Client-Side Benefits
Lync Server takes huge
strides to improve the client experience. Based on hours of user
testing, the Microsoft team released an improved client in terms of
functionality and usability.
Pre-Call and In-Call Quality Feedback
Lync Server users can
determine, in advance, what kind of call quality to expect on a given
call based on real-time feedback from within Communicator. Familiar bars
icons, such as on a cell phone, tell users at a glance how their
network is performing during a call. This provides, for example, a user
currently connected through a public Wi-Fi network the knowledge that
the available bandwidth might not provide a quality experience, enabling
him or her to consider other options for the call.
With location services, Lync
Server has the capability to determine whether multiple users are
joining a conference call from the same physical location or a location
that can cause poor conditions, including feedback. During a call, Lync
Server alerts users, through a pop-up, that they might be causing call
quality issues and suggests actions to resolve the problem, such as
going on mute.
Lync Server users who need to
confirm the quality of a call prior to initiating it can make a test
call to an audio test service. This functionality is built into the
client and provides users who deploy a new audio device or roam to an
unknown network a chance to test their call by calling the test service,
recording a short sentence, and playing the message back.
Private Lines
Lync Server users can have a
private line for incoming calls. This enables calls from important
business contacts and family members to be easily identified and receive
priority handing. Calls to a user’s private number are uniquely
identified on the incoming toast and
with a distinct ring. Calls to private lines override DND and other
redirection settings to ensure that they always route to the user.
Tip
This feature benefits
users who provide their private line to an important caller such as a
priority customer or family member because they know the incoming call
will always ring through to their endpoint.
Call Parking
Have you ever placed a call on
hold and picked it up somewhere else, but didn’t transfer it because
you knew you couldn’t get to the other phone in time? Well, that is a
situation for which Call Park was invented. Now users can park a call in
an orbit number and go to another client to retrieve it. By combining
Call Park with a third-party overhead paging system, an attendant can
answer a call, park it, and page the requested person. Enterprises that
have mobile internal users, such as shop floor or manufacturing
employees, have been using park-and-page for many years. Now Lync Server
users can enjoy the same feature.
Common Area Phones
When considering a PBX
replacement, not every existing phone location can have a PC. Hallways,
lobbies, and transient worker areas are locations that can benefit from
the concept of common use phones. The expense of providing a Tanjay-type
device and the access control requirements (domain account, and
password or fingerprint) made OCS 2007 R2 ill-suited for this task.
With Lync Server,
endpoint devices are available that provide simple calling features by
being plugged in and provisioned by an administrator. These phones
retrieve parked calls and make internal calls without users signing in
to Lync Server.
On recovering from a
power failure or being unplugged, common-use phones automatically
reregister with the registrar. Calling rules for default behavior can be
set using the same management tools that other CS users are managed.
Common-use phones have their own domain accounts in Lync Server.
Hot Desking
For transient areas, common
use phones can be logged in to with a standard user’s account, enabling
the user to make and receive calls wherever logged in. By using a PIN
code or pairing the phone with a PC, transient workers can have all the
benefits of a fully functional Lync Server endpoint wherever they need
it. By signing into a phone designated as a hot-desking location, a Lync
Server user gets a contact list, recent calls, and other
contact-related information where he or she signs in. Hot-desking phones
revert back
to their common-use configurations based on a configurable timeout,
allowing for a touchless user experience. Hot-desking options are easily
managed by group policy settings similar to all other CS users.
Collaboration Benefits
In concert with Microsoft
Office 2010 and Sharepoint 2010, Lync Server is the lynchpin to a
successful enterprise collaboration strategy.
Improved Web Conferencing Experience
Possibly the most
significant change to, and benefit of, the new collaboration tools in
Lync Server is the deprecation of the live meeting client. Lync Server
users can join and manage live meetings through their Communicator
client. Help desk personnel no longer need to explain which client to
use for what kind of call. Simple, tight integration of scheduling and
managing conferences provides a huge confidence boost even for
inexperienced users. With just a few clicks, users can schedule, manage,
and provide content for a meeting. Conference invitees, who do not use
Lync Server, can join Lync Server web conferences by using a new
lightweight client, the Lync Server Attendee online client.
