It says here in this blog post by Kirk Gregersen that Microsoft’s Lync 2010 – the enterprise software formerly known as Microsoft OCS and Communicator – has achieved a major internal milestone. Called “RTM” (meaning ‘release to manufacturing’), it signals Microsoft’s foundational code for “unified communications” is complete enough for mass production and distribution. The next step will be “General Availability”, which is slated for November 17, 2010 – three years (to the month) since the launch of OCS 2007.

Lync’s progress through the Microsoft code mill has been accelerating. We noted the name change in this blog post on September 13. At that time, 120 enterprise customers were already using the software as part of Microsoft’s Technology Adoption Program (TAP). In that previous post, we said that getting details on partnerships was a bit difficult, however that was remedied in this September 14th posting on Microsoft’s TechNet blog. It shows the specifics on 30 hardware, software and service vendors with products to showcase using beta versions of Lync. In addition it claims “more than 400 partners are involved in readiness activities to help customers plan, deploy, manage, and support Lync 2010 when it is generally available later in the fall.”

In the mean time, Microsoft has polished much of its marketing rhetoric to suit the times. OCS 2007 R2 was unquestionably designed for on-premises deployment preferably in an all Microsoft environment. By contrast, Lync is intimately (ahem) linked to a cloud-based strategy that Microsoft calls “extensible and open” while at the same time designed to “minimize legacy infrastructure costs,” which could mean a mass migration to softphones or, as I mentioned earlier, a higher reliance on cloud-based applications and infrastructure.
Apropos moving to the cloud, as Gregersen frames it:

If you caught our Office 365 disclosure last week, you saw that the next version of cloud productivity from Microsoft will also deliver the 2010 suite of products, including Office, Sharepoint, Exchange and Lync, to customers of all sizes. Additionally, Lync Online will federate with consumer communication applications like Windows Live Messenger (now supporting high definition audio and video), and with IM and presence with AOL, Yahoo!, Google and Jabber. Getting connected with others is a beautiful thing!

Agreed! “Getting connected with others” would be a beautiful thing. Whether Lync becomes foundational to the sort of multi-vendor, developer-friendly opportunities that characterize the age of RC (Recombinant Communications) will be determined as Lync goes to GA, Office 365 evolves and developers/partners learn just how open and extensible Lync really is.

Categories: Articles

Tags: Enterprise Software, Microsoft, Unified Communications, IP telephony