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#Exchange 2010 and #HP deliver large low cost mailboxes with ease. Read more at http://bit.ly/fyxJck

This document outlines a series of best practice recommendations for running Lync Server 2010 in a virtualized environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2905FD33-E29C-4709-A012-E55EA8DB63E4&displaylang=en

In case you weren’t aware…

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Best Practices Analyzer is designed for administrators who want to determine the overall health of their Lync Server environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=030548df-0dc7-4f86-b8a9-2f5ec8de8ba5&displaylang=en

IMGROUP and Microsoft partner to explain Office 365 and online messaging

Launching in 2011, Microsoft Office 365 brings familiar Office desktop software and Office Web Apps together in the Cloud for the first time, combining Lync with Microsoft Online Services products like SharePoint and Exchange. Office 365 is designed to work for organisations large and small, transforming the way you work and making it easier for people to connect to co-workers, partners, clients and the information that keeps your business moving forward.

http://www.imgroup.com/events/detail.aspx?eventid=365tvp144

If your interested in understanding how to go about configuring single sign on using ADFSv2 have a look at this video Steve Plank did.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/plankytronixx/archive/2011/01/24/video-screencast-complete-setup-details-for-federated-identity-access-from-on-premise-ad-to-office-365.aspx

Interesting read from Julia White: http://blogs.technet.com/b/uc/archive/2011/01/23/don-t-be-the-last-company-on-notes.aspx

This put a smile on my face:

http://miercom.com/microsoft

Miercom did some load testing with the Lync, and had the following to say about it:
"Microsoft Lync Server 2010 passed an aggressive SIP Load Torture Test without dropping any calls or reporting errors in the 4,000,000 call attrition test. This sustained operation without error is the best we have seen to date for any Unified Communications / IP PBX product we have tested".

This guide gives an overview of what prospective buyers need to consider when evaluating their move to a cloud productivity solution. It outlines cloud-computing momentum, describes Microsoft’s cloud vision, provides a summary of “cloud principles,” and addresses key customer decision criteria. In addition, the resource includes numerous customer examples and reference quotes.

Office 365 Buyer’s Guide for the Enterprise

I was forwarded this link earlier and thought it very useful to explain how you can communication enable business processes.

Neat.

http://cdn-smooth.ms-studiosmedia.com/events/Lync/en-us/CEBPdemo.wmv

Best mail server

Microsoft Exchange 2010 continues Redmond's longstanding market leadership in mail servers and related software. This release shows why the company's once-reviled product continues to be deployed widely in enterprises: it works, it scales, and it continues to gain important new features. In our tests, we saw improved management, administration, and reliability features plus an enhanced experience for users that includes automatic transcription of voicemails, delivery reports for messages, and extensive self-service options. Although light on wholesale changes and heavy on refinements, Exchange 2010 is nevertheless a major step up from Exchange 2007.

http://www.infoworld.com/d/infoworld/infoworlds-2011-technology-the-year-award-winners-285&current=9&last=8#slideshowTop

The Exchange Team has just blogged about the capability of having your primary Exchange 2010 mailbox on-premises but with your personal archive in the cloud. It’s neat. I’ll expand on this topic a little more as and when Office 365 functionality becomes more publically available.

Take a look: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2011/01/10/457525.aspx

Content and Code are running an event on the 10th Feb : Office 365 Sneak Peak. If your interested details below:

“Come and join us to see the soon to be released Office 365 in action and learn how your business can save time, money and free up valued resources. 
Microsoft Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, helping to save time, money and free up valued resources. Microsoft Office 365 brings together cloud versions of our most trusted communications and collaboration products with the latest version of our desktop suite, and includes: Microsoft Office, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online.
Register now for this exclusive free event. 
The event will cover:
•  Microsoft Office 365 overview and demos
•  Advised migration and co-existence strategies
•  Security and authentication considerations
•  How to prepare your business for Office 365”

We now have a separate UC OIP page for Lync 2010 listing qualified Lync gateways, SBAs and IP-PBXs. 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/gg131938.aspx#tab=3

If your interested in why certain decisions were made around mailbox size, archiving, high availability and general interesting stuff about Exchange from customers from this years TechEd – take a look at the video’s and comments with Perry:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2011/01/06/457474.aspx

If your interested in new gadgets and what’s coming to the consumer over the next year or so from Microsoft, then Steve Ballmer will be presenting at CES tomorrow.

