Microsoft Lync connects people everywhere as part of their everyday productivity experience. When issues in the underlying IP network affect a user’s Lync experience, unified communications (UC) managers need to solve those problems immediately. Unfortunately, many service assurance solutions on the market today fall short and do not capture all the information necessary or automatically correlate related issues back to these root causes. In addition, the number of costly third-party probes required at each endpoint in a Lync UC routed network can exceed what many companies can afford.

This paper will discuss how NetSocket's Cloud Experience Manager's (CEM) unique integration with the Microsoft Lync Network Diagnostics API can provide the insight required to anticipate, isolate and remediate voice, video and data issues in Lync and hybrid UC environments. It also describes a demonstration of how CEM resolves Lync issues in a real-world scenario.

It’s been a long road, but the initial release of the Exchange 2013 Server Role Requirements Calculator is here. No, that isn’t a mistake, the calculator has been rebranded.  Yes, this is no longer a Mailbox server role calculator; this calculator includes recommendations on sizing Client Access servers too! Originally, marketing wanted to brand it as the Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 Client Access and Mailbox Server Roles Theoretical Capacity Planning Calculator, On-Premises Edition.  Wow, that’s a mouthful and reminds me of this branding parody.  Thankfully, I vetoed that name (you’re welcome!).

The calculator supports the architectural changes made possible with Exchange 2013:

Client Access Servers

Like with Exchange 2010, the recommendation in Exchange 2013 is to deploy multi-role servers. There are very few reasons you would need to deploy dedicated Client Access servers (CAS); CPU constraints, use of Windows Network Load Balancing in small deployments (even with our architectural changes in client connectivity, we still do not recommend Windows NLB for any large deployments) and certificate management are a few examples that may justify dedicated CAS.

When deploying multi-role servers, the calculator will take into account the impact that the CAS role has and make recommendations for sizing the entire server’s memory and CPU. So when you see the CPU utilization value, this will include the impact both roles have!

When deploying dedicated server roles, the calculator will recommend the minimum number of Client Access processor cores and memory per server, as well as, the minimum number of CAS you should deploy in each datacenter.

...

Full article on Exchange Team Blog.

As you may have already noticed, earlier this week we opened up our Tech Preview program for optimized support of the Microsoft Lync™ 2013 client to all current Citrix XenApp customers under active Subscription Advantage. This phase of the Tech Preview program gives our customers the opportunity to evaluate the Citrix Receiver Display Adapter that integrates with Microsoft’s Lync™ 2013 VDI Plug-in for Windows. The Display Adapter plug-in has been posted on the Citrix Downloads page under “Citrix Receiver” in the “Betas and Tech Previews” section (visible to Citrix customers and partners after login).  Please use the Support Forum to provide feedback or request assistance from the community.

Full article and Q&A on Citrix Blog.

Transform your meetings with the SMART Room System for Microsoft Lync. An integrated, turn-key hardware solution, it combines SMART’s industry leading interactive displays with Microsoft Lync to enable rich audio, video and data collaboration. This helps engage every meeting participant by enabling them to contribute ideas in more creative ways and provides them with a more inspired way to collaborate.

Overview

The Lync 2013 RASK Core Planning Resources contains three pivotal documents designed to help plan and execute your rollout and adoption strategy for Lync 2013. Intended for use with the Lync 2013 Rollout and Adoption Success Kit (RASK), this download includes the following three core resources:

• Lync Deployment Readiness Report This customizable report helps you define your success metrics and gauge readiness to move between the rollout phases of RASK. In addition, this report enables you to track your rollout progress across various work streams and stakeholders, making it an ideal resource for keeping project teams aligned and for sharing progress with key decision makers or executive sponsors.
• Lync Deployment Readiness Report Guide This guide describes how to customize the Lync Deployment Readiness Report and apply it to your own situation and project goals.
• Lync Rollout and Adoption Workbook Essentially a comprehensive project plan template, the Workbook details individual tasks across the defined phases and focus areas and allows you to track day-to-day activities to completion. The Workbook is a complement to the Deployment Readiness Report which enables a more holistic view and determine "go/no-go" decisions at the major milestones of your deployment.

It is highly recommended that you also leverage all of the valuable templates and resources available for RASK, available for download at Lync 2013 Rollout and Adoption Success Kit (RASK)Resources.  

