Unified Communications by Yann Espanet

This two reports helps you to evaluate the potential financial impact of Microsoft Unified Communications on your organization and how to better understand and communicate a business case for investing in UC.

Total Economic Impact case studies on Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Exchange 2010, and the Unified Communications Suite.

“The Total Economic Impact Of Microsoft Exchange 2010″ 

Microsoft has announced the general availability (GA) for Lync 2010 !

“Which means making Lync 2010 available to customers and partners around the world. We’re on track for GA and planning a worldwide launch event on Wednesday, November 17, 2010. We hope you’ll tune in here: http://www.microsoft.com/lync to watch live demos of the final product, see examples from the more than 100 new Lync certified devices and hear from customers who have deployed early releases of Lync 2010. The launch event, to be broadcast live, will feature a keynote from Chris Capossela, senior vice president of the Microsoft Office Division, who will talk about how Lync fits into Microsoft’s broader productivity platform, including SharePoint, Exchange and Office. Chris will be joined by a few special guests, including Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of the Office Communications Group and Lync R&D team.”

Source : http://blogs.technet.com/b/uc/archive/2010/10/27/microsoft-lync-released-to-manufacturing.aspx

Introduction

Lync Server 2010 follows the Server/Client Access License (CAL) model. Under this model, a Lync Server 2010 license is required for each operating system environment running Lync Server 2010. A CAL is required for each user or device accessing the Lync Server.
You can acquire Lync Server 2010 CAL as standalone servers and Client Access licenses (CAL) or you can purchase the CALs as part of the Microsoft Enterprise CAL (ECAL) Suite.
Lync 2010 is the client software used to interact with the Lync Server 2010 Server and is licensed separately as a standalone license, or available via Office 2007 Pro Plus and Office 2007 Enterprise.

Server Offerings

• Lync Server 2010 Standard Edition:
  Standard Edition requires that primary server components, as well as the database for storing user and conference information, be configured on a single computer.  Standard Edition is recommended for organizations that do not require higher availability through load balancing.
• Lync Server 2010 Enterprise Edition:
  Enterprise Edition enables separation of server functionality and data storage to achieve higher capacity and availability. Enterprise Edition is recommended for organizations that require higher availability through load balancing.

CAL Offerings

• Lync Server 2010 Standard CAL
• Lync Server 2010 Enterprise CAL
• Lync Server 2010 Plus CAL

See all details on this page :
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/pricing-licensing.aspx

Price comparison with OCS R2:

Server Licence

• Same price for the OCS R2 standard or enterprise edition.

Client Access Licence

A CAL is required for each user or device accessing the Lync Server.
You have three types of client’s CALs with Lync Server 2010:

• Standard CAL :
  Your basic individual license. It grants instant messaging, Presence, conferencing and PC-to-PC calls. You must purchase a Standard CAL before you can purchase an Enterprise or Plus CAL though.
• Enterprise CAL :
  This license adds in more conferencing capabilities. Multi-party video conference, application sharing, support for joining a conference with a PBX or PSTN phone…that sort of thing.
• Plus CAL :
  The Plus CAL licenses much of the voice capabilities in Lync. Like receiving calls from a PSTN line, call forwarding, and initiating a multi-person audio conference (Lync and PSTN lines).

Comparison of Features for Enterprise Voice Technology with OCS R2

Price comparison for Client Access Licence between OCS R2 and Lync Server 2010

Remarks:

• The price for Enterprise CALS is only $107 – as opposed to the $139 you needed per OCS 2007 Enterprise CAL.
• The Lync Standard CAL can be used for both presenter and attendees of conference including audio/video. In previous OCS R2 version, an Enterprise CAL was required for presenters of conferences including audio/video.
• The Enterprise CAL no longer includes making/receiving PSTN calls (Enterprise Voice).  For this you need a Plus CAL.
• The Plus CAL gives you the basic make/receive capability of Enterprise Voice, plus all the other voice features such as multi-party audio conferencing, all the new calling features (park, E911, etc.), delegation, and response groups.

The CALs are additive, meaning that you must buy the Standard CAL and then add the Plus Cal or the enterprise CAL, or both of them.

Standard CAL:

• PC-to-PC IM, Audio, Video and file transfer joins conference.