Administrators looking
to provide limited communicator web access to non-Windows or remote
users in OCS deployed Communicator web access (CWA). CWA was a dedicated
server role in OCS. In Lync Server, this role is deprecated and
replaced with the Communicator web app, which is a service running on
the Front End Server.
This topology change
benefits to administrators and users alike. Administratively speaking,
eliminating this server role offers a reduced overall Lync Server server
footprint and simplifies management responsibilities. Lync Server users
accessing CWA can share their desktops, and manage inbound and outbound
calls no matter what OS they used to access the CW application.
In previous versions of
OCS, only Windows users could share their desktops; users could not
receive calls. By bringing these additional options to the CWA
experience, non-Windows Lync Server users are provided with an improved
experience.
Lobby Experience
With Lync Server, after
joining a conference, it is possible to apply a new experience to
attendees that enhances the meeting join experience. This is known as
the lobby. When a
nonpresenter joins a meeting that has not started, she is placed in the
lobby until the presenter joins. In addition, the lobby mode can be
used during a call to avoid the disturbance of people entering and
exiting a conference. The presenter can control when lobby users are
admitted to the conference. This enables a presenter to maintain control
of a meeting, especially one with several attendees.
Multiple Language Support
Users
at multinational enterprises benefit from this new Lync Server feature.
Each Lync Server site can have its own language for meeting prompts.
When users join a meeting, they hear prompts in the language of their
site, regardless of the site of the organizer.
Simplified Join Experience
If you have ever had a difficult
time getting users to connect a live meeting and were confused by the
obfuscated meeting URI in previous versions, fear not. The new
simplified meeting URIs make the meeting-join experience quicker and
more reliable. System administrators can set a simple URL (for example, HTTP://meet.contoso.com)
that will be used by all meetings. This simple URL cleans up the body
of the default Outlook message so that even those unfamiliar with
joining a live meeting can join easily.
Visual Conference Calls
Sometimes, a simple audio
conference is all that is required for quick collaboration. If users
frequently attend audio-only meetings in Lync Server, they will be
presented with a familiar, clear, and concise listing of users who join
their conference. Users can manage their audio conferences with
confidence, using the same interface from which they make individual
calls.
Mute All, DTMF, and Roll Call
Users conducting
large conferences benefit from the mute all option. Using the simple,
familiar Communicator interface, a meeting organizer can mute attendees
to gain control of a meeting or conduct a press conference-type meeting.
Meeting participants can
control their meeting status using the dialpad. This also enables mobile
users to have full control over their meeting experience.
When conducting larger
meetings, Lync Server meeting organizers can obtain an audio roll call
of meeting participants. The recorded name or text-to-speech spoken name
is played to only the organizer, enabling administrators to keep track
of meeting participants.
Meeting Content Control
Collaboration power users
can skip ahead in uploaded content shared in meetings. If you have ever
been in a meeting where the presenter spent too much time on content you
already knew about, you will appreciate this feature. A simple mouse
click returns you to the content currently being shared.
Join from PBX
Users who are not
Enterprise Voice–enabled can still participate in meetings with Lync
Server Communicator. Users who have their extension homed to their
corporate PBX phone
can click the simple meet URL in a meeting invite. Communicator can be
configured to call the meeting participants at their PBX number. This
enables non-Enterprise Voice users to enjoy the benefits of Lync
Server’s advanced UC features as well.
Management and Administration Benefits
Lync Server joins with the
current Microsoft platforms by including functions such as roles-based
administrative access and clear virtualization support.
Central Management Store
From a topology perspective,
the most significant change in Lync Server from its predecessors is its
most significant benefit as well. The CMS is a centralized database of
all Lync Server settings, which is replicated to all servers in a
deployment, including edge servers. The Lync Server topology benefits of
this change are quite significant on many levels.
The centralized management store
- Reduces Lync Server’s reliance on Active Directory domain services replication to remote locations.
- Enables an edge server to be configured as part of the main deployment, significantly reducing configuration errors.
