Office Communications Server 2007: Microsoft goes VoIP (Part 1)

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Office Communications Server 2007: Microsoft goes VoIP

(Part 1)
Standards and strategic position of Microsoft Office Communications Server platform revealed and
explored.
Published: Jul 25, 2007
Updated: Aug 22, 2007
Section: Articles & Tutorials :: VoIP
Author: Ted Wallingford
Rating: 3.9/5 - 25 Votes

If you would like to read the next part in this article series please go to Office Communications Server 2007: Microsoft goes VoIP
(Part 2)
Microsoft has entered the world of VoIP telephone systems with its Office Communications Server platform. But will Redmond make
an impact in this crowded space? Here, the standards and strategic position of this new product are revealed and explored.

Office Communications Server 2007: Microsoft goes VoIP

Microsoft has officially entered the domain of IP telephony, and the industry is both excited and wary. The excitement is due to the
potential of an all-MS IP communications solution; alongside Exchange messaging, Active Directory, instant messaging, and the
Office Communicator client, a Windows-based IP telephony server certainly has its appeals. The wariness, on the other hand,
probably stems from Microsofts stalwart reputation for flavoring the standards they choose to build their solutions, and perhaps
from their relatively late entrance into the VoIP arena.
Not very long ago - meaning 24 months or so - Microsoft was on record as saying they were not interested in producing a Microsoftbranded PBX (private branch exchange) telephone system. In fact, some people at Microsoft told me that Redmond was looking to
sell software to run on Avaya, Shoretel, and Cisco chassis, in much the same way Windows Server runs on Ciscos CallManager
PBX server. At that time, the standard response was, We would love to sell our software to those guys.

A New PBX Strategy for Microsoft

But, as with all industries Microsoft creeps into, the arrival of a full-blown Microsoft PBX platform was inevitable. The impact of
such a product on the telecom equipment business - and on your business - may be significant. So before we peek under the hood of
Microsofts new unified communications environment, let us take a look at what we know, and what is still a mystery, about
Microsofts rookie VoIP server product.
Earlier this year, Microsoft introduced the beta version of Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS), which took Live
Communications Server 2005 as a starting point and added VoIP support, allowing desktop PCs and IP telephones to place and
receive calls. OCS keeps all of its predecessors features, which included instant messaging with presence and e-mail. New to OCS
is the ability to act as a telephone switch. A telephone switch is a device that connects calls between phones on a network. Typically,
these phones all use the same signaling protocol, be it a legacy standard like those used on the public telephone network, or a
next-generation VoIP standard.
Indeed, because of Microsofts decision to support the VoIP standard known as SIP (session initiation protocol), OCS will support a
wide range of handsets, conference stations, and paging equipment. Users of Microsofts Office Communicator software will also be
able to place and receive SIP-based phone calls. This has sweeping implications for all kinds of telephony applications - imagine a
customer support helpdesk with voice, video, and desktop sharing all integrated into a singularly managed server application, or a
laptop user who is able to take his software-based phone with him anywhere on the network. Sure, none of this stuff is really new its just new to Microsoft.

