Rob Costello : Communicator

BlackBerry Client for OCS 2007

robcost — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:53:34 GMT

How cool is this, now there's a OCS mobile client for Blackberry's.

Check it out here...

BlackBerry - BlackBerry Client for use with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

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INTERACT2008 Invitation

robcost — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:06:16 GMT

Corporate VP of Unified Communications Group Gurdeep Singh Pall has put out the invitation to attend Interact 2008 in San Diago, California, 8-10 of April.

This event will be both a great chance to rub sholders with the who's-who of the UC world, and a great chance to get some deep technical knowledge of the Microsoft UC product offerings. Content includes:

Forty technical presentations including:
- Planning Voice Architecture and Deployment in OCS 2007
- Sourcing, Deploying and Managing your UC Devices
- Microsoft Unified Communications for Developers: Building Communications into Your Applications
- Migration, Co-existence, and Deployment Strategies with Exchange Unified Messaging
- Automating Exchange Server 2007 Deployments using PowerShell
- Additions to Exchange Hosted Services Directory Synchronization and Reporting Tools
Hands-on labs to help you learn to deploy UC technologies end-to-end
Chat sessions with INTERACT2008 presenters
Birds of a feather sessions to connect on key unified communications topics
Partner Expo hall to interact with and learn about 3rd Party UC solutions

Check out the invite here...

http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/03/14/124.aspx

Technorati Tags: Unified Communications,Interact2008

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OCS QOE and QMS

robcost — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 05:53:19 GMT

Wow that's a confusing title for a blog isn't it?

So I've been talking to a lot of people lately about Office Communications Server and how they can take advantage of our Enterprise Voice features to provide Voice Over IP, either to coexist with their existing PBX infrastructure or to replace it altogether.

One of the first questions I get asked is always about bandwidth and quality, it goes something like this... "your a software company, how can you provide good quality voice services and not chew up all my bandwidth if you don't control the network layer".

So the discussion continues and we talk about the Quality of Experience (QOE) features we use in Office Communicator, and how we can natively support DiffServ with DSCP marking for QOS blah blah blah.

Well to top it all off now, we released the Office Communications Server 2007 Quality of Experience Monitoring Server (QMS), to enable IT departments to monitor voice quality based on information sent back by endpoints, such as loss/jitter/delay etc.

QMS is free, and you can get it here...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=09115944-625f-460b-b09c-51e3c96e9f7e&displaylang=en

If you want more details on Quality of Experience and our support for QOS, check out the OCS QOE guide at...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=05625af1-3444-4e67-9557-3fd5af9ae8d1&DisplayLang=en

Technorati Tags: Office Communications Server, Voice Over IP, VOIP, QOE, UC

OCS Virtual Labs on Technet

robcost — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:17:52 GMT

We've got some Virtual Labs up on Technet for common things you'll want to do with Office Communications Server, check them out here....

Technorati Tags: Office Communications Server, OCS

Unified Communications TechNet Update

robcost — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 06:53:28 GMT

To support the Unified Communications Launch events in Sydney and Melbourne (more details to follow about these events), TechNet will be running a series of Technical Readiness events across the country for IT Professionals wanting to learn more about the technology.
What will be covered?
Office Communications Server 2007 Deployment
This demonstration will walk through deployment of Office Communications Server 2007 starting with the planning & deployment guide, standard edition installation, user provisioning and entitlement, configuration, and finally validation. OCS 2007 will be the main emphasis of this demonstration. This session can be broken down into three parts. In the first part of the demonstration, we show the easy setup of Standard Edition 2007, this allows an organization to provide IM, peer to peer voice call capabilities immediately. The second part of the session will include an overview of complex installation topologies recommended for OCS 2007; this includes considerations for Enterprise Edition deployment, Edge server roles, various MCU roles, Mediation server and the Archiving server role. The third part of the session focuses on federation and public internet connectivity features of OCS 2007. This includes setup of Edge server roles for Public Internet Connectivity and Federation capabilities. It will also cover integration with Exchange 2007 SP1 Unified Messaging which enables an exciting set of features for end-users.
Mobility and Anywhere Access
This presentation will demonstrate the benefits of remote access and mobility features for Communicator and Exchange. The scenario will focus on how users stay connected and can work without interruption while travelling and on the go. Users continue to have access to presence and contact information and choice of communication options including mail, instant messaging, voice and multi-party conferencing. They can view documents and access SharePoint sites remotely. All these features increase productivity for the organization and are easy to set up by IT Pros. We will talk about implicit benefits of cost saving and lower help-desk calls.
VOIP Architecture
This presentation will describe to network managers and administrators the VoIP architecture of Office Communications Server 2007, demonstrate OCS’ superior quality of experience for voice and video, and describe the network requirements for implementing OCS in the data network. We will discuss Microsoft’s user-focused approach to quality with OCS, the core media stack and codecs used for VoIP in Office Communications Server 2007, and network provisioning for enterprise deployments of Office Communications Server 2007. The attendees will leave with knowledge of the advanced media technologies present in Office Communications Server 2007 and how those technologies relate to planning for a deployment in their environment.

Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Overview
This demonstration will walk through the feature enhancements introduced in Exchange Server 2007 SP1. The demo will cover a range of new technologies, from Windows Server 2008, Standby Continuous Replication and OWA 2007, to enhanced functionalities such as Mobility, end user experience and administrator management.

VOIP Topologies and Interoperability
This demonstration will expose administrators to the voice configuration and management experience in Office Communication Server 2007. We will walk through administrative tools, explore RouteHelper, and implement key deployment functionality such as dial plans, new site deployment, and least cost routing. The administrators will leave with knowledge of basic telephony deployment scenarios and options for more complex configurations.
Registration Details
Canberra Friday 16th November
Adelaide Thursday 22nd November
Brisbane Monday 26th November
Perth Wednesday 28th November

New UC Videos on ITShowtime

robcost — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 04:41:00 GMT

Two new videos on ITShowtime for Unified Communications.

Unify your Communications - http://www.microsoft.com/emea/spotlight/unified_communications_demo_unify_your_communications_a_practical_demo.aspx

RoundTable 360 Panoramic View - http://www.microsoft.com/emea/spotlight/unified_communications_demo_microsoft_roundtable_360_paranomic_view_a_practical_demo.aspx

Technorati Tags: Office Communications Server, OCS, RoundTable, Unified Communications

New OCS and OC Blogs

robcost — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:57:19 GMT

There are two new blogs from our Office Communications Server and Office Communicator teams, check them out here...

Communications Server Team Blog - http://communicationsserverteam.com/default.aspx

Communicator Team Blog - http://communicatorteam.com/default.aspx

Technorati Tags: Office Communications Server, Unified Communications, Blogs

UC Documentation Links

robcost — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 06:00:32 GMT

Over at the UK UC & RTC blog, hot on the announcement of the RTM of Office Communications Server 2007, they have a great list of documentation for Office Communications Server, Office Communicator client and Office Live Meeting. For brevity I'm not going to repeat it all here, so check it all out here...

http://mucuguk.org/blogs/microsoft_unified_communications_user_group_ap/archive/2007/07/31/165.aspx