Updated: July 9, 2020 (February 8, 2010)

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IM, Voice, and Web Conferencing Overview

Rob Helm by
Rob Helm

As managing vice president, Rob Helm covers Microsoft collaboration and content management. His 25-plus years of experience analyzing Microsoft’s technology... more

An R2 update to Communications Server 2007 shipped in Feb. 2009. Notable new features include Session Initiation Protocol trunking, which connects calls from Communications Server-based systems to recipients on the public telephone system through Voice over IP service providers, a dial-in teleconferencing bridge, and a console that will help assistants handle calls for their bosses. R2 is 64-bit (x64) only and is the first version to run on Windows Server 2008. Also shipped in 2009 is Communications Online Standard, a multitenant, Microsoft-hosted communications service based on Communications Server.

The next major versions of Communicator and Communications Server (labeled 2010 here) will probably not appear until late 2010 at the earliest. Communications Server 2010 will probably subsume more PBX functions, while Communicator might merge with the next major version of the Live Meeting client, enabling users to employ a single client for instant messaging, presence, voice, video, and data conferencing.

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