Lync Online Delivers Communications for Office 365

The Lync Online Microsoft-hosted service appeared in Office 365 service suites during June 2011. The service offers instant messaging (IM), presence, and Web conferencing, which can help speed urgent messages, avoid “telephone tag,” and reduce business travel. Lync Online requires less upfront investment than the Lync Server on-premises software and will particularly appeal to smaller organizations buying Office 365. However, the service currently lacks some security, compliance, and voice features of Lync Server, as well as some features of the Live Meeting Web conferencing service that Lync Online replaces.

Multitenant, Dedicated Services Offered

Two Lync Online communications services are hosted by Microsoft:

The Lync Online multitenant service, in which customers share hardware in Microsoft data centers, launched in June 2011. It replaces Microsoft’s Communications Online Standard service as well as the Live Meeting Web conferencing service in Office 365.

The Lync Online dedicated service, in which each customer has its own servers in a Microsoft data center. Since the launch of Office 365, it is now limited to governments and to commercial customers with 30,000 seats or more. Lync Online dedicated replaces Microsoft’s Communications Online Dedicated service.