It’s not every day that four highly regarded Lync consultants pool their expertise to provide in-the-trenches guidance for all aspects of Lync planning, integration, deployment, and administration. But that day has arrived with the release of Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Unleashed, by primary authors Alex Lewis, David Ross, Randy Wintle, and Tom Pacyk. Plus a chapter from Tom Arbuthnot.

Author: Susan S. Bradley, Microsoft Senior Content Project Manager

Published: April 17, 2013

Product version: Lync Server 2013

This may well be the Lync Book of the Year. It’s being touted as “The most comprehensive, realistic, and useful guide to Microsoft Lync Server 2013, today's leading Unified Communications system.”

And while I don’t usually take such marketing hyperbole too literally, this group of authors gives me pause. Simply put, they are a powerhouse of Lync knowledge and real-life experience planning, integrating, deploying, and administering Lync Server for companies around the globe. Reading their bios on Amazon is actually a humbling (as well as uplifting) experience. When these Lync experts speak, people in the Lync world LISTEN. Three of the authors are Lync Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs)  the most prestigious acknowledgement of merit and influence that Microsoft bestows.

 

And it’s not every day that FOUR (+ONE makes FIVE) highly regarded Lync consultants pool their expertise to provide in-the-trenches guidance for all aspects of Lync planning, integration, deployment and administration. But that day has arrived with the release of Microsoft Lync Server 2013 Unleashed, by primary authors Alex Lewis, David Ross, Randy Wintle, and Tom Pacyk. Plus chapter author Tom Arbuthnot.

This ground-breaking book makes a solid case for how Lync Server 2013 represents a powerful leap beyond earlier unified communications platforms. The book details and gives real-world guidance on all aspects of Lync Server functionality, including audio/video conferencing, instant messaging, IP voice, and web conferencing.

It’s a treasure trove of theory, step-by-step configuration instructions, and best practices from actual enterprise environments. It identifies common mistakes and presents proven solutions and workarounds.

Plus, this edition contains an entirely new section on Office 365 and Lync Online, including a full chapter covering coexistence between on-premise and Office 365 Lync deployments, and another chapter introducing Lync online configuration and administration.

Be sure to check out the pointers below to interviews with most of these authors, plus pointers to their own blogs.

 Susan S. Bradley has been at Microsoft for 13 years. With a Wild and Wooly Band of Lync product experts, she leads the NextHop Community team, which includes @DrRez on FaceBook and Twitter. She also led the team that produced the award-winning Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Resource Kit (Society for Technical Communications 2009 Distinguished Technical Communication and Best of Show awards). 

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Keywords: Lync Server 2013, Lync book