Johann's Unified Communications : interop

HP and Microsoft Expand Alliance in Unified Communications and Collaboration

jkruse — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:42:30 GMT

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 development, professional services, as well as joint sales and marketing, to help organizations lower cost and improve productivity.

The end-to-end solution, which is planned to span software, hardware, networking and services would enable customers to improve business output and reduce travel, telecom and IT operating costs. This would be accomplished by streamlining communications across messaging, video and voice with connected applications and devices. HP and Microsoft also plan to provide the flexibility and control customers need to manage their communications infrastructure efficiently.

Product development and integration

The two companies will form joint teams to collaborate on products and services development across Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Office Communications Server, as well as HP ProCurve networking products.
HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for the HP dx9000 TouchSmart Business PC and select smartphones.
HP will obtain Microsoft Unified Communications qualification for new IP desk phones.
HP Business Technology Optimization (BTO) software will provide additional support for Microsoft Office Communications Server, including the ability to provide real-time quality of service metrics for the voice and video network over the IP infrastructure.
The two companies will provide end point interoperability with HP Halo Telepresence Solutions and Microsoft Office Communications Server-based unified conferencing, enabling remote participants at any Microsoft Office Communication Server-enabled PC to join telepresence conferences.

Professional services

Microsoft and HP will offer a full set of business productivity services ranging from assessment, architecture planning and design to implementation, monitoring, management and support for software, hardware, network, server, storage and infrastructure components in the shared portfolio.
HP will dedicate a global team of service professionals to support the joint solutions, helping customers achieve improved levels of network availability and response times.
HP and Microsoft will also target communications service providers, offering them the same technologies and services to enable hosted unified communications and collaboration services for small to medium-sized businesses.
HP and Microsoft will provide services for customers who seek to run their technology on-premise, fully outsource, or who opt for a combination of both.
Microsoft and HP will work together to address customers’ real-time collaboration needs using HP Halo Managed Services and HP ProCurve products.

Read the press release at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/may09/05-19HPUCGPR.mspx

Cisco UC v4/5/6 supported for Direct-SIP with OCS R2

jkruse — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 08:46:34 GMT

The UC Open Interoperability Program has been updated and Cisco Unified Communications Manager (aka Call Manager) versions 4, 5 & 6 are now supported for Direct-SIP connectivity with OCS R2.

This means that back-end integration can be configured between Cisco UC and OCS without the need for a gateway, and without requiring multiple client applications or softphones to be installed on the desktop.

Office Communicator can make/receive phonecalls using Cisco UC as a “PSTN gateway”, but without the need for client plug-ins which can cause version incompatibilities.

So mobile/remote users get the advantages of software-based wideband audio/video/conferencing with VPN-less access via the OCS Edge Server (without requiring an ASA or the associated remote-client licences), and people at their desk can still use their Cisco “hard-phones”.

IP-PBX Vendor	Tested Product	Supported Configuration	Software Versions Tested	OCS 2007 R2	OCS 2007
Cisco	Cisco Unified Communications Manager	Direct SIP	4.2(3)_SR3a
			4.2(3)_SR4b
			5.1(1b)
			5.1(3e)
			6.1(1b)
			6.1(3a)

Known Limitations:

The PRACK message sent by CUCM 4.2(3) is malformed by missing the MAXFORWARDS header. As a result, this configuration requires PRACK to be disabled. By default, PRACK is disabled in CUCM 4.2(3)

For Office Communications Server 2007, this support requires update package for Communications Server 2007 Mediation Server: August 2008 .

OCS 2007 may not appropriately normalize the PAI in the 200 OK or UPDATE, resulting in OC displaying a non RFC3966 formatted global number and in failed RNL on OC. When calling from OC 2007 to a Cisco phone number, after the caller gets connected, the name of the person on the Cisco phone may not be shown on Communicator, and instead OC may display the E.164 number (without a "+") for the person on the Cisco phone. This is resolved in OCS 2007 R2

When calling from OC 2007 to a Cisco phone number, where the Cisco extension is disconnected or out of service, the Cisco IP-PBX may not notify OC 2007 in a timely manner. This has been remediated in OCS 2007 R2.

