Skype for Business Server (formerly Microsoft Office Communications Server and Microsoft Lync Server) is a real-time communications server software that provides the infrastructure for enterprise

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

, presence,

VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...

, ad hoc and structured conferences (

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

and

web conferencing Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-l ...

) and

PSTN The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists ...

connectivity through a third-party gateway or SIP trunk. These features are available within an organization, between organizations and with external users on the public internet or standard phones (on the PSTN as well as SIP trunking).

Features

One basic use of Skype for Business Server is

(IM) and presence within a single organization. This includes support for rich presence information,

file transfer File transfer is the transmission of a computer file through a communication channel from one computer system to another. Typically, file transfer is mediated by a communications protocol. In the history of computing, numerous file transfer protoc ...

and voice and video communication. Skype for Business Server uses Interactive Connectivity Establishment for NAT traversal and TLS

encryption In Cryptography law, cryptography, encryption (more specifically, Code, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the inf ...

to enable secure voice and video both inside and outside the corporate network. Skype for Business Server also supports remote users, both corporate users on the Internet (e.g. mobile or home workers) as well as users in partner companies. Skype for Business supports identity federation, enabling interoperability with other corporate IM networks. Federation can be configured either manually (where each partner manually configures the relevant edge servers in the other organization) or automatically (using the appropriate SRV records in the

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various informatio ...

). Microsoft Skype for Business Server uses

Session Initiation Protocol The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling protocol used for initiating, maintaining, and terminating communication sessions that include voice, video and messaging applications. SIP is used in Internet telephony, in private IP telepho ...

(SIP) for signaling along with the

SIMPLE Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by John ...

extensions to SIP for IM and presence. Media is transferred using RTP and SRTP. The live meeting

client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuable ...

uses Persistent Shared Object Model (PSOM) to download meeting content. The communicator client also uses

HTTPS Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It uses encryption for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protoc ...

to connect with the web components

server Server may refer to: Computing *Server (computing), a computer program or a device that provides requested information for other programs or devices, called clients. Role * Waiting staff, those who work at a restaurant or a bar attending custome ...

to download address books and expand distribution lists. By default, supported combinations include encrypted communications using SIP over TLS and SRTP as well as unencrypted SIP over TCP and RTP. Microsoft has published details of supported configuration for qualified vendors through Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program (UCOIP). IM is only one portion of the Skype for Business suite. The other major components are

telephony and

video conferencing Videotelephony (also known as videoconferencing or video calling) is the use of audio signal, audio and video for simultaneous two-way communication. Today, videotelephony is widespread. There are many terms to refer to videotelephony. ''Vide ...

through the desktop communicator client. Remote access is possible using the desktop, mobile and web clients. Several third parties have incorporated Skype for Business functionality on existing platforms. HP has implemented it on its Halo video conferencing platform.

History

When Microsoft Office Live Communications Server was originally launched on 29 December 2003, it replaced the

Exchange Exchange or exchanged may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * Exchange (film), or ''Deep Trap'', 2015 South Korean psychological thriller * Exchanged (film), 2019 Peruvian fantasy comedy * Exchange (TV program), 2021 Sou ...

Instant Messenger Service that had been included in Exchange 2000, but which was removed from the Exchange 2003 feature set. Holders of Exchange 2000 licenses which included Software Assurance were entitled to receive Live Communications Server as an upgrade, along with Exchange 2003; however, Live Communications Server Client Access Licenses were purchased as normal for new users. OCS R2 was announced at VoiceCon in Amsterdam in October 2008, a year after releasing Office Communications Server 2007. Microsoft released Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 in February 2009. The R2 release added the following features: * Dial-in audioconferencing * Desktop sharing * Persistent Group Chat (only available on Windows OS clients) * Attendant console and delegation * Session Initiation Protocol trunking * Mobility and single-number reach Microsoft Lync Server 2010 reached

general availability The software release life cycle is the process of developing, testing, and distributing a software product (e.g., an operating system). It typically consists of several stages, such as pre-alpha, alpha, beta, and release candidate, before the fi ...

in November 2010. Microsoft Lync 2013 was released to manufacturing in October 2012 with SP1 being released in March 2014. In 2015, the new version of Lync became Skype for Business with a new client experience, new server release and updates to the service in

Office 365 Microsoft 365 (previously called Office 365) is a product family of productivity software, collaboration and cloud-based services owned by Microsoft. It encompasses online services such as Outlook.com, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, programs form ...

