Forget unified communications, we want universal comms, Microsoft insists Microsoft has opened its Lync Conference in Las Vegas with the claim that it's the top dog in the unified communications (UC) market and demonstrations of new apps that Redmond thinks will move it into a position of providing "universal communications." "We believe that we are basically the number one vendor in terms of UC …
interestingly, I talked to a Microsoft Engineer and he said that their Unified Communications could have been released quite a while ago - but everything was delayed until the interception tapping was finalised.
by interception tapping I'm sure he meant judicially approved warrant led proportional lawful interception???
"by interception tapping I'm sure he meant judicially approved warrant led proportional lawful interception???"
Lync uses SIP / SSL just like most similar products, so nothing Lync specific is normally required for call interception if desired / required - and this woudl normally happen at the SBC, etc. where calls are trunked.
If Microsoft are devleoping something specific in this space then this is likely indicating a move into the carrier market (read Broadcomsoft territory) where such interception capabilities are often legally mandated!
Microsoft have been building market share by offering Lync at a very low cost compared to the Cisco/Avaya/Siemens competition. I've heard of deals where Lync was added to an existing MS license deal for a very small price increase. (Which does raise the question, how many Lync licenses have MS sold because it's cheap to get, and how many are actually in use ?)
This aggressive pricing, in turn, is forcing the competition to lower their costs. The most obvious example of this is where Cisco suddenly made their Jabber presence add-on to CallManager free.
One thing that is making corporates nervous, though, is there hasn't been much said on the Lync/Skype roadmap. i.e. will they merge, or will one be binned?
"Microsoft have been building market share by offering Lync at a very low cost compared to the Cisco/Avaya/Siemens competition."
It costs much less to run / own too - especially if you adopt the whole stack inc Exchange...
"This aggressive pricing, in turn, is forcing the competition to lower their costs. "
Microsoft forces price decreases?! Who would have thought it....
No, not kinda. Not even close actually.
Google killed the search market because they had a better product, not becaues they undercut the competition on price. All the search engines were free to start with.
So tell me, how do you undercut a product that is free? Thats right, you 'reward' your customer to use your own inferior product instead of the superior product from the competition. Guess who is doing that? Bing of course!
the Lync client didn't suck balls so spectacularly.
It takes a flipping age to get around to starting up, then when you think it is finally started it turns out that it hasn't, is a minefield of impossible to fathom "icons" and functionality that all tends to do nothing useful.
Basically, it almost the polar opposite of something that should be simple, efficient and easy to use. Installing it enterprise wide is one thing, persuading users to use it when it sucks balls so badly is another.
...and that's just the client. The server side is even less fun.
As best I can recall, Lync was bundled in with our 365 subscriptions so we had no choice but to "buy" it.
While it's still a tossup as to which is more useful/reliable - Lync or MS Hosted email - I'm not overly thrilled with either.
I have a twinge of sadness for a buddy who's company is moving to it for internal communications.
Given all the (alleged) back doors in MS software why would you trust them for anything, so GCHQ and NSA can plunder your comms?
Why not give TOP SECRET AMERICA a read < magnet:?xt=urn:btih:0fc432e17c2e856e6b3c605761cd9d6748e970cb&dn=Top%20Secret%20America >, then go load a Chinese or Korean software version equivalent.
Back in the day MS wanted to take over the PBX market.
Turned out comms managers didn't like how unreliable it was compared to their embedded proprietary systems and couldn't care less about "Oh it's Windows just like your desktop" schtick.
And using the deep cash pile from their not-a-monopoly-honest OS and Office products to do it.
Quel f**king surprise.
BTW is that lync as in a misspelling of "link" or is the last c a hard c like "lynch" as in "lynch mob" ?
I'm not sure.
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