General Counsel & Executive Vice President, Legal & Corporate Affairs, Microsoft

Today, we are releasing our 2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report. This is our first Law Enforcement Requests Report. It provides data on the number of requests we received from law enforcement agencies around the world relating to Microsoft online and cloud services and how we responded to those requests. All of our major online services are covered in this report, including, for example, Hotmail, Outlook.com; SkyDrive; Xbox LIVE; Microsoft Account; and Office 365. We’re also making available similar data relating to Skype, which Microsoft acquired in October 2011.

We will update this report every six months.

Our Perspective

In recent months, there has been broadening public interest in how often law enforcement agencies request customer data from technology companies and how our industry responds to these requests. Google, Twitter and others have made important and helpful contributions to this discussion by publishing some of their data. We’ve benefited from the opportunity to learn from them and their experience, and we seek to build further on the industry’s commitment to transparency by releasing our own data today.

Like others in the industry, we are releasing publicly the total number of requests we receive from law enforcement in countries around the world and the number of potentially affected accounts identified in those requests.

We are also publishing additional data that we hope will provide added insights for our customers and the public who are interested in these issues. For example, we are providing more detailed information that shows the number of law enforcement requests resulting in disclosure to these agencies of “customer content”, such as the subject line and body of an email exchanged through Outlook.com; or a picture stored on SkyDrive. We similarly are reporting on the number of law enforcement requests that result in disclosure only of “non-content” data, which includes account information such as an email address, a person’s name, country of residence, or gender, or system-generated data such as IP addresses and traffic data.

Read more

If your organization uses Lync, you can download a Microsoft Lync 2013 app for your mobile device to stay connected on the go.

• For a list of features supported on each mobile device, see the Mobile Client Comparison Tables* in the Microsoft TechNet library.
• For known issues, see Lync 2013 known issues and go to the Lync Mobile (release) section.

This page lists the mobile devices for which Lync 2013 mobile apps are available. Also included are links to resources that will help you get started with using Lync 2013 on your mobile device.

Communicate anytime anywhere: Lync now! 11 april 2013

A spreadsheet for calculating a user’s hardware requirements for a Lync 2013 configuration based on information that the admin supplies about number of users, types of communication, and expected traffic. Includes a Microsoft Word document explaining the tool and how to use it.

LINK

PST Capture 2.0 is used to discover and import Outlook Personal Folder (.pst) File Format files into Exchange Server and Exchange Online. PST Capture helps an organization that wishes to gain more control over their email data repositories by placing them into Exchange. By optionally installing PST Capture Agents on target machines, administrators can determine where .pst files are located and who their file owner is via the PST Capture Console. Administrators can import .pst files via Import Lists to Exchange Server or Exchange Online. Data can be directly imported into the primary mailbox or associated archive mailbox.

The following improvements have been made in PST Capture 2.0:

• Support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 is added.
• Fix profile generation code to use "RPC over HTTP".
• The UI is no longer limited to 1000 users when performing an online import.
• Fix issue in which online import fails when PST Capture is not installed on Exchange server.

To download the PST Capture 2.0, please go to the following Microsoft website:

(Tony Bates - President Skype division at Microsoft) I’m excited to be in San Diego today giving the inaugural Lync Conference keynote address. We have a sold out show with our growing community of customers, partners and Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs). Key industry influencers from the analyst and press communities have joined us as well.

From the living room to the boardroom: Our vision for the future of communications
I am excited to outline our vision for the future of communications in my keynote today. It’s about re-humanizing communications “from the living room to the boardroom.” People are at the center of this vision. All day, every day, we are all simultaneously consumers and professionals, friends, family and colleagues – and our communications technologies need to move between these dimensions as seamlessly as we do.

Today people adapt to the requirements of technology. Multiple devices, applications and networks each have their own rules and identities and require that we conform to them. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Our vision puts people first by focusing on these core fundamentals:

• People-centric design. Creating a common user experience that’s simple, convenient and natural.
• Access and reach. Breaking down the barriers that separate one channel from another to allow people to communicate how and when they want.
• Endpoint device choice. Designing services that fit the devices people choose and how they use them.
• Security, reliability, services. Taking care of reliability and security so people can focus on conversations and content.

