested in exploring new product options including SaaS.

How is the software licensed?

Licensing works similarly to the legacy flexible licensing system, periodically communicating with the licensing cloud. Additional flexibility has been added based on customer feedback, allowing customers to select different products or language combinations using a pricing model that makes sense for their business needs. Please reach out to your account manager with specific questions.

Similar to legacy licensing, the system is required to communicate with the licensing cloud service to synchronize product utilization. This outbound connection uses secure HTTPS, typically once per day, and contains no user-identifiable information — only license usage metrics.

External firewall configurations should allow outbound connections to https://licensing.lumenvox.com via port 443. For environments without direct internet access, please contact us for details on how this can be accommodated for air-gapped and similar systems.

Technical

Why does Capacity Private Cloud use a gRPC interface?

gRPC was chosen as the native protocol because it was designed to support highly efficient, language-agnostic communication in distributed systems. It is better suited than REST for microservice-based architectures, allowing clients to benefit from multiplexing, high scalability, secure connectivity, and cloud-native design.

MRCP users still have the option of connecting with that protocol. By leveraging the underlying gRPC connectivity, the platform scales more efficiently — so customers benefit from this even without using gRPC directly.

API customers wanting more direct access and control can connect using gRPC, which offers capabilities beyond what the MRCP protocol supports.

Does this architecture support both Windows and Linux environments?

The architecture is designed around microservice containerization, which works best and is fully tested in a Linux environment. For questions about Windows installation options, please contact the support team.

How challenging is it to migrate from existing technology?

There may be a learning curve if you are new to container technology. Containerization is now widely adopted by all major cloud providers and large enterprises, valued for its dynamic scalability and self-healing capabilities.

The Capacity team is here to support you through the migration process. In addition to video and installation guide resources, your account manager is available to provide one-on-one support.

How long will it take to migrate my existing system?

We have taken great lengths to simplify the migration process with updated online documentation and a dedicated knowledge base.

Timing depends on your specific use case, including factors such as:

Number of products (ASR, TTS, Transcription, Voice Biometrics, etc.)
Number of languages in use
Whether infrastructure will be on-premise, cloud-hosted (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.), or Capacity SaaS
System size, high-availability configuration, and other complexity factors

Typical setup times range from a few hours to a couple of days. After the new system is running, you will likely want to run test traffic before applying production load — the amount of testing depends on your specific needs.

Can I install this software on-premise?

Yes, the software can be installed on-premise, in a private, hosted, hybrid, or multi-cloud environment. Installation guides are available in the Knowledge Base under Technical Information > Installation Guides.

Where can I install this software?

The software can be installed on-premise, or in a private, hosted, hybrid, or multi-cloud Kubernetes environment. Installation guides are available for on-premise Kubernetes, Kubeadm, Google GKE, and Amazon EKS. See the Technical Information > Installation Guides section of the Knowledge Base.

Do you offer a SaaS option?

Yes, a SaaS offering is available. Please discuss with your account manager or email support@capacity.com to get information, access, and onboarding support.

What components must I provide?

This depends on your deployment option. For Kubernetes deployments, prerequisites include MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ, and a persistent storage device. Requirements will also depend on your cluster and high availability (HA) configuration.

If you are an existing Windows user migrating to this version, please see "Does this architecture support both Windows and Linux environments?"

For more information on software prerequisites, see: Required External Software.

Do I have to buy expensive hardware and software?

Existing hardware can be reused, and the platform uses popular, well-supported open-source software components like MongoDB and PostgreSQL rather than expensive proprietary database technologies.

Kubernetes, with its enhanced monitoring, scaling, DNN performance, and self-healing capabilities, does consume more resources than legacy installations. Specific requirements depend on your use case. Please contact us at support@capacity.com to discuss your needs.

How secure is the product?

The platform uses secure TLS communication between components. TLS is a cryptographic protocol and the successor of SSL. Encryption is applied throughout the stack — both in transit and at rest. The PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) implementation manages digital certificates and public key encryption. Overall system and individual tenant security can be managed by the customer, including customer-managed keys that can be rotated as needed.

The only external connection required is the licensing service communication to the licensing server, which collects only product usage counts. See "How is the software licensed?" for details.

The SaaS offering is SOC2 compliant. Please contact your account manager for current certification details.

Do I require a load balancer?

No. Kubernetes has its own built-in load balancing. The platform also uses an advanced service mesh to optimize traffic and security within its containerized environment.

For MRCP deployments, load balancers are recommended for resiliency, as they are commonly used in contact centers. Multiple mrcp-api instances can also provide inherent high availability and resiliency. Specific configurations depend on your needs.

Load balancers generally fall within your own IT team's domain, but we can help plan for your specific architectural requirements if needed.

How do I integrate into the platform services?

Connectivity can be achieved using MRCP (if you are already familiar with this protocol) or using the native gRPC API. Reporting and management interfaces use REST endpoints.

For more details on the gRPC API, refer to the online documentation: developer.lumenvox.com. A Go SDK is available for you to consume.

What development is required?

If you use MRCP, no real changes are required. The mrcp-api connector functions similarly to the legacy Media Server and is designed to be as backward compatible as possible.

Using the native gRPC connectivity requires integration into the new APIs. For existing C/C++ API users, integrating via gRPC is recommended. Python sample scripts are also available to get started — please contact support@capacity.com for access to sample code and SDKs.

Can I get assistance installing the software?

Yes. Your system integration partner should be your first point of contact for technical implementation. The Capacity team is also available if needed — reach out at support@capacity.com. Note that depending on the extent and nature of your needs, a paid engagement may be required.

Additional guides and videos are available at: privatecloud.capacity.com.

Is there additional product documentation?

Product, installation, and support information is available at: privatecloud.capacity.com.

Additional integration and API information is available at: developer.lumenvox.com.

I'm interested in migrating — what are the next steps?

What are the minimum hardware requirements?

Hardware requirements are use-case specific. The Capacity sales engineers can advise on the minimum requirements to meet your need.

Is the architecture multi-tenanted?

Yes, the architecture is inherently multi-tenanted by design. From a security perspective, full data segregation is implemented between tenants, along with additional security features to safeguard each customer's data.

Whether you have multiple tenants or a single-user installation, the same software and configuration is used. Tenants can be added later with no additional changes required.

Do I need a logging tool?

The platform supports common containerized logging architectures, allowing customers to select whichever log consolidation or filtering application they prefer. Customers are not restricted in which logging tools or frameworks they use with Kubernetes.

Cluster logging levels (information, warning, error, debug) can be set during installation and applied system-wide. Individual deployments (tenants) can override the system default logging verbosity within their own settings at any time.

How can I monitor services?

The platform has out-of-the-box support for Prometheus metrics, available for each container. This does not require adopting Prometheus — the Prometheus standard is widely supported across most modern monitoring tools, so you can use whichever system you are most comfortable with.

The following video may be helpful: Setup Prometheus Monitoring on Kubernetes using Helm and Prometheus Operator.

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