Lync Server 2010 Pricing and Licensing Details

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/lync/pricing-licensing.aspx

It is totally more than microsoft office communications server 2007

1. You can virtualize all topologies and we support all workloads, including Enterprise Voice to be virtualized
2. When you virtualize, Scalability is roughly 50% of the scalability offered by a Lync Server 2010 topology running only on physical servers
3. In Microsoft Lync Server 2010, A/V Conferencing service functionality, which normally runs on the Front End Server, can also run in a standalone server role called A/V Conferencing Server
4. If your site has more than 10,000 users, we recommend that you deploy a separate A/V Conferencing pool
5. Lync introduced ‘Survivable Branch Appliance’, which is a new device introduced in Lync Server 2010 that combines a PSTN gateway with a Lync Server Registrar and Mediation Server. This appliance is targeting branch offices who require telephony services in case of WAN failures with the central site
6. In the event a branch office’s WAN connection to a data center fails, the Survivable Branch Appliance provides the following voice features to users in that branch office:
   1. PSTN inbound and outbound calls
   2. Intra-site and inter-site calls
   3. Call hold, retrieve, and transfer
   4. User authentication and authorization
   5. Leaving and retrieving voicemail
   6. Call forwarding, simultaneous ringing, boss-administrator, and team calling
   7. Call Detail Recording (CDR).
   8. All two-party functionality, including instant messaging and audio-video conferencing
   9. PSTN dial-in conferencing with Conferencing Auto-Attendant
7. In Lync Server 2010, the Director is now a unique server role which you cannot home users on it
8. A Director is not designated as either a Standard Edition server or an Enterprise Edition server; it does not require any type of Microsoft Lync Server 2010 license (interesting huh)
9. Collocation of mediation with FE is recommended if you are not using SIP trunking or Direct SIP
10. New to Lync is the ‘Topology Builder’ which is a wizard-driven user interface that you use to create and edit your Microsoft Lync Server 2010 topology
11. With Microsoft Lync Server 2010, configuration data about servers and services is moved to the Central Management store. Read-only copies of the data are replicated to all servers in the topology, including Edge Servers and survivable branch appliances
12. Although most of the Lync configuration is stored in the central management store, the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) are still used to store basic Lync Server user information, such as the user’s SIP URI and phone number
13. The Lync Server 2010 Management Shell is a new method of administration and management
14. Lync introduces role-based access control (RBAC). Lync Server 2010 includes 11 predefined roles that cover many common administrative tasks
15. Administration console is no longer using MMC, Lync Server Control Panel replaces the MMC administrative interfaces of previous releases
16. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 introduces DNS load balancing for load balancing for SIP and media traffic (you will still need hardware LB for other traffic such as HTTP however this is the easiest part in configuring a HW load balancer)
17. DNS load balancing is supported for Front End pools, Edge Server pools, Mediation Server pools, and Director pools
18. Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee is a new downloadable client that enables users without Microsoft Lync 2010 to attend meetings
19. You manage Edge Servers from the internal network. All configuration data for servers and services resides in the Central Management database, which you can manage by using internal administrative tools
20. Lync Server 2010 introduces support for integration with hosted Exchange UM
21. Lync supports Enhanced 9-1-1 (E9-1-1) as part of your Enterprise Voice deployment
22. New for the Mediation Server in Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is the ability for a single Mediation Server to route outbound calls through multiple gateways
23. Also new for Lync Server 2010 is the ability for a Mediation Server to be deployed as a pool; this pool can be collocated with the Front End pool, or can be a standalone pool
24. Malicious call tracing enables users to flag incoming calls which are harassing, threatening, or obscene. Immediately after hanging up, the user can select an option to report the call as malicious. If they do so, a trace request is sent to mark the record of the call, and an event is logged
25. Lync introduced the concept of ‘Anonymous call’ in the Response Group feature, when a response group is so configured, agents can accept incoming and make outgoing calls on behalf of the response group without revealing their identity (Anonymous call). Anonymous calls do not support conferencing, application sharing and desktop sharing, file transfer, whiteboarding and data collaboration, or call recording
26. Archiving policy settings for both IM and meetings are unified. The core archiving store contains both IM content and Web conferencing attendee entries and exits consolidated together
27. You can do searchable transcript of archived information without the need for scripts
28. In Microsoft Lync Server 2010, the Group Policy settings used in previous Office Communications Server releases are now controlled by in-band provisioning client policies that are server-based.
29. Lync 2010 clients can now receive updated software from Windows Server Update Service (WSUS) or Microsoft Update instead of from a location hosted on Lync Server 2010
30. Lync Server 2010 provides support for analog devices. Specifically, the supported analog devices are analog audio phone and analog fax machines. Now you can configure the analog gateways and devices in your organization to use Lync Server 2010. After you do this, analog devices use Lync Server to make and receive calls, and Lync Server makes routing decisions and log calls in call detail records (CDRs) for analog devices, just as it does for any device

Powerpoint Whiteboard and New Poll are not activated ????

I faced to a serious and unidentified error while i am doing my first lync installation. I Saw my Powerpoint Whiteboard and new poll buttons are not enabled. Due to Lync is new to me I thought it was an error with certificate configurations and I went through every certificate and analyzed. But every things are correct. Then I asked about it from one of my friend who works with Microsoft. Aftr That I understood while I am not in the meeting I cannot see thease options.

Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee (RC) - User Level Install

As I told you earlier, Microsoft Lync is new name for Office Communications Server. It is most powerful and reliable tool for solve communication troubles that occurs within an organization.

Microsoft Live meeting released with OCS 2007 R2 has now changed to Microsoft Lync Attendee. But in Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendee is a conferencing client that allows users without Microsoft Lync 2010 installed.to participate in online meetings. If you are not an administrator on the computer but an administrator has allowed you to perform installations, you can install this application.

Overview

Join Meetings

With Lync 2010 Attendee, a user can join a meeting in one of two ways:

1. As an unauthenticated user, by providing a guest display name.
2. As an authenticated user by providing corporate credentials.

Depending on how the organizer has set up the meeting, the user will either join the meeting immediately or wait in the lobby until a meeting presenter admits the user.

Latest Videos found From Microsoft

http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica

Upgrade Communicator 2007 to Lync 2010

Just like previous versions, you can perform an in-place upgrade directly to Lync 2010 client (release candidate) from Communicator 2007 R2. You will be prompted to close any affected applications that are opened at the time of running setup for the Lync 2010 client. At the end of installation, you can choose to start and run the Lync client to get online immediately.