Nathan's I.T., Exchange & Other ramblings!: More Microsoft OCS info

Hi,

I posted a little while ago some info from a colleague Arthur Pounder.

Well here is some more info about MS OCS.

Cheers

Nathan

Microsoft to announce Public Beta of OCS & OC 2007 & Jeff Raikes Keynote speach

UPDATE - Wednesday 7th March ...

Get notified when the beta software is ready to download!

This afternoon Microsoft have provided the ability for users to sign-up and receive notifications when OCS & OC 2007 become available for download.

Further information is available by following the link below

ORIGINAL POSTING ...

In a brief video message recorded prior to Jeff Raikes Keynote speech at VoiceCon, which is being held in Orlando Florida this week; Jeff Raikes has stated that "We're (Microsoft), announcing the public beta of Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Office Communicator 2007"; but within a communication released upon the Microsoft PressPass it is stated that "Microsoft plans to begin public beta-testing later this month of the company's first two products that include enhanced VoIP capabilities"

You can view the PressPass article via and also view the 4 minute video via

If you watch the short video, Jeff Raikes is also stating that "within three years, more than 100 million people will be able to make phone calls from Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint, and other Microsoft Office System applications".

What I can say, because the information is already in the public domain

back on the 11th December Microsoft announced that OCS & OC 2007 had entered Private Beta which had been provided to 2,500 IT professionals. Then I presented a demonstration of OCS & OC 2007 on the 12th December at the New Day EVO Launch,

Those Microsoft employees who signed-up for the beta had their PBX deskphones removed, so that they would use the VoIP, and IP-Telephony elements of OCS and OC.

The ability to make full audio visual calls via the “click to call function” and conduct application sharing from your laptop wherever you are via a public internet connection, without the need to launch your VPN certainly sounds promising.

It would appear that Microsoft's early adoption of Interactive Connectivity Establishment, (ICE - http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-mmusic-ice-12.txt), is beneficial in the provision of a contextual user experience.

Whilst the Redmond candles often burned late into the night during the early phases of development, to ensure the quality of communications under the jitter and signal degradation of the internet have paid off. In fact Microsoft are using the same acoustic echo cancellation process as that which is used in Windows Live Messenger, (alias MSN8).

So after all this what are the benefits of OCS & OC 2007

Well much of the information is still guarded; but what we do know is that OCS & OC 2007 should be available in March as a public beta; and I can only guesstimate that it should be released by early-to-mid June 2007 along with Server 2007 (Longhorn); pretty much following the Vista release cycle.

Some Of The Capabilities Available In Office Communications Server 2007 Are

Advanced Call Routing;
Deploy VoIP Capabilities.
Deployment Of Enterprise-Wide Presence
Enable Security-Enhanced Enterprise Instant Messaging
Enhanced Presence
Enterprise Telephony Integration
Group IM
Host On-Premise Audio, Video And Web Conferences
Livemeeting Integration
Multinodal Conferencing
On Premise Web-Conferencing
Placing And Receiving Voice Calls
Streamlined Integration With The New Unified Messaging Capabilities In Exchange Server 2007
Support For Universal Global Groups

Reading through the information provided by Microsoft concerning MSOffice 2007, Office Communicator 2007 will be included within both Office Professional Plus 2007 and Office Enterprise 2007, (2007 Microsoft Office system suites). The information contained within footnote 3 of the 2007 Microsoft Office system suites openly states that MOC 2007 is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2007, (I estimate June), with international versions of MOC 2007 scheduled for release in the second half of 2007.

Though having said that I expect that Mr Raikes will confirm the release date during this afternoons Keynote speech.

For information Jeff Raikes is scheduled to present between 10.30am & 11.30am (3.30pm – 4.30pm UK time).

Once I’ve seen the posting and more information becomes available I'll post it up for you

Arthur

Links quoted within the post

PressPass

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/mar07/03-07OfficeCommunications.mspx,

Jeff Raikes Video Message

http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0703/29543/JRaikes_MBR.asx

James O’Neill’s Blog

http://blogs.technet.com/jamesone/archive/2006/12/14/phew-evo-launch.aspx

Microsoft Office 2007 Suites