Supportability is available for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 member server role on a Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system.  Details at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982021

This is great news – NET are a strong UC voice partner, and SmartSIP will give them advanced capabilities like registering SIP phones to OCS.   FREMONT, CA--(Marketwire - February 4, 2010) - Network Equipment Technologies, Inc. ("NET") (NASDAQ: NWK), a leader in network and voice-over...

This poster of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 describes the traffic flow of protocols and ports used in each workload. Communications Server 2007 R2 supports the following workloads: IM and Presence, Conferencing, Application Sharing, and Enterprise Voice. These filtered views can assist you in...

Some great news announced overnight… Starting October 1, 2009, a PIC License will no longer be required for federation with American Online (AOL).  Customers qualify for federation with AOL if they have Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or active Software Assurance on their current...

A great tool for testing remote connectivity to your OCS Edge Server is now available from the UC Team. Check it out at https://www.testocsconnectivity.com/

Using backup and restoration procedures for site disaster recovery as described in the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation library topic Backup and Restoration , can entail some downtime for users. This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications...

We have released an update to Communicator Mobile that introduces some new capabilities, the best of which IMHO is “click-to-join” for OCS R2 conferencing (i.e. audio conferences and LiveMeetings). There is no longer any need to dial the # and look up & enter conference IDs and PINs – now you can...

From the OCS Team Blog …. Federation is an important goal for the Office Communications Server team and we are excited to announce several changes to public IM federation between Office Communications Server and public IM networks, effective July 1, 2009: The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity...

For the next few days you can download free copies of some MS Press e-books on OCS 2007 R2.  Simply sign up for the Microsoft Press Book Connection Newsletter for notification of offers, register, and download the selection of the month. Programming for Unified Communications with Microsoft Office...

Jamie Ryan, CIO at Aspect, has written a great post about the benefits of replacing your legacy PBX or IP-PBX with Office Communications Server 2007 R2. When I tell people that Aspect is the in the midst of a Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 rollout, they often ask me if we are really able...

The full documentation pack for OCS R2 is now available for download. The full set of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 documentation is contained in the download file named Communications_Server_2007_R2_Documentation.chm .  Selected, high-value sections of the documentation are also provided...

At Interop Las Vegas 2009 , HP and Microsoft Corp. today announced a four-year strategic global initiative to deliver an end-to-end unified communications and collaboration solution. As part of their Frontline Partnership , the two companies expect to invest up to an additional $180 million in product...

We are pleased to announce official support for server virtualisation for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. We are introducing support for both a fully distributed virtualised topology across several hypervisors and for a single server virtualised topology. These topologies are supported on Windows...

Updated for OCS 2007 R2, this white paper covers everything you want to know about Voice Interoperability with OCS.  Topics include Media Gateways, IP-PBXs, SIP Trunking, PBX integration Scenarios, Standards Compliance, Integration Features and Migration Strategies. Download it from http://www.microsoft...

There is a great post over at the OCS Team Blog outlining the steps required to configure a Direct SIP connection between OCS and Cisco CallManager 4.2.1. It covers the configuration steps required for both OCS and CCM – check it out at http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/09/30/302.aspx

This download comes as a pre-configured VHD. This download enables you evaluate Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 for 60 days. Start evaluating Office Communications Server today. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 delivers streamlined communications for your users so they can find and...

Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server (FSOCS) provides fast and effective protection against IM-based malware by including multiple scanning engines from industry-leading security partners and can help to reduce corporate liability by blocking IM messages that contain inappropriate...

Today is the official launch of OCS 2007 R2 ( sign up for the Virtual Launch! ). What’s new? Streamlined Communications Call management capabilities let receptionists and team assistants take a large volume of incoming calls and quickly route them to the intended recipients. Delegation allows executives...

Streamlined Communications Today, users face the challenge of managing their communications across many devices and applications, which negatively impacts productivity. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 streamlines the way users manage communications, enabling them to find and communicate with the...

There is an interesting article over at SearchUnifiedCommunications.com about how the tables have turned between Microsoft and Cisco in Unified Communications.  Two years ago the Yankee Group recommended Cisco, but that now seems to be changing. Quote from the article: "It's pretty safe to...

Massive storms in Brisbane recently left many people homeless, and in fact it was declared a disaster zone .         One of the people who had their home destroyed in this storm was my mate Bill Lockett from Dimension Data.  Our best wishes and thoughts are with him and...

We have rolled out a series of 6 videos showing the key OCS R2 features and the value those bring to customers. Check them out at TechNet Edge: · Office Communications Server 2007 R2 and the new Attendant Console · What’s New in Conferencing with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 · What’s New in Office...

News from VoiceCon San Francisco, over at No Jitter… http://www.nojitter.com/blog/archives/2008/11/microsoft_ibm_a.html

Research In Motion (RIM) have had a BlackBerry LCS client for some time, but in case you hadn't heard they have now released a client for OCS 2007. BlackBerry® Client for use with Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 allows you to engage in immediate interactive communication while...

Office Communications Server 2007 is the first Microsoft product to combine enterprise-ready IM, presence, video-conferencing, web-conferencing, and VoIP telephony in one solution. In addition, OCS 2007 includes real-time videoconferencing solutions running on servers in your intranet or interoperating...