Lync Server Matures to PBX Alternative

The Dec. 2010 general availability of Microsoft’s Lync Server 2010 provides customers with a maturing unified communications (UC) platform for conferencing, instant messaging (IM), user presence, and voice. Most importantly, Lync Server delivers key improvements for phone systems, including call resiliency, support for analog phones and faxes, and the ability to transmit a caller’s location to emergency service providers, that could allow it to augment or replace private branch exchange (PBX) phone systems. However, the product still requires a complex collection of hardware and software, and it requires expertise in IT, data networking, and telephony for deployment and ongoing management.

Lync Server and Enterprise Voice

Lync Server 2010 is the fifth iteration of Microsoft’s UC product. First introduced in early 2004 as Live Communications Server, the first two versions of the product focused primarily on IM and presence. The third version, Communications Server 2007, was the first serious attempt to add Web-based conferencing capabilities as well as support for phone and video calls over IP networks, enabling incoming calls, multiparty calls, and better integration with conventional phone systems. Although new phone features and a new audio-conferencing bridge brought Communications Server 2007 R2 closer to an end-to-end telephony replacement in 2009, the product still came up short in some essential respects compared to PBX systems.