Office Communications Server beta coming soon

chlacy — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 21:16:00 GMT

Yesterday it was announced publicly that the Office Communications Server 2007 beta will be released this month. I have been working on the beta of OCS as a support engineer since December and I can tell you that we are taking unified communications to a new level. OCS 2007 will continue support Remote Call Control, but will now also have tighter integration with PBX systems. OCS will enable Voice over IP (VoIP) from the desktop or VoIP phone to then be routed to a VoIP system, or with a media gateway, go out the existing PBX system.

So, you say, big deal! Several other vendors have been able to do that. Well, mwe have taken it one step further. With presence integration in products like Outlook, Word, and SharePoint, you can now choose to click and im, e-mail, or call a person right from that spot. No need to switch applications. You are reading an e-mail from someone, you can now decide how you want to respond and initiate that action right from the e-mail. Add Exchange 2007 to the picture with its Unified Messaging capabilities and you have a truely powerful Unified Communications system. This means that telephony will stop being a seperate set of services. Telephony will start integrating and the telephone will start working for you instead of against you. Let's also note that Microsoft is working with some of the biggest names in the telephony business.

For more information I recommend you look at http://www.microsoft.com/uc

Microsoft's unified communications platform to the rescue!!!

chlacy — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:55:00 GMT

Microsoft has recently released Office Communications Server 2007 to private beta. OCS will be the replacement to Live Communications Server, which was first released in 2003 and has since seen a 2005 and 2005 SP1 version. So, how does this play in the unified communications platform? Well, for 2007, Microsoft has invested heavily to providing a platform of products that will help companies more tightly integrate their voice services. Essentially, Exchange 2007's unified messaging voice services connect with OCS which then connects to a PBX or VoIP provider. Microsoft has already announced strategic partnerships with providers such as Nortel Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, LG-Nortel, Mitel Networks, NEC Philips, Polycom, and Siemens. In addition to the server software, Microsoft is also developing a new version of Office Communicator, the desktop client software, that can handle telephony functions in addition to corporate instand messaging.

It is exciting to see a product mature so quickly. In 2003, LCS championed corporate instant messaging. LCS 2005 extended this platform to federated partners (not to be confused with Active Directory federation. You do not have to federate your AD in order to federate LCS). Now OCS will extend this platform into voice.

For more information, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/uc

Flight Deck : OCS unified communications office exchange VoIP

Office Communications Server beta coming soon

Microsoft's unified communications platform to the rescue!!!