Microsoft Lync 2010 - The Next Generation Communication Suite

Microsoft Lync 2010 is a communication and conferencing suite which was previously known by the name of Office Communications Server. It is intended to provide its service of instant messaging when used with the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 and thereby comes with many other features also including conferencing and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Besides these, it allows group chat, voice and video calls, application and desktop sharing and also shared whiteboard sessions to name a few of the available utilities. It comes with a simplified and a very user-friendly interface which allows to indulge in multiple conversations with ease and at the effort of a single click while also facilitating instant communication and collaboration anytime and anywhere to serve all the business needs whether it be big or small. This next generation unified communication tool can seamlessly integrate with many other Microsoft products, some of which includes the Microsoft Office, SharePoint, and Exchange. The service of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 can also be availed by the Mac users and even from any compatible mobile communication devices like Windows Phone 7 and the very popular iPhone devices.

Microsoft Lync 2010 UI provides easy access to popular social networking sites while also maintaining the privacy concerns using its 'Presence' and Privacy Settings built into it. It can offer communication directly from other Microsoft products like Office Word using whatever Internet connection is available not necessarily requiring any virtual private network to work with. It can also notify the status of who is available around and provide search abilities for anyone you might be interested upon using the global search directory. It's VoIP service can effectively maintain a communication bridge between all the branches of any organization scattered throughout the globe at the cheapest rate possible and without having anything to worry about overseas call rates or long distance tariffs being imposed by some other such service providers. In addition to all of these, it comes with a tight security enhancement which helps maintain the regulatory concerns involved during any communications being registered through it.

New Features in Microsoft Lync 2010

Microsoft Lync 2010 has a lot of new features built-in which extends the capabilities it had within its previous versions. It works with the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 to provide better communication and richer modes of collaborations from a single simplified interface and has also got a much wider compatibility extensions to integrate with other Microsoft Products and also to offer stable interoperability features.

• The very first new feature which can be described to be available within the Microsoft Lync 2010 is its new client interface which offers the various services like messaging, telephony, conferencing and sharing files available under a single roof. It provides the use of a universal contact management for working with various other Microsoft Office products and applications and also deliver the convenience to work with those Office applications to communicate through the Lync Sever directly. Most importantly, its service can be availed through any browsers or computer systems connected to the internet and also make use of its Over-The-Air capabilities using the compatible new generation smartphones.
• As we have already mentioned above, the Microsoft Lync 2010 is the next-generation communication suite which defines and delivers new methods of establishing and managing multiple user conversations through Instant Messaging, Voice over IP, Group Chat and many other such modes. This instant connection for communication thereby stands as one of the promising aspects of this latest release which even opens new possibilities of collaborating and sharing various details and files with others. The Skill Search abilities of the Microsoft SharePoint which can also be made use of in the Lync Server 2010 together with a global search directory is another key features for discovering and identifying important contacts based on one's interest and requirements.
• The conferencing standards are greatly improved to offer reliable solutions with many new features which comes integrated with it. It comes with full support for utilizing the scheduling and reminder service of Microsoft Outlook which can even automate the process of conducting and participating in those scheduled meetings accordingly.
• The Enterprise level Voice features included in Microsoft Lync 2010 is highly optimized to enhance the user experience and provide faster and smarter solution to all levels of business needs. Utilizing some of the most reliable technical aspects like QoS markings, call admission control and adaptive media stacks, the voice service is able to provide a complete solution and confirmed availability which is being powered by resilience datacenters and endurable branch appliances.
• The deployment and managing aspects of the Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is made more powerful which can now easily and effectively work with many other products like various Microsoft Servers, Exchange Server or the Active Directory using the improved PowerShell interface and relevant fundament. The security grounds are well configured to distinguish privilege based on customer roles thereby bringing in a more reliable and safer solution by using the Role-based Access Control (RBAC).
• The extensibility of the Lync Server is another new feature and provides improved capabilities for using the Communicator in other applications and business solutions. It offers a wide range of functionality including speech recognition technologies in multiple languages and also extended interoperability features. This is also followed by client-side call management services like translations, call details etc. and the ability to kick start applications for setting up call context by all those who are participating from the convenience of the communicator itself.

Microsoft Lync 2010 System Requirements

Like any other software and products being available under various categories, the Microsoft Lync 2010 also depends on certain system criteria which must be met in order to support its service. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 basically needs a 64-bit dual core processor at minimum, although a quad-core processor of equivalent 2.0 GHz is recommended for optimal performance. It requires a memory of around 16GB and free storage space amounting to 72GB having a speed of 10,000 RPM. There must be minimum of one network adapter at 1 Gbps, although having a couple of it is recommended in the manuals being available for it. The operating systems supported for using Microsoft Lync 2010 is a 64-bit Windows Server 2008 which may be of various editions like Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter along with the latest Service Packs which are available. Additionally, it has some software requirements too which must be available within the system. Following are some of the software requirements of Microsoft Lync 2010:-

• Windows Installer Version 4.5
• Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 SP1
• Windows PowerShell v2.0
• Internet Information Services (IIS)
• Windows Media Format Runtime

Microsoft Lync 2010 Availability and Download Details

Microsoft Lync 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 are both launched on 27th October, 2010 which comes under two categories i.e. Microsoft Lync 2010 Standard Edition and Microsoft Lync 2010 Enterprise Edition. They can be purchased from any local Microsoft stores worldwide subject to its availability there. The approximate price of Microsoft Lync 2010 Standard Edition is around 700 USD and the Enterprise edition would cost around 4000USD approximately. However, there is also an evaluation version which can be downloaded free of cost and having a usage validity period of 180 days. The Microsoft Lync 2010 Trial Version can be downloaded from the Microsoft Technet Evaluation Center through the following link.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff808407.aspx

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Raheel Ahmed Khan
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