Remote Access and Federation

To provide the best UC ROI, organizations must be able to provide UC solutions to end users anywhere, on any connection, at any time. Some organizations have adopted the “living on the net” motto, meaning that their users must be able to do their job seamlessly from any Internet connection. Microsoft Lync is without a doubt the superior solution for remote access in the UC industry. Microsoft Lync was built with the Internet in mind. Not only does it provide users with all functionality over the Internet, securely, without a VPN, but the media codecs used by Lync Server 2013 were built for use on the Internet.

Many organizations can mistakenly discount the importance of choosing a UC solution that was developed for the Internet. Traditional IP telephony relied only on the LAN/WAN networks that were controlled by the organization. However, UC cannot be restricted to the same network conditions as traditional IP telephony. For UC to be successful in an organization, it must provide access to all functionality, from any connection, on any device. This is how organizations will see increased usage of the solution and, ultimately, rapid ROI.

Following on the remote access story, UC federation is a trend in UC technology. Microsoft Lync offers organizations the capability to “federate” and communicate seamlessly with other organizations that are running other versions of Microsoft LCS, OCS, or Lync, and public networks such as MSN, AOL, and Skype. Although competitors can provide IM and Presence federation to other organizations, no other solution allows for full audio, video, and conferencing federation like Microsoft Lync. The capability to seamlessly collaborate with business partners, customers, and now with Skype makes many organizations treat federation as a critical requirement. I have seen customers choose Microsoft Lync over the competition based on the federation capabilities alone.

With the introduction of Skype federation in Lync 2013, these capabilities can now be expanded to the millions of current Skype users around the world. This includes both businesses and consumers. The flexibility this provides organizations for establishing communications with partners and customers is a feature that many users cannot live without. Some critics will discount the importance of UC federation over Internet connections. We are definitely not at the point where federation is going to replace the PSTN; however, many people do believe that this is the path the industry is going down. As of the writing of this book, a private, community-driven project called the “Lync Federation Directory” has verified that more than 11,000 organizations are using LCS, OCS, or Lync federation to communicate either openly or privately with other business partners. I am not alone in believing that the future is moving toward an Internet-centric communications platform.