Microsoft Windows

LifeSize Acquisition Moves Logitech into Video-Conferencing

Logitech is a name that most people are familiar with. It is a virtual household word when it comes to things like keyboards, mice, PC game controllers, and webcam equipment. Logitech is not a name, however, typically associated with enterprise-class video-conferencing. That is about to change.

Logitech announced the purchase of LifeSize Communications for $405 million. LifeSize has an established presence providing high-definition equipment for corporate video-conferencing systems. With 9,000 customers spanning 80 countries, LifeSize is not a newcomer to the field.

The move pits Logitech against major players in this market like Cisco and HP. Logitech can take LifeSize and do battle against Cisco and HP on its own, or it could conceivably pair up with Microsoft. A symbiotic relationship between Microsoft’s unified communications and conferencing software and the Logitech / LifeSize hardware could be a win-win for both parties and create a whole greater than the sum of its parts for facing off against Cisco and HP.

IBM Challenges Microsoft to a Cage Match

Its unified communications meets WWF.

IBM had some serious issues during a live demonstration of its UC technologies at the Enterprise 2.0 conference. Its a presenter’s nightmare. I am sure the stuff works better than that and I assume they even rehearsed the presentation just fine. But, during the actual live presentation all of sudden the bandwidth wasn’t there to deliver a smooth experience. C’est la vie.

IBM rebounded from that experience and moved on to issuing challenges to Microsoft. Basically- IBM says its UC solution is superior to Microsoft’s and its willing to prove it in a head-to-head, mano-a-mano, cage match at VoiceCon in Spring of 2010.

What do you think? Will Microsoft accept the challenge? Can IBM hold its own in a cage match with Microsoft UC?

Perhaps IBM can also get Hulk Hogan for a new marketing campaign?

Unified Communications? There Is No App for That

OK. To be fair, there are iPhone apps related to unified communications, and even an iPhone app which provides rudimentary integration with Microsoft Office Communicator. The point, however, is that as popular and as functional as the iPhone is it still has some catching up to do in order to be a viable platform for enterprise mobile and unified communications.

I had an iPhone for a few months. I enjoyed it, and I felt like it had a lot of really cool features, but in the end I found the fact that there is ‘an app for that’ for so many things to be more of a distraction and a time-suck than a value. I also missed Office Communicator Mobile and my Office Mobile applications so I eventually traded my iPhone for the AT&T (HTC) Tilt– a Windows Mobile 6.0 device.

New phones are emerging with the potential to challenge the iPhone for rock star status among mobile devices. The HTC Pure isn’t really one of them, but it is the crown jewel of the Windows Mobile 6.5 devices which recently hit the streets. I’m debating holding my breath to see if the HTC HD2 comes to AT&T when Windows Mobile 7 is unleashed, but that seems like a long time to wait for a rumored device on a vaporware OS that may not even be offered through my wireless provider if/when it does arrive.

Back to the iPhone though. The iPhone is the #2 smart phone in America. It is lower on the global totem pole, but as it begins to be offered through multiple providers in China that could quickly change. However, there is a reason that Nokia and RIM have so much of the smart phone market share and it has a lot to do with the ability to integrate with enterprise networks and applications. Until Apple gets an app for that it is going to have a tough time being a serious threat in the enterprise.

The flip side of that point though is that Microsoft could do itself a favor and extend its reach by working with Apple to make that happen. The iPhone is a formidable mobile device and it is hugely popular. Microsoft should develop Office Communicator Mobile and Office Mobile apps for the iPhone to promote the use of Microsoft products no matter what mobile platform is being used.

Designing a Resilient Microsoft Unified Communications Environment

As organizations move to unified communications it becomes imperative that disaster recovery and business continuity be incorporated into the design and implementation. In the event that a natural disaster or other catastrophe strike the primary data center, there needs to be a fall-back plan in place to ensure that the business can continue to communicate and work productively.

The ability to provide some sort of failover redundancy or site resiliency has been seen as an Achilles heel of Microsoft Office Communications Server. Microsoft has made some enhancements though in R2 and produced a white paper describing how to accomplish site resiliency with Microsoft OCS 2007 R2.

Here is the description Microsoft provides for the white paper:

This white paper describes a site resiliency solution for Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The solution includes an Enterprise pool that spans two geographically separate sites. The solution provides a failover mechanism between the two sites to ensure that Office Communications Server functionality such as instant messaging, presence, and conferencing remains available even if one of the sites becomes unavailable.

This white paper is divided into three main sections:

Forefront Security for OCS Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007

For organizations that rely on Microsoft unified communications, Forefront Security seems like a natural fit. With components to protect and secure Exchange, SharePoint, and Office Communications Server, as well as client endpoints, Forefront Security provides comprehensive protection for a Microsoft unified communications environment.

To make things even easier to monitor and manage, Microsoft has developed a Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007. Microsoft provides the following overview of the capabilities of this tool:

The Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack for Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 provides real-time insight into the health and performance of key Forefront Security for Office Communications Server (Version 10) components and services. The Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server Management Pack alerts the administrator to critical events affecting the security of their OCS environment. Proactive management of the Microsoft Forefront Security for Office Communications Server environment is facilitated through management pack activity reports on IM scan performance.

