Availability, System Requirements, and Resources

Communications Server and Communicator 2007 became generally available in Sept. 2007. The products are formally known as Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (sometimes called OCS 2007) and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007.

System Requirements

Communications Server requires SQL Server 2000 SP4 or SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2005 SP2 is recommended. Integration with Exchange Unified Messaging requires Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (due before the end of 2007). Communications Server does not run on 64-bit editions of Windows but can run on 32-bit Windows hosted on 64-bit hardware and can also employ 64-bit editions of SQL Server in some configurations. Migration to Communications Server 2007 is supported only from Live Communications Server 2005 SP1, and organizations will need new hardware for some Communications Server roles; in-place upgrades are not supported.

PBX integration requires compatible PBX and media gateway hardware from a Microsoft partner. PBX vendors that have announced plans to support Communications Server include Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Mitel Networks, NEC, Nortel Networks, and Siemens Enterprise Communications. AudioCodes, Dialogic, and Quintum Technologies plan compatible media gateways. As of this writing, Microsoft has not published a list of supported PBX and gateway models and the features that they support.