Federation is a very important part of the capabilities in Office Communications Server 2007. Federation is not new, as Live Communications Server also had this ability. But the feature set has been refined and streamlined for a much more configurable and secure solution. In addition, the Audio/Video feature set and the Live Conferencing capabilities all can be launched from the Communicator client, allowing local, federated, and anonymous parties to take part in a variety of communications and collaboration methods. With all these capabilities, Office Communications Server delivers a very rich and compelling solution for intra-enterprise and extra-enterprise solutions.

Finally, as Chapter 8 details, the federation feature sets the stage for a manageable and controllable public Instant Messaging solution. The ability to manage which providers (Yahoo!, AOL, or MSN) your users have access to is a very powerful tool. Again, all of this is available from the Communicator client and Office Communications Server 2007.