No doubt there is a huge amount of interest from both the customer and partner space around Microsoft Lync in South Africa.  And rightfully so.  The product has matured into so many usage scenarios and received great reviews (see customer testimonials). Whether you’re looking to oust free IM tools (i.e. Windows Live Messenger, Skype, etc), reduce travel by introducing very capable virtual meeting experiences or even replace the PBX; Lync does it all.

However it can be quite a task to understand the licensing, integration and bandwidth impact. 

Licensing

There are 3 components to the licensing: Server, CAL and Client. There are licenses for public IM connectivity and external connectors, but you can see these at the links provided below.

  • Server
  • Either Standard or Enterprise.  Effectively standard does all the functionality, but you’ll need enterprise if you’re looking for high availability.
  • CAL (client access license)
  • There are 3 CALS that are licensed per user
  • Lync Standard CAL is for instant messaging and presence.  The simplest to deploy with the lowest network impact, but can dramatically save costs within a business and facilitate remote work scenarios.
  • Standard is always required as a building block for the Enterprise or / and Plus CAL.
  • Lync Enterprise CAL is for conferencing, voice and video.  This allows for dial in voice conferencing as well as web and video conferencing.
  • Lync Plus CAL is for voice, whether you use Lync as the voice server (full VOIP) or use it in conjunction with a PBX.
  • Note:  The Enterprise CAL Suite includes the Lync Standard and Enterprise CAL.
  • Client
  • The Lync client software runs on the workstation and provides the rich experience and integration with Microsoft Office.  The good news is that the Lync client comes with Microsoft Office 2010 Pro Plus.  I would highly recommend using this version of Office in the first place as it is required for the presence within the other Office apps (I.E. Outlook, Word, etc).
  • Some more good news is that you don’t have to have Office 2010 to use Lync.  It will run on previous versions of Office as outlined below and also run on Windows XP SP3 and up.

Lync 2010 and Microsoft Office Compatibility

Capability

Microsoft Office 2003 (SP3)

Microsoft Office 2007

Microsoft Office 2010

Presence in Microsoft Outlook To and Cc boxes

Presence on hover

Presence always displayed

Presence always displayed

Reply with conference call from Presence menu

No

Yes

Yes

Presence in a Meeting Request on the Scheduling Assistant tab

No

Yes

Yes

Reply with IM or call from received e-mail toolbar or ribbon

No

Yes

Yes

Presence in Outlook From box

Yes

Yes

Yes

Reply with IM or voice from Presence menu

Yes

Yes

Yes

IM and presence in Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel (smart tags enabled)

Yes

Yes

Yes

IM and Presence in Microsoft SharePoint (Outlook must be installed)

Yes

Yes

Yes

I found the following resources very helpful to make sense of the licensing:

Integration / other requirements
  • Active Directory
  • Windows Server 2003 native mode.  For all AD requirements please see this page.
  • Exchange Server
  • Exchange Server is not a requirement to run Lync. Although you get great benefits like rich presence when using Exchange in conjunction with Lync as well as benefits such as voicemail in Email when using Exchange 2007 or higher.
  • For integration with Exchange a minimum of Exchange 2003 is required.
  • Lync can get free / busy times for presence from Exchange 2003 (using MAPI).  Not all the features are available, like conversation history. Everything that uses “EWS-only” is not available with Exchange 2003.  A list of this can be found here under “Exchange Server Communication Interfaces”
  • For all Lync Server requirements please see this page.

 

Bandwidth

Another frequently asked question is around the bandwidth that Lync uses.

  • Here is the guide on Technet.  Please see the planning sections for the different solution areas.
  • In particular please see this page which outlines the bandwidth usage.

NB:  All the information in this post is provided as a guideline.  Always check with your licensing specialist when purchasing as information is subject to change.

Lync you later!

--D