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OCS 2007 R2 new features (22-Oct-08) |
Microsoft debuts OCS 2007 R2 :
Office Communications server 2007 is already doing
wonder when it comes to IM, live meeting and AV conferencing (with all additional
concepts like communicator web access, archiving etc…). If one thing I ever wanted
to have great improvement at, is the voice thing. It’s already good but somewhere
I thought it’s not as great as other features are. I went through so many sources
and concluded that the next release of OCS (OCS 2007 R2) is coming up with some
real time great improvements and new features as far as voice support in OCS goes.
Microsoft debuted OCS 2007 R2 on 14th
Oct, 2008. This is an update to Office Communications Server 2007. I have been playing
around with OCS 2007 at its best. And it has been the best product I have ever worked
after Exchange versions (Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007).
It is supposed to be released in the first quarter
of 2009.
As per Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft
Business Division at Microsoft, “This new release puts Microsoft on a rapid path
to deliver voice software that does much more than a network private branch exchange
(PBX) and with much less cost.”
As per Microsoft Press Release, OCS 2007 R2
is coming up with the following great features.
Next-Generation Collaboration
• Dial-in audioconferencing. Office Communications
Server 2007 R2 enables businesses to eliminate costly audioconferencing services
with an on-premise audioconferencing bridge that is managed by IT as part of the
overall communications infrastructure.
• Desktop sharing. This feature enables users to seamlessly share their desktop,
initiate audio communications and collaborate with others outside the organization
on PC, Macintosh or Linux platforms through a Web-based interface.
• Persistent group chat. This enables geographically dispersed teams to collaborate
with each other by participating in topic-based discussions that persist over time.
This application provides users with a list of all available chat rooms and topics,
periodically archives discussions in an XML file format that meets compliance regulations,
provides tools to search the entire history of discussion on a given topic, and
offers filters and alerts to notify someone of new posts or topics on a particular
topic.
Enhanced Voice and Mobility
• Attendant console and delegation. This
allows receptionists, team secretaries and others to manage calls and conferences
on behalf of other users, set up workflows to route calls, and manage higher volumes
of incoming communications through a software-based interface.
• Session Initiation Protocol trunking. This feature enables businesses to
reduce costs by setting up a direct VoIP connection between an Internet telephony
service provider and Office Communicator 2007 without requiring on-premise gateways.
• Response group. A workflow design application manages incoming calls based
on user-configured rules (e.g., round-robin, longest idle, simultaneous), providing
a simple-to-use basic engine for call treatment, routing and queuing.
• Mobility and single-number reach. This extends Microsoft Office Communicator
Mobile functionality to Nokia S40, Motorola RAZR, Blackberry and Windows Mobile
platforms, allowing users to communicate using presence, IM and voice as an extension
of their PBX from a unified client.*
New Developer Tools for Business Applications
• APIs and Visual Studio integration. This
improves the efficiency of everyday business processes by enabling businesses to
build communications-enabled applications and embed communications into business
applications.
The above information has been taken from the following link…
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-14OCSR2PR.mspx
Apart from voice centric features, OCS 2007 R2
will have ability of “Group Chat”. “Group Chat” will help geographically disbursed
team to have topic based discussions in a smart and efficient way. Trust me, its
gonna rock! So many companies are in wait and they would be more than happy to implement
it. Its gonna give additional edge to the already blooming OCS 2007 market. It’ll
help OCS becoming one of the most critical applications like an Exchange Server.
Why OCS Admins will have less chance to fight
with the security guys in any company?
Two great improvements are expected with OCS 2007
R2.
You can configure Private IP Address on the external
edge of the AV Edge server, and you don’t need to open media port range 50,000 –
59,999 for the internet users with OCS 2007 R2.
See Jeff’s blog for more information.
OCS 2007 R2 only on 64 bit!
Another interesting thing is that the OCS 2007
R2 will not support 32 bit machines. It means you cant install OCS 2007 R2 on a
machine which is 32 bit. I am pretty much sure that the Messaging Admins would be
ready for this as they have already had experienced it with Exchange 2007. And moreover
this seems to be a good decision in order to ensure the better performance of OCS
2007, with OCS 2007 R2 getting increased loads in form of new voice features like
dial in conferencing and group chat etc.
What are the features I am excited about
at its best!
Dial-in conferencing: It was pretty much
needed. Conferencing without this feature was not as meaningful as it is now. Though
you might still stick with the third party solutions for dial-in conferencing but
still you have it in OCS 2007 R2.
Group Chat: It’s a real big thing and quite
useful. I’ll come up with a different article all together regarding Group Chat
functionality of OCS 2007 R2.
New Certificate Wizard: It’ll help us creating
certificates in much easier way and it’s a great help for those fighting to create
certificate request for edge servers and a communicator Web Access certificate.
New Group Policy Settings: options
to disable IM between clients and automatic software updates would be the highlights
in new group policy settings. Though there are few more interesting policies on
its way on OCS 2007 R2.
CDR & QOE on the same server: It’ll
be possible to co-locate CDR and QoE on the same server and these two can share
the same SQL instance with OCS 2007 R2.
Direct voice mail: You don’t need to call
any contact to leave the voice message. You’ll get option to leave the voice message
directly to any contact without dialing any number.
Trust me, OCS 2007 R2 is more than the above contents
and it’ll be unfolded with time.
Related Links:
Elan Shudnow on OCS 2007 R2
Jeff Scherz on OCS 2007 R2
What Microsoft Press Release says!
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