Migrating Enterprise Telephony Networks for Microsoft’s Lync UC
Microsoft’s launch of its Lync Server 2010 on November 17, 2010 will trigger great enterprise IT activity in UC implementation planning. In addition to the basic enterprise Lync Server, Microsoft has also developed a Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) for Lync, which will enable a branch location to continue using Lync capabilities if disconnected from the enterprise network.
While operational business benefits of multimodal unified communications (UC) can be identified through specific operational “use cases” of an enterprise, the migration from existing TDM and PSTN network infrastructures to IP Telephony and SIP trunking infrastructure must also be carefully planned from an implementation and maintenance cost perspective. Accordingly, UCStrategies.com will be hosting a new forum to discuss real-world issues that enterprise organizations should consider in implementing IP Telephony networking in a centralized and virtual UC network environment.
While IP Telephony will still be location-based in terms of desktop equipment and network connectivity, management and control will move to network and software-based solutions. This will include not only traditional person-to-person communication applications (phone calls, messaging, IM, conferencing, etc.), but also integration of third-party business process applications communicating with individual end users at desktops and mobile endpoint devices (smartphones, tablets, iPads, etc.) under the label of Communications Enabled Business processing (CEBP).
Integrating Tomorrow’s Telephony For “Multimodal” UC
The telecom industry has had a hard time explaining the concept and benefits of “UC,” primarily because telephony is no longer the only or even primary mode of communication contact with people. This is especially true for wireless mobility, where individual end users will dynamically require the flexibility of multimodal communications to efficiently communicate under a variety of personal circumstances. Even for employees dedicated to handling customer contacts (call centers), the need for UC flexibility will still be generated by mobile customers and business partners.
As the big enterprise application players move into UC, i.e., Microsoft, IBM, etc., they are driving the need for new telephony integrations and media mediation that legacy phone systems didn’t deal with. Accordingly, enterprise network infrastructures will be faced with the need to accommodate such functionality with technology that is both cost-efficient and easily operational manageable. The traditional approach of “gateways” to handle diverse network interconnectivity has been expanded to incorporate more intelligent functionality and simplified, software-based, remote “virtual” management.
The Application “Eggs” Or The Network “Chickens?”
There has always been a question of anticipating network capacity requirements to support communication traffic. In a UC environment, where modalities can be dynamically changed or escalated from asynchronous messaging to real-time connections for voice or video (“click-to-call”) the problem becomes greater and requires the flexibility that IP communications supports. So, getting the enterprise networks ready for multimodal UC and CEBP will demand that IT be well prepared with a cost-effective network solution to support such flexibility.
Inasmuch as UC technologies are still evolving and not all the standards have been defined, there is little experience available within most enterprise IT departments to provide practical guidelines for UC migration implementations. That is why the industry technology providers are trying to reach out to IT management to help them understand the implementation and support needs of UC vs. traditional telephony systems. They are absolutely not the same!
So, while business management has to define their operational UC “use cases” and ROI priorities, in terms of identifying what communication modalities and applications are required by which end users and end point devices, IT’s responsibility is to take care of associated network connectivity needs between branch locations, the PSTN (which is not going away overnight), and the Internet.
Stay Tuned For Our Forum on UC Networking Migration Issues
The latter need will be the focus of the UCStrategies Forum, sponsored by NET, who has announced a new platform for simplifying the networking and mediation needs of existing telephony switches and new UC platforms like Microsoft’s Lync Server 2010 and Survivable Branch Appliance, that can interoperate or even replace legacy or IP PBX systems. The UC migration dilemma is complex and every enterprise organization has investments to protect or maximize in implementation planning.
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This paper is sponsored by NET.