2009: A Year in Review for Microsoft Unified Communications

I suppose we can blame the crappy economy, but looking back on 2009 the unified communications market seems sort of stagnant. Granted, Microsoft released Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and much later in the year Exchange Server 2010, but it just doesn’t feel like much happened.

That will be significantly different in 2010. Following on the heels of Windows 7, and Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft has a busy year of product launches including OCS 2010, SharePoint 2010, Office 2010, and eventually (keep your fingers crossed) Windows Mobile 7 just to name a few. The way these products integrate and work together to deliver a seamless experience will revolutionize Microsoft unified communications and raise the bar for UC in general.

My friend and fellow Microsoft MVP Joe Schurman wrote up a detailed look back at Microsoft Unified Communications in 2009, as well as some thoughts on what 2010 has in store and his own insight on where things should go if Microsoft wants to dominate this market.