- Is
automatically replicated to each server (and through HTTPS to edge
servers) automatically whenever configuration changes are made to a
topology. This ensures that nonprimary survivable servers are able to
take over their designated roles when required, while being aware of
newly added servers or roles.
- Enables a branch office server or appliance to continue to process calls even if its link to the pool is lost.
Administration Tools
Administrators
familiar with previous versions of OCS undoubtedly know the Installation
Wizard and Microsoft management console (MMC) snap-in that is used to
administer OCS. Beginning with Lync Server, these tools are deprecated
and have been replaced with a more flexible and robust toolset.
Deployment engineers, system architects, and those responsible for the
day-to day-upkeep of Lync Server benefit greatly from these new tools.
Designing even complex OCS deployments is much simpler thanks to the new
Topology Builder client.
Note
Topology Builder is an
application that enables an architect to design and validate a complete
deployment. The output of Topology Builder, the topology document, is
then published to the CMS and replicated throughout the environment
automatically.
By
offloading the design and detailed configuration of Lync Server from
the deployment of the actual server roles, Lync Server engineers can
focus their efforts on the design process, not the Installation Wizards.
Additionally, errors such as FQDN typos are eliminated because topology
documents must be validated before they can be published to the CMS.
The Topology Builder methodology provides an accurate and complete
deployment strategy, one that results in shorter deployment times and
fewer errors.
After your topology is
published and activated, there is still much work to do. Luckily, you
have the Communications server control panel (CSCP). CSCP is a
Silverlight-based user interface that is supported by all major
browsers. Lync Server administrators can manage their deployments from
any machine on the corporate network without having to download
software. Online help is available from within CSCP and enables novice
administrators to perform most common tasks with just a few mouse
clicks.
For tasks not available in
CSCP, or for bulk user operations, PowerShell cmdlets are available for
every option and setting within Lync Server. Windows administrators have
been able to leverage the nearly limitless capabilities of PowerShell
for many types of system management, including WMI and COM operations,
since its introduction in 2006. This capability allows for script-based
operations, third-party extensions, and alternative management
interfaces.
With these new tools
available in Lync Server, Microsoft provides the framework to enable
system administrators the ability to manage Lync Server effectively, and
in a manner that suits their abilities and preferences.
Roles-Based Access Controls
Microsoft Exchange 2010
administrators will recognize Roles-Based Access Controls (RBAC) as the
standard for controlling systems access. Lync Server provides standard,
predefined roles that are applied to users to determine who, what, and
where they can add, view, and change Lync Server data. When logging into
CSCP, a user’s RBAC rules are applied as well. RBAC ensures that
administrators are not given access to more data than they require to
complete their assigned tasks.
With the further
expansion of Lync Server features into the telephony realm, RBAC plays
an important role in Lync Server administration, giving the telephony
group the ability to modify users’ phone numbers, but not any other Lync
Server attributes. With RBAC controls, system administrators can be
sure that their data is safe and in the proper hands.
Virtualization Support
Lync Server supports
virtualization for all roles, within specific guidelines. This
represents a tremendous benefit, enabling Lync Server to leverage the
virtualization infrastructure already present in most enterprises.
Supporting Hyper-V R2 and VMware, many Lync Server scenarios are
supported. Certain restrictions apply, such as branch servers and live
migration of VMs, but overall, VM support represents a significant
enhancement to Lync Server.
Monitoring Benefits
For
Lync Server to become the platform of choice for enterprise-class UC,
it must provide a robust monitoring solution. Lync Server provides a
multitude of call health indicators that provide details, such as MOS
scores and best and worst performing endpoints. This level of
granularity enables administrators and help desk personnel to resolve
issues quickly. When paired with Microsoft System Center Operations
Manager (SCOM), administrators can set up alerts that are linked back to
a CDR record for easy tracking. The monitoring tools provide a clear
and concise view into the health of a Lync Server deployment.
To provide ongoing,
consistent monitoring, Lync Server combined with SCOM can perform
scheduled synthetic transactions. This enables monitoring personnel the
ability to find problems before users do and proactively solve them.