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SIP also empowers OCS to communicate with other VoIP-enabled PBX systems, allowing calls to be switched between phone users
on an OCS server and those on, say, an Avaya Media Server. This is an important consideration for administrators who are
considering adding OCS to an existing IP telephony network, or for those considering a wholesale switch to the Microsoft-based
telephony solution.
Office Communications Server offers mobility to SIP users, too. While its always been difficult to support mobile users on a
SIP-based PBX, due to problems with NAT firewalls that are so commonly encountered on the road, Microsoft has wisely adopted
the ICE family of standards for mobility and firewall traversal, which it helped to create.
What remains to be seen, however, is just how well an all-OCS phone system performs in an intensive enterprise environment - and
there are some hard limitations. For example, OCSs video-conferencing features work only with on-premise users, though Microsoft
offers OCS users the ability to do off-premise conferences using the hosted LiveMeeting service. Beyond web conferencing, there
have been very few field reports about the SIP capabilities of OCS. SIP is a very capable protocol, allowing set up of video calls,
text messaging, and other forms of streaming media, though OCS is limited in its support of SIPs vast array of media setup
capabilities. This is nothing unique though - most IP telephony vendors who support SIP only support a subset of what can be done
with the protocol. Its not uncommon for a SIP-based PBX to support just telephone calls and not text messaging or video.
Then there is the issue of scalability. Microsofts documentation for OCS indicates that it will function in a multi-server
configuration, for reasons of fault-tolerance and scale. Of course, even with this in mind, Microsoft isnt advising anybody to dump a
current phone system and switch whole-heartedly to Office Communications Server. Beta is beta, after all. Plus, its still not fully
understood if Redmond is positioning OCS against the likes of well-entrenched players like Nortel, Siemens, and Cisco, or if the
desire is to cooperate on telco turf. Ghostly echoes of Novell NetWare abound.
And thats the real issue: Its not exactly clear what Microsofts strategic goals for OCS actually are. Is there any intention of making
OCS the mature, Avaya-slaying warrior that Microsoft geeks have been dreaming of? Or is OCS just another side product that ends up
a free add-in feature (like Sharepoint) or something that gathers dust in the janitors closet at MS headquarters, never really gaining
widespread acceptance or innovating (like ISA Server)?

Open Standards, Closed Platform

Standards purists continue to question Microsofts approach to SIP, despite overwhelming consensus that SIP was the right choice for
OCS. Office Communicator, Microsofts SIP client software for Microsoft Office, only works with OCS - that is, you cant mate it
with another SIP server. So if you need Office Communicator (instant messaging, voice calls, video calls), then youre basically stuck
using OCS. Perhaps at some point, Communicator will get along with other SIP servers, just as Office Outlook supports e-mail
servers other than Exchange.
The stated reason for this limitation is Active Directory. Microsoft wants to deliver a fully-integrated enterprise telephony
experience, and this means leveraging the ubiquitous directory service in OCS and Office Communicator. Just about everybody with a
Windows networking environment uses Active Directory for authentication and centralized resource management, so the implications
for a phone system are obvious. When combined with Exchange 2007s new voicemail features, click-to-call and clickto-voicemail shortcuts within Outlook, the vision of an all-Microsoft telecom network really begins to take shape.

In the Pipeline
Just because Active Directory is central to OCSs functionality doesnt mean that non-PC devices like IP phones will be excluded
from the party. Indeed, Polycom has already shown a WiFi IP phone that runs an embedded version of the Office Communicator
software - and the user interface on this phone is nearly identical to that of the PC version. Microsoft has also demonstrated
unbranded hardphones that contain a Communicator-like interface - with indications for waiting messages, contact lists, and the other
goodies that are a part of the desktop Communicator software.
Microsoft is rumored to be working on a proprietary new sound codec, too, aiming to optimize the quality of calls even in a
low-bandwidth environment. The name or characteristics of this codec havent leaked out yet, but it appears Redmond chose not to
license a codec from market-leading Global IP sound, which produces the adaptive (variable bit-rate) codec currently used by Skype
and other major VoIP players. Whats more, Microsofts codec is software-based, meaning it doesnt require DSP hardware and can
be implemented anywhere Windows runs - mobile devices, next-generation low-cost IP phones, and certainly a future version of
Office Communicator.
In the next installment of this column, Im going to rip the lid off of Office Communications Server and Office Communicator, pit them
against open source alternatives, and get these old hands dirty discovering if OCS is really ready for prime time. I invite you to do the
same. You can download the Office Communications Server 2007 Beta at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/communicationsserver.

If you would like to read the next part in this article series please go to Office Communications Server 2007: Microsoft goes VoIP

23/05/2010 10:58

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http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Office-Communic...

(Part 2)

About Ted Wallingford

Ted Wallingford is the co-founder of Best Technology Strategy Corp. and the author of OReilly Medias Switching to VoIP. Ted has
appeared on NPRs Science Friday and has spoken at industry events like VON Enterprise and Muni Wireless. His blog is at
http://www.macvoip.com/stn.

Latest articles by Ted Wallingford

Office Communications Server 2007: Hands-On (Part 3)
Office Communications Server 2007: Microsoft goes VoIP (Part 2)

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