Price: $31

Standard CAL + Enterprise CAL

• PC-to-PC IM, Audio, Video and file transfer. Joins conference.
• Initiate/Schedule ad-hoc multi-party (3+) audio conference (including dial-out to PSTN and/or PBX user)

Price: $31 + $107 =$138

Standard CAL + Plus CAL

• PC-to-PC IM, Audio, Video and file transfer joins conference.
• Dial out and receive calls to/from PSTN  Improved
• Call Control, Voice Mail (Exchange UM)

Price: $31 + $107 =$138

Standard CAL + Enterprise CAL + Plus CAL

• PC-to-PC IM, Audio, Video and file transfer joins conference.
• Initiate/Schedule ad-hoc multi-party (3+) audio conference (including dial-out to PSTN and/or PBX user)
• PC-to-PC IM, Audio, Video and file transfer joins conference.
• Dial out and receive calls to/from PSTN  Improved
• Call Control, Voice Mail (Exchange UM)

Price: $31 + $107 + $107 =$245

It means that if you want to have all the features (PC-to-PC, Video conference and dial-out to pstn ), you need to pay 245 $ instead of 138 $….

Other Licencing needs :

• Other Offerings Public IM Connectivity (PIC) remains a separate license, unchanged from the current Office Communications Server 2007 R2 offerings.
• Additional Software are components associated with the Server license (either the Enterprise Edition or the Standard Edition):
  • Microsoft Lync Server 2010 as Deployed in:
  • Archiving and Monitoring Server Role
  • Audio/Video Conferencing Server Role
  • Central Management Server Role
  • Lync Web Application Server Role
  • Director Role
  • Edge Server Role
  • Group Chat Server Role
  • Mediation Server Role
  • Reach Application Sharing Server Role
  • Survivable Branch Appliance Role
  • Unified Communications Application Server Role
  • Web Conferencing Server Role
  • Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Control Panel
  • Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Web App Plug-In
  • Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Group Chat Administration Tool
  • Microsoft Lync 2010 in UISuppressionMode
  • Topology Builder
  • Administrative Tools
  • Microsoft PowerShell Snap-In

The major change is that the Edge Server is now included as Additional Software, meaning that you no longer need to license it !

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software delivers streamlined communications including software-powered VoIP, presence, enterprise IM, web conferencing, and A/V conferencing. You can implement these capabilities alongside your existing telephony infrastructure, while retaining rich operational control.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=29366ba5-498f-4d21-bc3e-0b4e8ba58fb1&displaylang=en

“From a platform perspective, Office Communications Server 2007 R2 allows you to build call control and call management services. OCS 2007 R2 also provides a federation feature to allow you to securely deploy your UC solutions in a Software + Services model. As an example, Jon Rauschenberger (CTO of Clarity Consulting) describes how Clarity Connect was built on OCS 2007 R2 using the UC platform SDKs and deployed using a Software + Services federation model.”

Integrating Office Communicator capabilities into your apps
Making conversations contextual
Extending Office Communicator
The OC 14 Managed API

With the Microsoft Unified Communications Virtual Experience, you can see first-hand how Microsoft’s Unified Communications solution can help you harness the power of software to streamline communications between people anytime, anywhere, free for 60-days.

NB : Use AALL in the company name if you want to test it with me !

See how it works

By registering for the Unified Communications Virtual Experience, you will discover how you can:

• Gain the power to connect with the right person, right now from within familiar, easy-to-use Microsoft Office applications ”with one click”
• Bring people together quickly and easily ”anytime, anywhere”
• Break down communication silos ”whether people are down the hall, across continents, or constantly on the road”

If you are currently certified on the UC Voice Specialization or plan to be, be aware that an updated version of the Voice Specialization Exam 74-924 will be available en of June this year.

This exam is designed to validate that candidates have the skills to design, deploy, and administer Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 (R2). Candidates should have experience with interoperability between Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging, and Active Directory Domain Services. Candidates should also have experience with network infrastructure components that support the deployment and ongoing management of Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

You can have more details on the Microsoft official page concerning this test:

Exam 74-404: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 U.C. Voice Specialization

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=74-404&Locale=en-us#tab3

It’s highly recommended to attend the following three days Course 50232A: Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Ignite !

Course 50232A: Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Ignite

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Course.aspx?ID=50232A&Locale=en-us

You can also use the Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 Training Portal to find some useful resources to prepare for this hard exam!

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/training/ocs.aspx