Public Provider Connectivity

A special form of federation is the capability to use Lync Server to communicate with contacts on the public IM networks, referred to as Public IM Connectivity (PIC). The Skype, AOL, and MSN networks are the native Public IM Connectivity providers to Lync Server. To communicate with these contacts, users simply need to add the address to a contact list.

Lync Server users can see presence and exchange instant messages with their contacts when Public IM Connectivity is provisioned. The conversations are limited to peer-to-peer, though, and they cannot include three or more participants as users are accustomed to within the organization or with federated contacts.

Audio and video support with the MSN or Windows Live networks was introduced in Lync Server 2010. In Lync Server 2013, Microsoft introduces audio federation to Skype as well. As of the writing of this book, Skype video federation is not available; however, it is on the road map for a future service. This functionality is included as part of the Lync Server Standard CAL; no additional licensing is required. Federation to other services including Google Talk and Jabber is available through the XMPP gateway service. The XMPP gateway service is covered in a later section.