Lync 2013 momentum
Today we are also celebrating the momentum we have on Lync in the enterprise. Specifically:

• Enterprise voice growth. We now have 5 million seats of enterprise voice deployed, up from 3 million just 14 months ago.
• Large customers. 90 out of the Fortune 100 companies are Lync customers.  We have been honored by the adoption of Lync and I encourage you to check out the new customer references we have for Lync 2013 available as of today.
• Partners are betting on Lync. Our partner ecosystem continues to grow. We now have 1000 partners that have chosen to bet their business on a software-centric solution for communication. This means that, since launching Lync 2010, every business day a new partner is choosing to become a Lync partner.

More on Official Microsoft Blog

 Six years ago Exchange took a bold step forward in product servicing. With Exchange Server 2007 we shifted to a cumulative model to deliver customer rollup updates (RU’s) instead of a traditional hotfix model. A primary benefit to customers was a simplified delivery mechanism where many updates could be delivered in a single package. Tracking and installing multiple individual packages was no longer required. Delivering a smaller update package more frequently also allowed customers to introduce changes in a controlled fashion more quickly. This servicing model has served many customers well but not all. A challenge for some customers has been that the rollup update model has not delivered security fixes separately, requiring customers to install additional fixes when applying a security fix.

At the same time, the way customers use Exchange has encountered an equally dramatic shift. Many customers have moved their messaging environments entirely to the cloud and an increasing number are deploying hybrid environments with mailboxes split between on-premises and the cloud, functioning as a single Exchange Organization.

Considering all of these points, the Exchange team is announcing a new servicing approach for the Exchange Server 2013 product. The new model attempts to take the best of what we’ve been delivering, address challenges where possible and recognize the shift in how customers deploy Exchange.

More on The Exchange Team Blog.

  Office 365 Wave 15 is bijna GA

Office 365 Wave 15 (2013 releases) staat voor de deur. 6 Maart organiseert de Office 365 User Group dan ook een bijeenkomst. We zullen ingaan op de transitie, SharePoint Online development, deployment van Office 2013 met Click2Run en Yammer (binnenkort onderdeel van SharePoint Online).

De bijeenkomst vindt plaats op 6 maart van 18:00 tot 21:00. De sessies starten om 19:00 uur.

De locatie is bij Wortell, Lijnden.

Schrijf je in via: http://office365usergroup.eventbrite.nl/

We willen ook graag je mening hebben over de User Group. Zou je daarvoor de volgende vragenlijst willen invullen?

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VQBR7FX

Hopelijk tot de 6^de!

Albert-Jan Schot

Jasper Kraak

Danny Burlage

Global Knowledge heeft als de opleider van Microsoft Communications oplossingen de eerste LYNC 2013 trainingen gepland.

Voor de ervaren LYNC 2010 gebruikers was er al een LYN2013 Ignite training, maar nu zijn ook de volgende reguliere “MOC” titels gepland.

• M20336, Core Solutions of Microsoft Lync Server 2013 
  Deze training geeft mensen met een achtergrond in Microsoft Server- en Netwerkbeheer voldoende kennis voor het examen 70-336.
     
• M20337, Enterprise Voice and Online Services with Microsoft Lync Server 2013
  Dit is de vervolgtraining van M20336 en komt medio mei beschikbaar. Deze training bereidt voor op het examen 70-337.

  Klik hier voor een volledig overzicht van onze Microsoft trainingen

The Delivering Lync 2013 Real-Time Communications over Wi-Fi white paper is now available from the Microsoft Download Center. This white paper describes how Lync 2013 communications software on multiple platforms and device types is now validated with voice and video (real-time media) workloads over wireless local area networks (Wi-Fi networks). The guidance and documentation provided here also applies to Lync 2010 deployments and earlier releases. However, full Wi-Fi support is available only with a Lync 2013 client. Changes in the Lync media stack available with Lync 2013 improve overall performance on high-loss, high-jitter wired or wireless networks.

To optimize the wireless infrastructure, in particular for real-time media traffic, this white paper provides details regarding Wi-Fi (WLAN) technology, configuration settings, and optimization.

In addition, this white paper provides deployment recommendations and evaluates typical enterprise, public hotspot, and home Wi-Fi deployments for real-time bidirectional media quality.

To download the white paper, see Delivering Lync 2013 Real-Time Communications over Wi-Fi.

Author: Peter Schmatz, Microsoft Senior Program Manager

Technical Reviewers: Amer Hassan, Pascal Menezes, Victoria Poncini

Editor: June Rugh

Publication date: January 25, 2013 on Nexthop

Product version: Lync Server 2013, Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Lync Server 2010, Windows 7, Windows 8