. Microsoft has stated that general availability for Skype for Business Server 2019 is targeted for the end of 2018.

Versions

* 2018 - Skype for Business Server 2019 * 2015 - Skype for Business Server 2015 * 2012 - Lync Server 2013 (RTM 11 October 2012) * 2010 - Lync Server 2010 * 2009 - Office Communications Server 2007 R2 * 2007 - Office Communications Server 2007 * 2006 - Live Communications Server 2005 with SP1 * 2005 - Live Communications Server 2005, codenamed Vienna * 2003 - Live Communications Server 2003

Client software and devices

Microsoft Lync is the primary client application released with Lync Server. This client is used for IM, presence, voice and video calls, desktop sharing, file transfer and ad hoc conferences. With Lync 2013 there will be a release of Lync Light Client with fewer features. Microsoft also ships the Microsoft Attendant Console. This is a version of the Lync more oriented towards receptionists or delegates / secretaries or others who get a large volume of inbound calls. Persistent Group Chat functionality (introduced with Lync Server 2010) is only supported on the Windows OS client at this time. This requires an additional server or multiple servers for processing group chat transactions. Other client software and devices include: * Lync Mobile is a mobile edition of the Lync Server 2010 client that offers similar functionality, including voice calls via the GSM network, instant messaging, presence and single number reachability. Clients for Lync Mobile includes the IPhone, IPad, Android, Windows Phone 7 and 8. New releases of Lync Mobile 2013 (Wave 2) are anticipated, bringing features such as collaboration and voice and video over IP. * Microsoft RoundTable is an audio and video conferencing device that provides a 360-degree view of the conference room and tracks the various speakers. This device is now produced and sold via

Polycom Poly Inc., formerly Polycom, is an American multinational corporation that develops video, voice and content collaboration and communication technology. Poly is a subsidiary of HP Inc. Polycom was co-founded in 1990 by Brian L Hinman and Jeff ...

under the product name CX5000. * The Skype for Business client is supported by Lync Server 2013, as well as Skype for Business Server. The documentation of Lync 2013 contains references to Lync Room Edition Devices - these are anticipated to provide close to immersive experience. * LG-Nortel and Polycom also make IP phones in a traditional phone form factor that operate an embedded edition of Office Communicator 2007. The physical plastic phones as referred by Microsoft are also named Tanjay Phones. * IP Desk Phones 'Optimized for Lync': Powered by Lync Phone Edition these phones have full support to PBX functionalities, access to calendar and contacts, rich conferencing, extended functionalities when connected to the PC, and integrated security and manageability. Built from the ground up for Lync, these phones come in different models designed to meet specific business needs, including a rich information worker experience, a basic desk phone, common area phone, or conference room phone. Aastra and other vendors offer IP Desk Phones Optimized for Microsoft Lync. * Damaka has Lync clients for Android, iOS (iPhone/iPad), BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows 8, Mac OS X. It provides chat, voice, file transfer, video, and desktop sharing functions. * Fisil has Lync clients for Linux, Android, iPhone, iPad. Linux support: Fisil makes the only available supported Linux client for Lync. The unifiedme.co.uk reference lists a

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn f ...

-based workaround, but according to the information at CERN, it has important limitations. The Damaka reference leads to the Google+ main page and has no information on a Linux client that I could find. The Fisil reference goes to a project management company that can write custom software.

Compliance

Lync Server also has the capability to log and archive all instant message traffic passing through the server and to create

Call Detail Record A call detail record (CDR) is a data record produced by a telephone exchange or other telecommunications equipment that documents the details of a telephone call or other telecommunications transactions (e.g., text message) that passes through th ...

s for conferences and voice. These features can help provide compliance with legal requirements for many organizations. The Archiving server is not an overall end-to-end compliance solution, as archiving requires you to install the Archiving Server and to configure front end servers accordingly.

Public IM connectivity (PIC)

Lync Server also enables organizations to interoperate with four external IM services:

AOL Instant Messenger AOL Instant Messenger (AIM, sometimes stylized as aim) was an instant messaging and presence information computer program created by AOL. It used the proprietary OSCAR protocol, OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow us ...

Microsoft Messenger service Messenger (formerly MSN Messenger Service, .NET Messenger Service and Windows Live Messenger Service) was an instant messaging and presence system developed by Microsoft in 1999 for use with its MSN Messenger software. It was used by instant m ...

