This paper answers questions about Office Communications Server 2007 with specific regard to its integration into the perimeter network (also known as DMZ, demilitarized zone, or screened subnet).

The first section, “Commonly Asked Questions,” answers key design questions from customers about the initial stages of product deployment.

The second section, “Architecture and Networking Best Practices,” explores ways to prepare for the edge servers in the perimeter network, taking into consideration issues of physical deployment, ways to ensure a publicly routable IP address, firewall configuration, and load-balancing concerns.

Download the whitepaper at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E4A8D703-E41A-47D9-B9DD-2799F894AF92&displaylang=en

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We have released a sample toolkit that is designed to enhance the adoption of Office Communicator and  Office Communications Server 2007 within organisations using IBM Lotus Notes. This toolkit focuses on the following objectives:

1. Allow Notes users to immediately experience Office Communications Server 2007 technologies working in their own environment

2. Support Notes developers to quickly integrate Office Communications Server technologies into their own custom Notes applications

Download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4fee4f21-dd98-4a2f-bf8f-a17f4b85a06a&DisplayLang=en

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I've just posted my thoughts on the HTC Shift to the Windows Mobile Australia blog.

Toy?  Tool?  Maybe a bit of both :)

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I just stumbled across a great blog post describing the first impressions of Exchange UM by an IT Pro in Canada, after his hosting provider turned it on..

My own mail domain is actually managed by an online hosting provider that has recently enabled Unified Communications... and the other day they sent me an e-mail telling me that I could now set up my voice mail to forward to their server. 

With only a few steps it was done.  I forwarded my US cell phone to the number they provided, and was off to the races.

Read the full post at The World According to Mitch.

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In case you haven't heard the news, we have released Hyper-V into the wild.  In fact did you know that 25% of microsoft.com is already running on Hyper-V VMs?

So what about Exchange Server?

As we recently announced at Tech.Ed USA, Microsoft will be publishing a support statement with respect to Exchange Server on Hyper-V within 60 days of today.

Some of the more noteworthy bits of info from the session are:

• Within 60 days of Hyper-V's RTM, the Exchange team will publish a detailed support statement for Hyper-V, and a TechNet article with best practices.
• Customers should not deploy Exchange on Hyper-V until our support guidance is available.
• Early results show that performance of Exchange 2007 on Hyper-V is quite good, and that it scales very well from 1-4 processors per VM.

In terms of best practices and requirements, the following guidance was released:

• We're only supporting guests running Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008.
• We're only supporting fixed disks, and not dynamic disks.
• Storage should be on spindles that are separate from the Guest operating system VHD physical storage.
• Storage must be SCSI passthrough or iSCSI (with a preference of SCSI passthrough for queues, databases and log files).
• All Exchange server roles, except for the Unified Messaging server role, will be supported.
• There's a limit on VHD size of 2040 GB.

It was also mentioned that Hyper-V is a good fit when Exchange servers in branch offices cannot be consolidated to a central datacenter (for example, because of bandwidth or connectivity issues).

In terms of workload, not every workload is a candidate for virtualisation.  For example, server roles such as Client Access and Hub Transport can be good candidates, but a more heavy hitter like the Mailbox role (which often uses all available resources on a physical server) might not be the best candidate for virtualising.

So what's the really great thing about this soon-to-be-released guidance?

60 days from now is just in time for Tech.Ed Australia and New Zealand!!!

So of course will be doing a deep-dive on running Exchange 2007 SP1 on Hyper-V based on the official supported guidance :)

In Auckland this will be presented by Sandy Millar, Lead Architect in APAC for MCS; and in Sydney it will be presented by Mario Tevanian and Sander Valkhoff, lead Exchange consultants for MCS Australia.

So make sure you're there to hear all of the official guidance and advice.  The Auckland event is sold out, but there are still spaces left in Sydney.  Come on kiwis, jump on a plane and visit us in Sydney!  We've already committed to our USA speakers that the weather in Sydney will be perfect :)

(also, today (27th June) is the last day for early-bird registration which will save you $250!)

Register here for the Sydney event.

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Here is an update to the draft I recently posted for the Unified Communications & Mobility track at Tech.Ed Australia.

These sessions are still not 100% finalised - a few are missing and some names are subject to change - but this should provide a good idea of the kind of content we'll be delivering.

New Zealanders stay tuned - more detail on Tech.Ed NZ will be released in coming days....

There will also be some interactive "chalk-talk" sessions including:

• How to build an OCS Proof of Concept in 2-3 hours
• Unified Comms in the Real World - customer examples

What do you think?

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Yesterday I caught up with Roger Lawrence and Rick Anderson and we recorded a video discussion about Mobility Smackdown!, one of the most popular sessions at TechEd Australia.

Hear about the history of Smackdown! as well as what's planned for this year.  It's going to be massive - demo-offs, competitions, prizes, and best of all no Death-by-PowerPoint!!!!

Video: TechEd 2008: Smackdown! discussion

Smackdown always fills up, and although this year we've secured one of the largest theatres we still expect it to be full.  In the lead-up to TechEd keep an eye out here and at Roger's blog for information on how to secure preferred seating!

And of course stay tuned for more information on UC and Mobility at TechEd in Australia & New Zealand.

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Last week I caught up with Colin Lee, one of this year's presenters in the Unified Comms track at TechEd Australia and New Zealand.

Deeps was around and had his video camera handy so we recorded a quick interview.  Colin discusses some of the topics he'll be presenting this year, as well as his thoughts on previous TechEds.

Video: TechEd 2008: Chat with Colin Lee

Over the coming weeks I'll be chatting with the other UC and Mobility presenters about TechEd, life, the universe, and everything.  Keep an eye out!

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