Microsoft Lync - RIP
Back in 2007 I was asked to get involved in a new offering that MS was ramping in the Unified Communications space called Office Communications Server (OCS) which later became known as Lync. While there had been a predecessor called Live Communications Server - OCS was a new animal and a bold move for MS.
The goal was ambitious - provide a singular client and server capability that could support multi-modal communications including instant messaging (IM), voice/video and collaborative meetings as well as integrate with MS Exchange to support scheduling and voicemail. MS also developed its own codecs called RTAudio & RTVideo that MS claimed allowed you to not have to implement demanding QoS capabilities on your network to get high quality Audio and Video
In 2007, OCS 2007 primarily focused on introducing the concept of "presence" and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) control and IM along with some some basic collaborative meeting capability. But it quickly grew - through a partnership with the now defunct Nortel MS began working on full PBX integration. I remember going to Nortel's facilities in RTP in North Carolina and watching the Nortel engineers show us computer guys how to do voice & SIP.
By early 2009 OCS 2007 R2 was introduced that along with Exchange 2007 SP1 introduced the VoiceMail server role and integration with several PBX vendors including Nortel, Avaya, Mitel and others. There were additional key partnerships with Polycom for handsets and NET (now Sonus), AudioCodes, Dialogic, in the Media Gateway space. MS even had Polycom OEM an MS branded meeting room device called RoundTable. RoundTable was the cool thing back in 2008 when it was introduced. Also came the concept of federation - the ability to integrate with not only other IM providers like MSN and Yahoo but also other customers.
In 2010 came another major rev - the 3rd in a little over 2 years and a new name Lync. In addition to a clearer role based model similar to Exchange, Lync 2010 also really started to put all those ambitious pieces together. And more expansion with Lync Room for Video Conferencing, Dial-in Audio Conferencing and Persistent Chat.
Then the speed of releases slowed to match that of it's key partner product Exchange. Also in 2011 MS bought Skype from a group of venture partners to further expand it's reach into the consumer side of UC.
Anyone who works in the industry knew that the initial releases of Exchange and Lync 2013 were buggy, limited in features and interoperability even with previous versions of Exchange and Lync. The products were rushed out the door at the same time as another new product Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 were in the fall of 2012.
And while Lync deployments were consistently increasing, they often were just for IM & Presence and maybe some point to point video conferencing. Lync Voice implementations were rarer. Cisco was gaining market share taken from Avaya, Nortel and others and it was beginning to dominate the VoIP market as dedicated Telco resources started to become rare and the network teams were asked to get involved with voice. And with TelePresence started consolidating the video conferencing market.
Also MS realized one key thing - PCs and Laptops make lousy phones. I was an avid user of Lync voice and used a Polycom CX-100 USB speaker to do things like conference calls. But it only worked well in an isolated setting. Having to then try USB Headsets, Handsets, Lync Phones, etc, etc became painful. At the end of the day most users just want a phone and to be honest Lync Phones weren't very good.
One of the unique things about Lync and especially the client is that MS published APIs that allows for plug-ins that could extend the clients interoperability. Cisco & Avaya took advantage of that and actually made plugs ins that would allow Lync Client to do Presence and IM and Cisco or Avaya do the voice part...
So here we are in 2015 and MS has already announced Exchange 2016 and SharePoint 2016....but no Lync...
And then in mid March - MS announces Skype for Business and that it will be rolling out in April for Office365 users that use Lync online.
There will be new server roles that MS states allow for "utilizing existing hardware investments", but I believe this is the beginning of the end.
Office365 users will no longer see a "Lync" client but rather a Skype Client. On premise Lync sites will use a Skype Client but with more of a Lync feel and then use the Lync backend..
Skype was designed to be an online service and so these new server roles will most likely be a limited time thing until MS fully migrates all the services to the cloud... So I don't expect to see another "dated" release - i.e. Skype for Business 2019... If any thing there may be a centralized Skype Proxy role but I even think that will be limited.
So goodbye Lync - it was nice to know you...
The goal was ambitious - provide a singular client and server capability that could support multi-modal communications including instant messaging (IM), voice/video and collaborative meetings as well as integrate with MS Exchange to support scheduling and voicemail. MS also developed its own codecs called RTAudio & RTVideo that MS claimed allowed you to not have to implement demanding QoS capabilities on your network to get high quality Audio and Video
In 2007, OCS 2007 primarily focused on introducing the concept of "presence" and the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) control and IM along with some some basic collaborative meeting capability. But it quickly grew - through a partnership with the now defunct Nortel MS began working on full PBX integration. I remember going to Nortel's facilities in RTP in North Carolina and watching the Nortel engineers show us computer guys how to do voice & SIP.
By early 2009 OCS 2007 R2 was introduced that along with Exchange 2007 SP1 introduced the VoiceMail server role and integration with several PBX vendors including Nortel, Avaya, Mitel and others. There were additional key partnerships with Polycom for handsets and NET (now Sonus), AudioCodes, Dialogic, in the Media Gateway space. MS even had Polycom OEM an MS branded meeting room device called RoundTable. RoundTable was the cool thing back in 2008 when it was introduced. Also came the concept of federation - the ability to integrate with not only other IM providers like MSN and Yahoo but also other customers.
In 2010 came another major rev - the 3rd in a little over 2 years and a new name Lync. In addition to a clearer role based model similar to Exchange, Lync 2010 also really started to put all those ambitious pieces together. And more expansion with Lync Room for Video Conferencing, Dial-in Audio Conferencing and Persistent Chat.
Then the speed of releases slowed to match that of it's key partner product Exchange. Also in 2011 MS bought Skype from a group of venture partners to further expand it's reach into the consumer side of UC.
Anyone who works in the industry knew that the initial releases of Exchange and Lync 2013 were buggy, limited in features and interoperability even with previous versions of Exchange and Lync. The products were rushed out the door at the same time as another new product Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 were in the fall of 2012.
And while Lync deployments were consistently increasing, they often were just for IM & Presence and maybe some point to point video conferencing. Lync Voice implementations were rarer. Cisco was gaining market share taken from Avaya, Nortel and others and it was beginning to dominate the VoIP market as dedicated Telco resources started to become rare and the network teams were asked to get involved with voice. And with TelePresence started consolidating the video conferencing market.
Also MS realized one key thing - PCs and Laptops make lousy phones. I was an avid user of Lync voice and used a Polycom CX-100 USB speaker to do things like conference calls. But it only worked well in an isolated setting. Having to then try USB Headsets, Handsets, Lync Phones, etc, etc became painful. At the end of the day most users just want a phone and to be honest Lync Phones weren't very good.
One of the unique things about Lync and especially the client is that MS published APIs that allows for plug-ins that could extend the clients interoperability. Cisco & Avaya took advantage of that and actually made plugs ins that would allow Lync Client to do Presence and IM and Cisco or Avaya do the voice part...
So here we are in 2015 and MS has already announced Exchange 2016 and SharePoint 2016....but no Lync...
And then in mid March - MS announces Skype for Business and that it will be rolling out in April for Office365 users that use Lync online.
There will be new server roles that MS states allow for "utilizing existing hardware investments", but I believe this is the beginning of the end.
Office365 users will no longer see a "Lync" client but rather a Skype Client. On premise Lync sites will use a Skype Client but with more of a Lync feel and then use the Lync backend..
Skype was designed to be an online service and so these new server roles will most likely be a limited time thing until MS fully migrates all the services to the cloud... So I don't expect to see another "dated" release - i.e. Skype for Business 2019... If any thing there may be a centralized Skype Proxy role but I even think that will be limited.
So goodbye Lync - it was nice to know you...
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