How This Book Is Organized

Everything you’ll want to know about new features for Lync Server is included in Chapters 1–4. These chapters describe new features and benefits.

You will find that the improvements Microsoft has made to Lync Server are not only evolutionary, but they represent a major step forward for UC. Lync Server solidifies Microsoft’s role as market leader in the UC field.

This book is organized into nine parts, each one made up of several chapters focusing on a different core area of Lync Server.

• Part I, “Overview”—This part provides an introduction to Lync Server not only from the perspective of a general technology overview, but also to note what is truly new in Lync Server and what has compelled organizations we’ve worked with to implement it during the beta phase.

• Part II, “Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Server Roles”—This part provides an in-depth discussion of all the Lync Server roles including a general overview, the installation process, configuration, administration, troubleshooting, and best practices. Each role is examined in detail with step-by-step installation instructions and valuable screenshots.

• Part III, “External Dependencies”—Lync Server leverages many other technologies including Active Directory, DNS, certificates, and SQL Server. It also has specific prerequisites and requirements around network latency, bandwidth, and firewall and reverse proxies for external access and federation. Lync Server relies heavily on Active Directory for integration to other Microsoft Server components such as Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint.

• Part IV, “Administration and Management”—This part covers common administration tasks and the Communications Server Management Shell, which is the heart of all administration tasks. It moves on to discuss monitoring Lync Server through Microsoft Systems Center Operations Manager and the backup and restore processes for all the Communications Server roles.

• Part V, “Migrating from Older Versions”—This part reviews the process of upgrading from Office Communications Server 2007 and 2007 R2. It also explains how to upgrade from Live Communications Server. A green field deployment is easy; migrating users, response groups, and dial plans from previous versions of Communications Server can cause headaches. A solid, tested migration strategy is important for minimizing downtime and ensuring a successful migration. The bad news is there is only one way to do it. The good news is that it is explained in great detail in Part V.

• Part VI, “Voice”—Microsoft has heavily invested in making Lync Server a voice-focused platform. There are huge improvements from previous platforms. Lync Server now supports branch office survivability, e911, and improved conferencing. This part covers PBX integration, enterprise voice, and audio conferencing. With these improvements, Communications Server is ready to be a full PBX replacement. It can even work as a call center solution integrated with solutions from Aspect for larger deployments, Altigen for smaller deployments, and a host of other partners.

• Part VII, “Integration with Other Applications”—Lync Server has unique communications and collaboration features when integrated with other applications. Presence can be brought into a SharePoint page or Exchange Outlook Web Application. The Exchange Unified Messaging server completes the Microsoft UC solution. However, Microsoft didn’t stop there. There is also an open API called Unified Communications Managed API (UCMA) for developers to create their applications and extensions that plug into the UC ecosystem.

• Part VIII, “Clients”—From a user’s perspective, the solution is the client. That’s all a user sees. The Communicator 2010 client is designed to be easier to use with more information in the main page and not hidden in menus and submenus. For example, the dial pad is front and center for all Communicator conversations. In addition to soft clients, this part also has a chapter on UC endpoints including headsets, webcams, and handset phones. Due to popular demand, many new types of endpoints are available for Lync Server, including a true conference room phone, which fills a major gap for previous versions.

• Part IX, “Planning for Deployment”—Every good deployment starts with a good plan. This part can help you build a plan for your organization. It covers the new virtualization policy that enables all roles to be virtualized, designing a nonvoice deployment, designing edge architecture, and planning for a voice deployment. Although Communications Server expertise is required, many other skill sets are also important to plan a successful deployment. Communications Server touches many other areas including PBX/telecommunications, Active Directory, Exchange, and the enterprise network. Although bringing in an expert is always a good strategy, this part educates you with the basics for planning your deployment.

The real-world experience we have working with Lync Server, our combined experience with the platform since its beginnings, and our field experience deploying Communications Server enable us to present this information to you. We made the mistakes, found the workarounds, and simply know what works and how to make things work. We know you will find this book valuable with the planning and deployment of your Lync Server infrastructure.