Microsoft reaches UC goal
REVIEW: OCS 2007 corrals communications but requires heavy infrastructure
By Andrew Garcia g WEEK LABS a full-fledged conference with a mini- Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2007,
Microsoft has been seem- mum of clicks, and new parties will get which provides unified mailbox capa-ingly inching toward uni- invited automatically via e-mail. bilities, is required by OCS on the
fied communications for Once in conference, the system back end. Users can access all their
years, but with Office Communica- has the intelligence to put the focus messages from one location now,
tions Server 2007, the company is where it needs to be. For instance, in with the ability to listen to voice mail
finally there. a videoconference, the video image directly from the computer (no punch-
By integrating VOIP (voice over represents the person actually speak- ing codes into the phone) and return
IP), videoconferencing and instant ing at the time, and it will shift as a call directly from the message itself.
messaging in a single click and with the conversation moves from person Exchange Server 2007 also can archive
a familiar user interface—while layer- to person. In addition, conference Office Communicator chat sessions.
ing on unified mailbox and collabora- participants can share documents OCS lets users check in from PCs
tive work sessions—Microsoft has put or applications, and the conference that do not have Office 2007 installed
together a compelling com- via the OCS Communi-munications and collabora- cator Web Access server
tion solution, particularly for role. Users log in to a Web
companies that are already server to gain access to a
heavy users of Microsoft Web-based Communicator,
infrastructure components. which provides the ability to
For users at such organi- search for users through-zations, the UC tools could out the organization. While
not be much more familiar. users cannot make VOIP
OCS bakes real-time presence calls through this interface,
information into Office (ver- they can initiate IM sessions
sions 2007 or 2003) and Office with other users and for-Communicator 2007, allow- ward incoming calls from
ing users to trigger commu- During a video call, the person you’re talking to shows up in the their office extension to a
nication sessions directly from main screen while your image is in the small screen at bottom right. convenient telephone num-
their contact lists, e-mail mes- ber (such as a cell phone).
sages, shared documents and more. lead can pass application control to OCS is licensed in both Standard
OCS also allows users to easily navi- other parties as needed. and Enterprise editions. The Enterprise
gate among communication modalities, All this experience is meant to occur edition is for companies looking for
with the ability to view other users’ status directly from the PC, with no need for high-availability clustering and costs
across the enterprise to gauge the most a desktop phone at all. I tested OCS $2,790 per server, plus $698 for one
effective communication mode. using a variety of off-the-shelf Web- year of Software Assurance. Standard
For example, User A may see that cams and USB headsets, but Micro- OCS licenses cost $488 per server,
User B is marked “Away,” so User A soft also provided a few accessories plus $122 for one year of Software
sends an e-mail to User B instead of an designed specifically for use with OCS: Assurance. The real costs will likely
IM. User B returns and sees that User a USB handset called the Catalina and start adding up when you include the
A is present. User B responds to User the Polycom Communicator C100 Office Communications Server CALs
A’s e-mail with an IM, at which time personal speakerphone, both of which (client access licenses) and External
User A upgrades to a voice or video provide minimal controls for picking Connector Licenses that will need to
call with User B. Each conversion takes up or dropping calls from the respec- be purchased for users participating in
only a click or two per user. Likewise, tive device itself. Still, the lion’s share of audio, video or Web conferences. (Note:
callers can upgrade a two-party call to control is performed on the desktop. Prices do not [CON TINUED ON PAGE 39]
