Customers To Get LCS 2005 In December
Live Communications Server 2005.
Customers and solution providers will be able to test add-on software to foster interoperability with America Online, Yahoo, and MSN instant messaging before year's end, said Dennis Karlinsky, LCS lead product manager with Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration Group.
That interoperability function is slated to ship in the first half of 2005 and will cover all three of the so-called "public" instant messaging networks. "There will be no Chinese buffet style, AOL only, Yahoo only etc.," Karlinsky said via e-mail. There will be an additional charge for that interoperability, but Microsoft is not ready to talk pricing yet.
As first reported last February in CRN, a major design goal for LCS 2005 was to make it easier to federate dispersed servers. Solution providers say connecting remote LCS 2003 servers to ease collaboration among far-flung co-workers is problematic.
LCS 2005, which pairs business-worthy instant messaging and presence awareness, comes in two versions. An Enterprise Edition including 25 client access licenses (CALs) is $3,000 per server and Standard Edition with five CALs is $750 per server, with volume discounts applicable. Last week, Microsoft announced a new IM client, with VoIP and video support. That client will work off this server, and third party servers as well.
Karlinsky said partners are anxious to deploy enterprise-ready instant messaging. This is " a broader and deeper opportunity for partners to supply customized solutions on top of LCS. We're seeing strong momentum in the financial services, professional services," he added.
Microsoft says LCS 2005 fully supports the SIP/SIMPLE protocols that have emerged as standards in the instant messaging world. But rivals maintain that LCS is another example of Microsoft pushing its full software stack on customers while paying lip-service to real interoperability with outside technologies.
"Regarding federation, which is touted as a 'new' feature, LCS 2005 supports interoperability only among LCS servers, confirming [Microsoft's] willingness to create a closed infrastructure around their hijacked version of SIMPLE," said Maxime Seguineau, chairman and CEO of Antepo, a New York company offering it's own corporate IM solutions.
LCS 2005 requires Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise or Datacenter Edition. Integration of presence awareness with portals requires either SharePoint Portal Server or Windows SharePoint Services. SQL Server 2000 running on a separate server is necessary for some tasks.