Microsoft plans big Skype/Lync integration

Ballmer promises Lync won’t be harmed by Skype purchase
Specifically, Lync Online offers PC-to-PC voice and video calling, but not the ability to call landlines and cell phones.

Microsoft has partnerships to bring the ability to call regular phone numbers to customers in the United States and United Kingdom later this year, Gregersen said. But Lync Online still won’t be considered a full PBX-replacement for “quite some time,” certainly not in 2011, he said.

 

Best Microsoft MCTS Training, Microsoft MCITP Training at certkingdom.com

“For full PBX enterprise-level telephony capabilities, we’re going to add more and more functionality over time, but there’s a whole level of on-premises integration with legacy infrastructure, gateways, the old PBXs, IP phones, you name it, that we probably won’t have in the cloud for quite some time.”

Branch office support and 911 capabilities are also challenges for Lync in the cloud, he said.

“Most customers we’re seeing are still wanting to manage telephony on-premises,” he said. “There is so much on-premises legacy equipment, that to open up the cloud to all of that, plus manage devices on-premise, it’s a challenging thing in the cloud environment.”

However, small customers that lack a robust unified communications platform may find Lync Online a step up. Although Lync Online clearly lags Exchange and SharePoint Online, the existence of Lync Online still benefits Microsoft and customers, Gregersen said.

“For us, Office 365 will get Lync in front of a whole new set of customers that we’ve never really marketed to,” he said.

One other tidbit: Gregerson said Lync clients for Windows Phone 7, iPhone and Android are coming later this year, a significant move given that most of Microsoft’s mobile productivity tools are for Windows phones only. (See also: Microsoft’s aversion to iOS and Android gives QuickOffice.)