Further details here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/

The Infrastructure Planning and Design (IPD) Guide for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 with Service Pack 1 takes the IT architect through a step-by-step process for successfully designing an Exchange Server 2010 infrastructure. Exchange Server 2010 supports a variety of infrastructure topologies that enable IT departments to deploy the messaging architecture that best suits their business needs. This guide will help organizations make informed decisions about the design of fault tolerance and scalability so that their overall requirements are met.

The guide covers these key steps in the Exchange Server 2010 infrastructure design process:

• Defining the project scope by identifying your individual business and IT requirements for a messaging infrastructure.
• Mapping features and functionality based on the defined scope to develop the appropriate Exchange Server 2010 design.
• Designing the infrastructure and role requirements for the proposed Exchange Server 2010 architecture.
• Determining the sizing, fault tolerance, and physical placement of Exchange Server 2010 roles.

Download all the tools here:

• Download the FREE Exchange Server 2010 guide (ZIP - 2.94 MB)
• Download other best practices from the Infrastructure Planning and Design series for products such as Microsoft Forefront Unified Access Gateway, Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V, SQL Server 2008, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, System Center, and much more from the IPD site on TechNet.
• Visit the Exchange Server 2010 site on microsoft.com to learn more.
• Check out other Solution Accelerators to help you solve your deployment, planning, and operational IT problems.

More details here: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2011/01/04/457429.aspx

Gartner released their UCaaS Magic Quadrant for 2010 just before Christmas and you can take a look at the report placing Microsoft’s current BPOS offering front and centre, with a respectful nod to Office 365 that will be coming in 2011

Take a look here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/itanalyst/default.mspx for the full report:

Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service, North America (Gartner Research, December 20, 2010). “Businesses should view UCaaS as an emerging alternative to premises-based UC platforms for improving productivity, processes and workflow.”

BT today announced it has certified its converged communications platform, BT Onevoice, with the Microsoft Lync 2010 Office communications server. By combining BT’s global voice and video services with Lync, business customers will have a suite of collaboration tools which delivers advanced capabilities and significant cost savings.

Full details here

For many years I have been asked about archive support for Outlook 2007 – this is now available via the latest Outlook update and full details can be found her:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/12/20/457238.aspx

This is really neat. The Exchange Deployment Assistant has been updated to include the migration and configuration requirements to allow rich co-existence between your on-premises Exchange infrastructure and Office 365 – Exchange Online.

Deployment Assistant has been enhanced to include rich coexistence information for those interested in maintaining some users on-premises and some users hosted by Microsoft Office 365 for enterprises in the cloud. This approach is different than the Simple Exchange Migration (SEM) and Staged Migration options currently offered by Office 365. As of now, the available scenario is targeted solely at those organizations with a current Exchange 2003 on-premises implementation, but additional scenarios for supporting Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010 will be coming. The coexistence information is also only available in English at this time.

Take a look here: Exchange Server 2010 Deployment Assistant.

Doesn’t time fly..!

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/12/07/457141.aspx

This poster shows each workload in Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software, describing relationships, dependencies, flow of information, and certificate requirements

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=ad8ff3fb-014e-4fd7-8003-436d896ab0c6&displaylang=en

Great to see a familiar face..!

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/office/servers/videogallery.aspx

The next generation of communication has landed

Take a look: http://lync.microsoft.com/en-us/launch/Pages/launch.aspx