Microsoft Lync PRODUCT OVERVIEW

So, what is Lync? Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is the successor to Office Communicators Server, and Live Communications Server before that. Although most people might be familiar with Lync as an enterprise instant messaging solution, it's a lot more than that when you take advantage of all the features it has to offer.

Lync adds value to the Microsoft applications that you use every day: Office and SharePoint. It provides a unified communication and collaboration experience across Office and SharePoint, providing the same way to start an instant message, audio call, or desktop sharing session with a contact regardless of the application you are working in. The new Lync client (the replacement for Microsoft Communicator) enables you to connect with people within your organization by allowing you to perform a skills search to find coworkers with a particular skill. The Lync skills search queries users’ My Sites for skills that they have indicated expertise in.

Lync provides a built-in conferencing solution that you can use to schedule and host online meetings with contacts both inside and outside your organization. Online meetings are easy to create by scheduling them in Outlook, or by selecting a list of contacts in Lync and starting an ad-hoc meeting. For users outside your organization who don't have the Lync client installed, the Lync Web App — the successor to LiveMeeting — enables them to join your online meeting and participate in your application sharing session. Attendees can dial in to a conference call, or have the Lync Web App call them back on a number they provide. A new conference lobby experience allows presenters and the meeting organizers to exercise more control over the online meeting by notifying them when people outside the organization join the meeting and providing them with the option to admit these visitors (or not) into the meeting.

The Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Control Panel is a new Silverlight-based tool for administering a Lync deployment; it includes functionality to:

• Manage users
• Manage the various servers in the Lync topology
• Configure instant messaging and presence
• Create and maintain voice dialing plans
• Configure conferencing
• Monitor the quality of service in the deployment
• Adjust bandwidth utilization

Administrators can alternatively use PowerShell to execute management scripts in the topology. The Lync Server Management Shell provides an experience that Exchange and SharePoint administrators are already familiar with from managing their environments using PowerShell.

Now that you know a little bit about the functionality offered by Microsoft Lync Server 2010, it's time to learn about the development tools that you use to build communications functionality into your applications.