Microsoft Lync: Questions and Answers
On resiliency, contact center, video, deployment challenges, and more.
On July 27, we ran an Enterprise Connect webinar on the topic, "Microsoft Lync: Ready for Prime-Time for Large Enterprise Deployments," offering a detailed look at a topic that many enterprises are confronting (if you missed the event, you can see it by registering here). We had a chock-full agenda of speaker presentations and didn't have time to address the 100+ questions that came in from the audience. So we asked our speakers to address those questions off line, and promised we'd post some highlights here on No Jitter.
The speakers who helped us on the webinar and pitched in on answering questions as a follow-up, are:
* Jamie Stark, Senior Technical Product Manager, Microsoft (JS)
* Sonu Aggarwal, CEO, Unify Square, a Microsoft partner (SA)
* Peter Pawlak, UC Architect, Unify Square (PP), who presented a customer case study, referred to in some of the questions
* Talbot Harty, VP and Chief Development Officer, NET, which manufactures Lync-compliant gateways (TH)
Q: What is positioning and roadmap of Lync vs. Skype?
SA: Microsoft will be developing the positioning/roadmap and communicating this after the acquisition process formally closes, which is likely to happen in the coming months pending regulatory approval.
Q: Does [Lync] work with my current Nortel IP phones (1140 and 1150) if I load a different firmware?
JS: Most likely not. Lync has a high standard for endpoint devices with regard to identity, authentication and security. SNOM, Aastra and Polycom currently have phones that register directly with Lync.
Q: Can I use my existing PBX phones or do I have to buy new phones?
PP: In the majority of situations you will need new phones (assuming that the PC client with a USB headset alone is not adequate for the user's needs). However, if you have certain types of IP-based PBX phones, NET offers a software product called SmartSIP that allows you to integrate your legacy phones with Lync. However, the user won't get the same experience as with a true Lync Phone Edition phone.
Q: How do you address E911 across the enterprise if Lync is premise-based or if cloud-based?
JS: E911 is currently not available in Lync Online/Office 365, but we do support it in Lync on-premise. We have a NENA I2 based architecture, where the location of the endpoint dialing emergency services is delivered to the PSAP using a SIP Trunk connection through a service provider.
Q: Will Lync ever change the codec scheme from G711 to G729? How do you size voice trunk engineering?
JS: We don't have anything to announce at this time regarding codecs in future releases, but today G729 is not a supported codec. Customers that need 729 trunking typically use an SBC or Gateway, like those available from NET.
