By the time you read this post you will have probably read 20 other great blog posts on Lync Server 2013. I know I have after today’s exciting announcements from Microsoft. With that being said, I decided to go ahead and post my own two cents regarding the features I’m most excited to use in Lync 2013.
Video Comes of Age
Could this be it? The time when video replaces audio only conversations? If there ever was a time for this to happen it’s now. With deep Polycom integration in hand, the new video features in Lync Server 2013 could finally get us over that hump where video becomes the standard modality for our daily conversations. Lync 2013 will give us the ability to have high definition (HD) video conferences that can include up to five different active participant video feeds at once.
High Availability, Resiliency, and Business Continuity
This is a topic near and dear to me. Having dealt with high availability and disaster recovery planning for several years, I can sympathize with any system admin trying to plan and implement HA and Business Continuity for any application. Lync 2010 gave us the ability to have automatic fail-over for basic voice features. With Lync 2013 most all features we use day to day can now not only be configured in a high availability configuration, but can fail-over to a backup datacenter using out-of-box capabilities known as “paired front end pools”. Breath easy.. your pools are now protected.
Connect With Anyone,Anywhere, Anytime
Yes I know.. such a marketing term but Lync Server 2013 could make this a reality. The next generation of Lync mobile clients for Windows Phone, Android, and iOS will bring new features such as voice and video over ip as well as the ability to view meeting content. In addtion the new web app will support everything from IMs to voice and HD video all within a web browser. If that’s still not enough to satisfy your connectivity needs, feel free to fire up your Skype client because Skype federation will be a standard feature with Lync Server 2013.
The SharePoint, Exchange, Lync Combo
Talk about a “Better Together” story, these three products releasing at the same time is giving Microsoft some great integration options. Look for more details coming on this.
