Cloud-based Lync won’t be immediately available, but could eventually be a viable alternative to in-house software.
Microsoft’s overhauled unified communications platform — Lync — will soon hit the market, and customers will eventually have the option of running the software in-house or on Microsoft’s cloud network.
As Microsoft has done with previous products, the company is releasing the packaged software to customers before upgrading its own cloud service with the capabilities. While Lync on-premise software is available starting Dec. 1, Lync Online will become available in the first half of next year with the full voice capabilities being added to the platform closer to the end of 2011.
With Lync, Microsoft lowers price of Office Communications Server
For customers who don’t need to make a decision right away, cloud-based Lync may be a viable option. Microsoft promises that Lync Online will have all the same end-user features as the on-premise software. Some back-end IT administrative features — like the ability to restrict the number of video calls going over bandwidth-restricted WAN links — won’t be available in the cloud version simply because they won’t be necessary, Microsoft says.
Microsoft already has cloud-based unified communications (UC) with Office Communications Online, the precursor to the upcoming Lync Online. Today’s service includes IM and presence but features beyond that are limited. While the current version has PC-to-PC audio and video calling, it does not have a full telephony system.
All that will change next year with Lync Online.
Initially, “Lync Online will include instant messaging, presence, audio and video conferencing, and PC-to-PC voice calls,” Microsoft says. It won’t be until late 2011 that Lync Online would provide users with their own phone numbers and voicemail, and be a full replacement for PBX systems, says Microsoft Lync Vice President Gurdeep Singh Pall.
One reason for the delay in voice capabilities is the process of building out a partner network to integrate with telecom services, SIP Trunks and the like.
CIO George Bedar of LA Fitness International examined Microsoft’s cloud software and, finding that it lacked phone calling capabilities, went with the on-premise version for his company’s 350 clubs and corporate office. LA Fitness has about 5,000 endpoints, largely computers with Polycom CX200 AND CX300 desktop phones, and plans to upgrade from Microsoft’s Office Communications Server software to Lync.
If Microsoft’s on-premise and online UC capabilities were already on par with each other, as they will be a year from now, Bedar says a cloud-based system would be appealing but also has some drawbacks. Pricing is one tricky issue.
“The question you run into is if you go with the cloud version, you’re paying as long as you’re going to use it, and when you stop paying you don’t have a system to use,” Bedar says.
Perpetual licenses for an on-premise version cost more up-front, but customers can continue to use it for years, theoretically even after Microsoft drops support for the product, Bedar notes. With the cloud, “It’s going to be a low up-front investment and you’re not going to pay a large chunk of money all at once,” he says. “You’re going to pay it over time, but it’s an unending payment.”
For cloud computing in general, Bedar says Exchange and SharePoint are the first Microsoft products he would consider, but notes that his security concerns about cloud systems have not been fully answered.
UniComm Consulting principal Marty Parker, however, says customers should give serious consideration to Lync Online when it does arrive.
Businesses that want to use UC for collaboration with clients and other external users may find Lync Online to be a good fit, he says.
“A law firm might be very attracted to putting Office and Lync workspace in the cloud because that makes it all the easier for clients to participate,” Parker says.
Other customers, particularly smaller businesses, may want to sign up for Lync Online instead of the on-premise version if they are just getting started with UC and want to try it out on a subscription basis, he says.
Although there’s nothing stopping the largest businesses from using Lync Online, Parker says once a business hits a certain size it can probably run its own UCS system for a lower overall cost than it would pay Microsoft for the cloud-based version. That point of critical mass where it’s less-expensive to run Lync in-house will vary by customer, and depend heavily on the efficiency of their own IT processes and systems.
Lync Online will be available as part of Office 365, the next version of Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity services. Businesses with up to 50 employees will pay a fee of $6 per user per month giving businesses access to Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online. Office 365 for enterprises actually starts at only $2 per user per month, just for basic e-mail, but can go up to $27 per user per month for the full package including Lync Online and Office desktop software. Lync Online, by the way, will replace the LiveMeeting service.
The on-premise Lync software available beginning Dec. 1 will be sold through server and client access licenses. Server licenses are $699 and $3,443 for the standard and enterprise editions, respectively. Client licenses will range from $31 to $107.
Both the Lync on-premise and cloud versions will combine “instant messaging, presence, audio, video and Web conferencing,” and be integrated with Microsoft Office, SharePoint and Exchange. Microsoft says both versions will let users search for contacts and then launch an IM, conference or phone call from the same interface.
Pall says large enterprises may be interested in Lync Online, calling it “a great, efficient way to deliver these capabilities.” The cloud service is not built in a way that would exclude organizations of any particular size, but Pall notes that “we do see a lot of smaller organizations prefer to consume these capabilities in a service.”
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