Lync Server Portal  >  Lync Server 2010 Overview

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 is Microsoft's Unified Communications offering. It is the latest generation of the product previously know as Office Communications Server.

Lync 2010 in a Nutshell

• Presence and instant messaging
• Single and multi-party voice and video conferencing
• Web conferencing ... application and desktop sharing
• Dial in audio conferencing
• Response Group Service .... basic ACD functionality
• API at the client and server level to allow enhancements and new functionality to be developed
• Integration with Exchange (Voicemail, Autoattendant and Free/Busy) and Sharepoint (Skill Search)
• Archive of communications
• Enhanced PBX Interoperability
• Malicious call tracing
• List to be completed

Lync 2010 New Features (beyond OCS 2007 R2)

• Enhanced virtualization support. Lync Server can be virtualized in both small and enterprise topologies.Lync Server virtualization
• The A/V Conferencing service functionality can run in a standalone server role, and can also be deployed as a load-balanced pool. It can even be virtualized.
• New management tools, including the Lync Server 2010 Management Shell, (a Windows PowerShell based managing tool) and the Lync Server 2010 Control panel (a web-based management tool).
• DNS Load balancing is supported for Front End pools, Edge Server pools, Mediation Server pools and Director pools.
• Central and Branch Site Resiliency. Enhanced client registration, discovery and routing provide Central Site Resiliency and Branch Office Resiliency that provide certain voice features with pool or server failures or outages.
• Call Admission Control (Bandwidth Management) has been added to prevent poor call quality.
• Mediation Server Bypass allows the flow of media to bypass the Mediation Server. This reduction of server workload allows the Mediation Server role to collocate with the Front End server.
• Emergency Dialing (E9-1-1). This feature provides calling party’s telephone and physical address the the Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).
• The Call Park application makes it possible to put calls on hold and and then retrieve it later from any phone.
• Some new Conferencing features: the lobby provides a place for meeting attendees to wait until a meeting starts, DTMF commands during calls, recorded name announcement, simpler meeting URLs.
• Some new client features include: Activity Feeds lets you see “social updates”, photographs in contact lists, message waiting indicator for some devices, contact search, expanded contact cards, single unified contact store, enhanced access levels and privacy options.
• Unlike earlier versions, Lync Server 2010 provides support for analog devices such as analog Fax machines. You can now configure the Analog gateways in your organization to use Lync Server 2010 to make and receive calls.
• Lync Server 2010 introduces support for integration with hosted Exchange UM. This enables

Lync Server Roles

Lync Server 2010 is built by deploying server roles to meet the functionality, scale and resilience needs of the Enterprise.

• A/V MCU (stand-alone or collocated; optional, stand-alone recommended for large deployments)
• Lync Archiving   
• Lync Director 
• Lync Edge    
• Lync Front End 
• Lync Group Chat 
• Lync Mediation Server
• Lync Monitoring
• SQL Backend for Lync   
• Survivable Branch Appliance  

Lync Server Wiki Navigation

Use the following links to navigate the Lync Server wiki:

• Lync Server 2010 Overview
• Lync Server 2010 Articles
• Lync Server 2010 Blogs
• Lync Server Resources
• Lync Server 2010 Documentation Bugs

Key Links

• Lync Server TechCenter
• Lync Server Technical Library
• NextHop blog
• DrRez blog
• DrRez on Twitter
• DrRez on Facebook
• Lync PowerShell blog
• Lync Client Team blog
• Office 365 Community site
• Lync TechNet Forums
• Microsoft Customer Support Services

See Also 

• Wiki: List of Technologies and Related Topics

Other Languages

• Wiki: Lync Server 2010 Panoramica (it-IT)

Feedback

Your feedback is welcome! To provide feedback, comment directly on a TechNet Wiki page or send to the Lync Server TechNet Wiki alias.

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