Feature Bullet Summary

• Monitoring of current license state
• Monitoring of Antimalware Engine health and update activity
• Monitoring of IM Scan Job availability
• Monitoring health of required Forefront Security for OCS services
• Reports on key Forefront for OCS performance counters

Sprint Rolls Out General Availability of SIP Trunking

Sprint was one of the first SIP trunk providers certified with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (OCS 2007 R2). Now it is expanding availability of SIP trunking to all business customers.

Sprint SIP trunking customers will be able to leverage Sprint’s Global MPLS network and utilize a single IP network connection to facilitate voice, date, and video conferencing connections.

SIP trunking and VoIP enable customers to save significantly over traditional local and long distance expenses, and it is also a key component of unified communications.

Outlook Mobile Enhancements with Exchange 2010

I have been using the Technical Preview of Microsoft Office 2010 for a few months now and I have to say I like it. I am particularly fond of the changes in Outlook like the ability to view by conversation– which includes all messages in the thread inbound and outbound– as well as the ability to ignore message threads that are of no interest.

So, I am looking forward to having that same functionality on my mobile phone. New Windows Mobile 6.5 devices will include the functionality, and it is also available via download for older Windows Mobile 6.1 devices.

In addition to the conversation view and ignoring threads, some other notable features of the updated Outlook Mobile with Exchange 2010 include:

• ability to see which messages have been replied to or forwarded
• email account nicknames used in Outlook follow you in Outlook Mobile
• voicemail messages play directly from message like in Outlook rather than as an MP3 attachment
• voicemail trasncript can be viewed in the body of the message rather than playing audio
• capable of getting free/busy information from Exchange Server

Microsoft Unleashes More Comprehensive IM Connectivity

Organizations using Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) have a powerful instant messaging tool with Office Communicator and Communicator Mobile. Federation allows different organizations running OCS to link up so that the users in each entity can see each other’s presence and communicate seamlessly.

As it turns out, not every organization is running OCS 2007. I know, right? There are even a vast number of small and medium businesses with no enterprise instant messaging solution. Go figure. Many organizations rely on free IM options- AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, etc.

Microsoft had two announcements this week that change the landscape for instant messaging with OCS 2007. First, it released the XMPP gateway for OCS R2.  The new gateway expands the options for IM by enabling connectivity to systems such as Google Talk and Jabber. 

The second announcement was that connectivity with AOL is now included in the licensing price, along with Windows Live, which was announced a few months ago.  That means that OCS 2007 R2 can connect with AIM and Windows Live Messenger accounts without the need to purchase Public IM Connectivity (PIC) licenses.

Organizations that want/need to connect with Yahoo IM accounts will still have to purchase the necessary PIC licenses.

It (Almost) Never Hurts to Update

One of the steps that should be on somewhere in the top 5 troubleshooting steps for virtually any problem is ‘download and apply most current update’ for the software or hardware in question (and/or peripheral software or hardware that could be related to the problem).

Another top 5 step would be to Bing (or Google if you prefer) the issue and see what the vast Interwebs might have to say on the subject. It usually helps to be as specific as possible- like copying and pasting the actual error message you are seeing. Often you will find that this step leads to the first step I mentioned as you encounter comment after comment from users who had the same problem until they applied the latest update.

A recent blog post on the OCS Team blog illustrates how sometimes the latest update may even address issues not specifically called out in the knowledgebase or readme text. If you end up calling for support, applying the latest upates is guaranteed to be one of the top 5 steps the custmer service tech walks you through, so you may as well cut out the middle-man and just do that part before you call.

Bottom line- it never hurts to apply the latest updates…except when it does. There are occasionally patches and updates that break more than they fix, but those are fairy rare these days (at least from estabished / major vendors). The odds of a corrupt patch are probably significantly lower than the odds that applying the latest upate could solve your problem.

Putting All Your UC Eggs in One Basket

It seems like just yesterday I was questioning the validity and value of the Gartner Magic Quadrant. My own opinion aside, executives and customers still value the information, and there aren’t many alternative sources of information so we are left discussing the Magic Quadrant out of necessity.

So, let’s dive a little deeper into the recent Unified Communications Magic Quadrant.  Bern Elliot, a vice president and senior analyst at Gartner, and co-author of the UC Magic Quadrant noted “The vendors would like to broaden the footprint they have within their existing customers and expand into new markets, whereas users, in many cases, would like to have the vendors interoperate effectively so they can get a high degree of functionality, and preserve and migrate their existing investments.”

Bottom line, it is Elliot’s opinion that the major vendors are fighting to be the whole pie, but that customers gain more benefit from a buffet or cafeteria approach combining different vendor components and leveraging existing hardware/software investments.

Toward that end, Elliot suggests that vendors focus more on interoperability and playing well with others and less on trying to dominate and be the all-in-one end-to-end solution. Fair enough. I will extend that concept by saying that, among the major vendors, I believe Microsoft provides the superior balance betwen delivering an innovative and comprehensice unified communications experience, while integrating well with a variety of platforms and enabling customers to integrate Microsoft offerings with existing communications investments.