| A blog on Microsoft Office Communications Server |
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Various sites have been talking about the forthcoming release of Office Communications Server, known as OCS 2007 R2. There is no confirmation of the rumour from Microsoft, and there are no details currently available regarding what updates or features might be included in R2. Bearing this disclaimer in mind, here are some of the "new features" reported on the various blog posts:
A dedicated telephony switchboard or “attendant console”
A new interface for group IM
64-bit Support: Its official now. The OCS team is now openly discussing the next release on their blog, and its confirmed that OCS 2007 R2 will be 64 bit only. Rumour has it that some components might still need to be 32 bit, like the Communicator Web Access.
“One number calling”
The Communicator Web Access will be upgraded to allow application sharing the within the web application
A Telephony queue system should be included, and will give people dialling in to the system, access to a touchtone menu to have their calls forwarded to the right department/person.
So, can we expect a BETA? There has been rumours of an public beta of Office Communications Server 2007 R2, but there is none out there yet. The current beta program is running as an TAP program (Technology Adoption) and is out there for selected customers mostly in the US.
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Microsoft is readying a new platform, code-named “Echoes,” that it is hoping will get more telco carriers to offer their subscribers Windows Live and other forthcoming Microsoft services.
According to Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley, "Echoes will provide carriers with a variety of services, ranging from a common network address book, to SMS in/out messaging, simultaneous ringing, click-to-call, single-sign on and more”. It combines Microsoft’s Live Messenger, with over the air syncing of address books with presence delivering a powerful unified communications platform.
Microsoft’s near-term goal with Echoes is to make the scaling and expediting of its Windows Live mobile service deployments easier. The platform — which got its start as an incubation under Israel Research’s Corporate Vice President Moshe Lichtman — is being spearheaded by Microsoft’s Israeli Strategic Development Center.
Phase 1 of Echoes will provide carriers with a variety of services, ranging from a common network address book, to SMS in/out messaging, simultaneous ringing, click-to-call, single-sign on and more. The word is Echoes Phase 1 will be shipped with Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger 9.0 beta clients until Microsoft releases the final Windows Live Messenger Wave 3 release in the fourth quarter of 2008. I have not been able to get any info on OCS Client integration plans yet.
Here are some of the features of the service according to Mary-Jo's sources ...
1. Echoes will assign a local mobile number to each Windows Live contact
2. Via its Address Book sync capabilities, Echoes will push these new new contacts into any mobile phone (no client required)
3. The user will be able to compose an SMS or place a voice call to these contacts
4. Echoes will ensure text messages are delivered to Windows Live contacts as chat conversations, and replies will be sent back from Messenger as SMS
5. Voice calls can be connected through Echoes directly from the mobile to the Windows Live Messenger user’s PC
6. As the mobile user will appear always “online” to friends (using Echoes client emulation server), conversations also will be able to start from the Windows Live cloud, pushed to the mobile as SMS |
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The wait is finally over - I received my invitation to join Microsoft's Live Mesh Tech Preview! At the last count, there were already over 10,000 beta testers. Once this number grows into the millions, Microsoft’s Mesh will likely become a one stop shop for online file management potentially edging out Google and co.
Live Mesh is a “software-plus-services” platform and experience that enables PCs and other devices to “come alive” by making them aware of each other through the Internet, enabling individuals and organizations to manage, access, and share their files and applications seamlessly on the Web and across their world of devices. Live Mesh includes:
- A platform that defines and models a user’s digital relationships between devices, data, applications, and people—made available to developers through an open data model and protocols.
- A cloud service providing an implementation of the platform hosted in Microsoft data centers.
- Software, a client implementation of the platform that enables local applications to run offline and interact seamlessly with the cloud.
- A platform experience that exposes the key benefits of the platform for bringing together a user’s devices, files and applications, and social graph, with news feeds across all of these.
For more information, go to LiveMesh.com.
For more Live Mesh coverage:
I have just added my first device to the mesh and plan to start playing around with the Mesh Operating Environment (MOE) via the currently unpublished MeshFX API interface. |
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I came across a useful post by the Communicator Team describing what OC can do for you while using other Office products.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Presence "Jelly Beans" - icons next to contact's details indicating presence information.
- Reply All with Instant Message from within Outlook (and Sharepoint).
- Fetching calendar information and the Out of Office Note from Exchange.
- Level of Access configuration to ensure that only selected contacts access your OC information.
Read the full article, titled "Office Integration – like Peanut Butter and Jelly (Beans)", at the source.
Communicator Add In for Outlook 2007
An add-In for Outlook 2007 has also been released - with full source code - which allows you to view and interact with your entire contact list from Office Communicator 2007 as per the screen shot below.
