Chapter 17. PBX Integration

As versions of Communications Server have come and gone, there has also been discussion around whether the product was fit to be a complete replacement for any existing voice infrastructure. In Lync Server, that discussion will certainly appear again, but more and more organizations will see that it currently meets their entire voice platform needs. The first step in either a migration or testing scenario is to provide integration with the existing voice services, which is what this chapter covers.

This chapter provides an overview of the integration possibilities and some background on basic telephony. In addition to providing an overview of the possible integration methods from how an administrator views the systems, the different end-user scenarios are examined to show what is possible from a user standpoint.

Some of the key improvements in Lync Server that make it possible to use as the only voice infrastructure are also discussed in this chapter. These improvements are items that caused many organizations to pass on using prior versions Communications Server as the primary voice platform, but have now been implemented, making this product a compelling voice platform for businesses.