More information and updates at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb735838.aspx#direct, and example configuration for Call Manager 4 at http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/09/30/302.aspx

Microsoft, IBM Announce Inter-Domain Presence Federation

jkruse — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:39:08 GMT

News from VoiceCon San Francisco, over at No Jitter…

http://www.nojitter.com/blog/archives/2008/11/microsoft_ibm_a.html

OCS 2007 Video-conferencing Interoperability White Paper

jkruse — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:11:52 GMT

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 with video-conferencing hardware vendors such as TANDBERG or Polycom.

Providing interoperability between Office Communications Server 2007 and video-conferencing vendors allows you to take advantage of your existing video-conferencing hardware investment while extending video-conferencing features to other users with minimal hardware investment and user training. The users that attend conferences using dedicated video-conferencing hardware can schedule meetings and determine attendee availability using familiar tools, such as Microsoft Office Outlook or Office Communicator 2007.

Download the whitepaper and get more info at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/cc836454.aspx

Direct SIP connectivity with OCS and Cisco UCM v4.2, 5.1 and 6.1

jkruse — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:36:30 GMT

Cisco Unified Communications Manager (aka CallManager) version 4.2, 5.1 and 6.1 (specific version/release below) is now certified for Direct SIP connectivity with Office Communications Server.

Direct SIP allows connectivity between the OCS mediation server and the Cisco IP-PBX without the need for a gateway, meaning that Office Communicator users can be enabled for Enterprise Voice (i.e. Office Communicator is a full soft-phone, not just click-to-call or RCC) without significant upgrades or hardware replacements.

More detail at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb735838.aspx

IP-PBX Vendor

Tested Product

Qualification Level

Software Version Tested

Vendor’s Web site

Cisco

Cisco Unified Communications Manager

Direct SIP

4.2[3]sr3a

5.1.3.3000-5 & 5.1.3.1000-12

6.1.1.3000-2

(requires update package for Communications Server 2007 Mediation Server: August 2008)

Cisco

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Cisco and Microsoft CEOs Share Vision for the Future of the Industry

jkruse — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 03:08:12 GMT

NEW YORK - Aug. 20, 2007 -- Participating in discussions today in New York, Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will share their views on the future of technology and discuss their plans to strengthen their collaboration to meet customer demands for improved interoperability between the network and software solutions that the two companies provide.

Today’s events include a discussion between Chambers and Ballmer, moderated by television interviewer and journalist Charlie Rose, and an executive roundtable where the two CEOs will sit down with CIOs from leading enterprise companies to better understand how Microsoft and Cisco can work together to help businesses succeed. As part of today’s discussions, the CEOs will talk about the four industry trends that customers are asking the two companies to address and they will highlight seven specific technology initiatives where Cisco and Microsoft will focus their efforts.

Read the transcript here, the Q&A here, or watch the webcast here.

Technorati Tags: uc, cisco, interop, webcast

Unified Messaging PBX Configuration notes for Cisco Call Manager (preview)

jkruse — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:23:00 GMT

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging PBX Configuration Note for Cisco Call Manager 4.1 (Preview)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=16fb1346-6b8f-47b0-8961-c05ccde0a88a&DisplayLang=en

This PBX configuration note (preview) contains information about deploying Exchange 2007 UM with a Cisco Call Manager 4.1 using direct SIP connection. You can use it to help decide if Exchange 2007 UM is the appropriate solution for your organization.

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging PBX Configuration Note for Cisco Call Manager 5.1 (Preview)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=86b2b1a1-ffc3-459d-b2ce-58f5b160047e&DisplayLang=en

This PBX configuration note (preview) contains information about deploying Exchange 2007 UM with a Cisco Call Manager 5.1 using direct SIP connection. You can use it to help decide if Exchange 2007 UM is the appropriate solution for your organization.