Microsoft OCS integrated or interoperable?
Posted on November 11, 2007
Filed Under nortel cs1000, mitel 3300 icp, cisco ip telephony, tandberg, opinion, polycom, microsoft office communications server 2007 |
Microsoft’s Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) is the first Microsoft product to manage voice, instant messaging, presence and video conferencing functionality. Since the formal launch of OCS less than a month ago there have been several announcements confirming integration or interoperability with established video conferencing and IP telephony platforms. So what is the difference between integrated and interoperable and why is it important?
Interoperable means two disparate platforms communicating via a common interface using standards based protocols. This is the minimum to expect from enterprise communications technologies. Platform that do not have interoperability abilities become standalone and with time show less and less business benefit.
The objective of integration is to make disparate platforms appear as one platform. With integration the result should be a combined platform more powerful than the parts. In general, integration insures advanced features that depend on proprietary signalling are transparent across the integrated platform.
It is a fact of technical development that advanced features start life as proprietary offerings before working their way (sometimes after many years) to standards based variants. As a result platforms that are only interoperable, and based on standards based communication, often have significantly less feature rich functions when compared to their integrated peers.
Unfortunately integrated platforms usually depend on commercial agreements being reached between the platform owners. If there are no agreements in place integration will be unlikely.
For video conferencing a quick summary of the key integration/ interoperability announcements with OCS include;
- Polycom, has announced integration of their standard definition video conferencing VSX range. A Microsoft Communicator user (Communicator is the OCS desktop client - see image) can see the status of a VSX end point and vice versa. In addition, click-to-call features and a central phonebook are promised. This announcement is part of a strategic alliance between Microsoft and Polycom which has already seen Polycom announce a series of VoIP handsets for use with OCS.
- Tandberg has not gone quite so far as to announce integration with OCS, rather it has announced interoperability.
Microsoft OCS is interoperable with most PBX environments given a mediation gateway with the correct configuration. Direct integration using SIP is also available with selected vendors including;
- Nortel through its strategic alliance with Microsoft (the ICA - Innovative Communications Alliance) has announced that the Nortel CS1000 PBX range is integrated with OCS.
- Mitel has announced integration of its 3300 ICP IP Telephony platform with OCS.
- Cisco has announced integration with its Unified Communications platform.
Any enterprise considering deployment of Microsoft OCS2007 should understand the integration and interoperability considerations for their existing or planned video and voice technologies. Hopefully the above information assists getting started in the right direction.
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