Standard Edition Versus Enterprise Edition

For those migrating from Office Communications Server 2007 R2, the licensing situation around Directors and high-availability was always a confusing topic. In Office Communications Server 2007 an administrator had the option to deploy both Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition Directors, which caused some confusion around deployment methods and licensing. Back then, Directors could be deployed either as an array of multiple Standard Edition Front Ends, or as a pool of multiple Enterprise Edition servers with a dedicated back-end SQL server database. These options were simplified with Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and the only option for Director high-availability was a pool of Enterprise Edition servers. This simplified the options, but the model was problematic because a pool of Directors would create their own databases that matched the same name as the Front End pool. To alleviate this issue, an entirely separate SQL instance was required to separate the two.

In Lync Server 2010 this was again simplified and Directors no longer have a Standard Edition or Enterprise Edition designation. The deployment model now more closely resembles the array of Standard Edition servers option from Office Communications Server 2007, in which each server has a local database instance. This solves the duplicate database name issue and makes the deployment significantly easier because no SQL server setup is required. Nothing has changed from Lync Server 2010 in Lync Server 2013 as regards this model. Directors are still deployed as a single-computer pool or a multiple-computer pool for high-availability. The Director role also does not require a Standard or Enterprise Edition license in Lync Server 2013.