Download the full component and source code here.
Click to Conference
And, my personal favourite, initiating conferences from within Outlook - as easy as sending a meeting request.
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For those who couldn't attend, here are the OCS related presentations from Microsoft's big Unified Communications launch at Vodaworld in November last year:
... and some of the missing presentations, taken from the worldwide launch site:
| Administering within a UC environment |
(PPT 2003, 4.3 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 1 MB) |
Deploying Office Communicator 2007
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(PPT 2003, 10.9 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 1.8 MB) |
| Embedding UC in your applications |
(PPT 2003, 13.2 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 5.82 MB) |
| Security and governance in UC solutions |
(PPT 2003, 10.8 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 2.41 MB) |
| Solutions for mobility and anywhere access |
(PPT 2003, 8.94 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 2.43 MB) |
| Unified communications and the end user |
(PPT 2003, 8.66 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 2.43 MB) |
| User-focused approach to optimal VoIP quality |
(PPT 2003, 7.89 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 2.46 MB) |
| VoIP Topologies and interoperability |
(PPT 2003, 12.7 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 4.16 MB) |
| Web conferencing solutions |
(PPT 2003, 12.4 MB) | (PPTX 2007, 2.93 MB) |
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Microsoft will give away a personal evaluation copy of Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition if you attend one of the qualifying Exchange Server 2007 instructor-led training courses from a participating Certified Partner for Learning Solutions. Unlike most evaluation versions, this one is fully-functional and can be used for an unlimited time for training, evaluation, and testing in a non-production environment.
The following Exchange Server 2007 Courses are part of the promotion:
Introduction to Installing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Managing Messaging Security Using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Recovering Messaging Servers and Databases using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Monitoring and Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Designing a Messaging Infrastructure Using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Designing a High Availability Messaging Solution using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Updating Your Skills from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
Torque IT seems to be the only South African CPLS that is offering the promotion: http://www.torque-it.com/content/courses/microsoft/specials/free_office_2007_01.html.
The offer ends on the 25th of April 2008. |
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The Nortel Communication Server 1000 IP-PBX has successfully qualified as an OCS compatible IP-PBX achieving both Dual Forking and Dual forking with Remote Call Control (RCC) qualification levels.
Various other IP-PBX and voice over IP gateway makers have also pledged to work with Microsoft's Unified Communications open interoperability specifications for OCS 2007, including Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Alcatel-Lucent, AudioCodes and others. The qualification program for gateways and IP PBXs ensures that customers have seamless experiences with setup, support, and use of qualified telephony gateways and IP-PBXs with Microsoft's unified communications software.
The Interoperability site lists partner IP-PBX's and Gateways qualified under the following four deployment scenarios:
- Direct SIP Connectivity via Gateway: Gateways are typically designed to be dedicated to a function, a network node equipped to manage translation of different protocols. In this scenario, Gateways will facilitate connectivity between one or multiple Mediation Servers via SIP connectivity on one end and a TDM circuit connected with a PBX or the PSTN on the other end.
- Direct SIP Connectivity: IP-PBXs that support native SIP connectivity (Direct SIP) may also provide and manage other call functionality independently of their role with Mediation Server, however numbers that are to be used by Office Communications Server 2007 are not managed by the IP-PBX in this configuration.
- Dual Forking: IP-PBXs can also support Dual Forking, which enables sharing of a common number with Office Communications Server 2007 to provide a richer user experience. In this example, the PBX could also support Direct SIP for certain numbers (managed by Office Communications Server), or manage the numbers themselves (for users not enabled for voice via Office Communications Server 2007).
- Dual Forking with Remote Call Control: Finally, IP-PBXs can support Dual Forking when used in combination with Remote Call Control. Remote Call Control provides information to Office Communications Server 2007 about the state of PBX-connected lines. This allows, for example, presence updates when the user is on the PBX-connected station set.
While most "legacy" PBX vendors are queuing to provide support for OCS 2007 (and other competing solutions) to stay alive for a few more years, I expect that they will find it difficult to compete with pure software based IP-PBX solutions. Perhaps the fact that Siemens is trying to get rid of its corporate telecommunications division is the first sign trouble for the traditional PBX vendors.
I suppose we should remember that it supposedly took 40 years to have all the telephones in the U.S. have rotary dials, so I guess we shouldn't expect that TDM based PBX's will disappear any time soon! |
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The Microsoft UC Team has recently released a set of OCS 2007 Visio Stencils for all those who are in the process of planning an OCS 2007 deployment and need to create OCS Architecture Diagrams.
The Office Communications Server 2007 Visio stencil contains icons for Office Communications Server 2007 server roles and components. A set of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Stencils are also available. |
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