, Yahoo! Messenger, and

Google Talk Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users. Google Talk was also the name o ...

. PIC was first introduced with

Service Pack In computing, a service pack comprises a collection of updates, fixes, or enhancements to a software program delivered in the form of a single installable package. Companies often release a service pack when the number of individual patches to a ...

1 for Live Communications Server 2005, PIC is licensed separately for Yahoo, but is free for AOL and Messenger service for customers with Software Assurance. Microsoft announced that effective 30 June 2014, they will no longer support PIC connectivity to AOL/AIM"Microsoft Support for Public Instant Messaging Connectivity"
Microsoft TechNet Video. Retrieved 25 January 2014.

Third-party software support

SIPE plugin

, the third-party SIPE plugin enables third-party clients such as

Adium Adium is a free software, free and Open-source software, open-source instant messaging client (computing), client for macOS that supports multiple IM networks, including XMPP (Jabber), IRC and more. In the past, it has also supported AOL Instant ...

and Miranda NG as well as clients using the

Telepathy Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic ...

framework to support MS Lync Servers with some limitation (Audio but no SRTP, No Video) via the extended version of SIP/

XMPP

Lync Server has an

XMPP Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (abbreviation XMPP, originally named Jabber) is an Open standard, open communication protocol designed for instant messaging (IM), presence information, and contact list maintenance. Based on XML (Ext ...

gateway server to federate with external XMPP servers. With Lync Server 2013, XMPP is natively part of the product. The ejabberd

server has a bridge that enables federation with OCS servers, without gateways (transports).

Competition

Competitors to Lync Server include: *

Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise ALE International SAS, trading as Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, is a French software company headquartered in Colombes, France, providing communication equipment and services to telecommunications companies, ISPs and data providers. The company w ...

br>OpenTouch Conversation
Platform * 3CX Phone System; 3CX Phone System for Windows is a software-based IP PBX * Alceo's BCS Communicator * Asterisk (PBX) Platform - SIP,

ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. ...

, IAX,

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

, open source telephone system *

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

UC and SIP Services * Avaya Aura (tm) Presence Services (with Messaging) and one-X software * Bopup Communication Server; Based on private and secure IM protocol *

Cisco Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, s ...

's Unified Communications Manager IM & Presence (on-Prem) or WebEx Connect Jabber Service (Cisco cloud) * ejabberd * Elastix; Elastix PBX, VoIP email, IM, faxing and collaboration functionality * openUC Enterprise * IBM's Lotus Sametime * iChat Server (see

Mac OS X Server Mac OS X Server is a series of Discontinued software, discontinued Unix-like server operating systems developed by Apple Inc., based on macOS. It provided server functionality and system administration tools, and tools to manage both macOS ...

) * Jabber XCP (from Jabber, Inc., not to be confused with the

IETF The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet standard, Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster ...

open standard An open standard is a standard that is openly accessible and usable by anyone. It is also a common prerequisite that open standards use an open license that provides for extensibility. Typically, anybody can participate in their development due to ...

) * NEC's UCB and UCE * Mitel Micollab * Openfire * Prosody * ShoreTel *

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

' OpenScape * sipXecs * Sun Java System Instant Messaging (see Sun Java System Communications Suite)
Swyx
* Tigase * TrueConf * Vertical Communications
Algoria
TWS In

, the free public instant messaging networks (Google, Live Messenger, Yahoo and AOL) are widely used and represent a degree of competition. There have been attempts by other vendors at providing solutions such as

Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...

's Enterprise Instant Messenger; however these attempts have been largely unsuccessful. An ICQ corporate client and server option once existed, but it is no longer supported or developed. Products such as Cisco Unified Presence Server (Version 6.0.2+) support federation with Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 to provide presence of Cisco IP phones and remote call control of the IP phone from the Microsoft Office Communicator client. The Siemens OpenScape solution offers a federation with the Office communicator, and also an integration into the office communicator, allowing to use the standard functionalities of the office communication suite together with the SIP based voice functionalities of the Siemens platform. The Asterisk telephone platform supports SIP, IAX, and ISDN connections. Most telephones that support these protocols may be used with Asterisk, including software phone clients.

References

External links

*
Lync Dev Center
{{Microsoft Office Microsoft Office servers Microsoft server software Microsoft server technology Instant messaging server software Innovative Communications Alliance products