NET acquires SmartSIP from Evangelyze

Good news for users of NET Gateways for their OCS implementations (and future customers ;-) NET has acquired the smartSIP product from Evangelyze -

The SmartSIP product line includes both the SmartSIP and SmartVoIP products. SmartSIP enables UC presence and interoperability for SIP phones while providing integration for Microsoft's Office Communications Server with IP-PBXs and integration for ITSP voice providers. SmartVoIP, a 2008 Internet Telephony Product of the Year, is an extension of SmartSIP that provides branch office integration with Microsoft Office Communications Server.

Read the full press release here.

MS PM comments on CUCiMOC(kup) and the joint Cisco / Microsoft support statement

Take a look at the blog post Cisco: Just Like Any Other Office Communications Server ISV?   for some official words (finally) from Microsoft on Cisco’s CUCiMOC and Microsoft Office Communications Server integration.

He hits the nail on the many questions I have raised at customers, including the supportability problems in terms of integration at the desktop level with program version dependencies and especially the (lost) user experience when using CUCiMOC. Furthermore Currently Cisco is setting a Version 8.0 / Q3 CY10 date for supporting Windows 7 (And also with limited support for 64 bit).

Furthermore (as he also notes) it is important to note the dependencies and lost features (RDP Sharing, Audio/Video/Webconferencing etc – that you would need to buy from Cisco).

Read the joint support statement here  and Haberkorns blog post for more info.

Direct SIP with IP-PBX in OCS 2007

The OCS team has now posted more information on Direct SIP integration with third-party PBX’s and the RFC 3966 “changes” made to accomplish this that I started to discuss in my post Cisco is now a qualified IP PBX for Direct SIP with OCS 2007. Here’s a snippet -

With the hotfixes released in August 2008, Microsoft is significantly improving the capability for Office Communications Server 2007 to exchange calls with SIP-based IP-PBX, in particular from Cisco. As a consequence, Microsoft now supports OCS deployments in Direct SIP with IP-PBX between Office Communications Server and specific versions of Cisco Call Manager.

This change gives administrators the possibility to set up Office Communications Server so that it can directly interoperate with IP-PBX using E.164 globally routable telephone numbers without RFC3966’s mandated “+” prefix. Additionally, Office Communications Server will now be able to interoperate with IP-PBX within a private dialing plan, exchanging locally routable private numbers.

The post continues to discuss these changes in details and is certainly a recommended read. Find it here.

Advanced Topologies for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Networks

AudioCodes is conducting a interesting Web Seminar on the following topics -

Discover advanced topologies for integrating AudioCodes VoIP Gateways into OCS environments, enabling smooth and cost effective migration of existing TDM-based enterprise networks, including:

• Simultaneous Connection to both OCS & Exchange Server 2007
• Drop & Insert configuration for simple and cost-effective PBX connection
• Implementing Fax adapters with OCS
• Enabling connectivity to non-certified IP-PBX and Cisco Call Manager
• And more..

Probably also some marketing related stuff is included, but thats how it is ;-)

Find the links for registration here

Thursday, Jan 31^st, 2008, 10:00AM-11:00AM CET (Central European Time)
Thursday, Jan 31^st, 2008, 05:00PM-06:00PM SGT (Singapore/Hong Kong Time)
Click to register or copy the following url:
https://audiocodes-training.webex.com/audiocodes-training/k2/j.php?ED=2252547&UID=995195367&FM=1

Or

Thursday, Jan 31^st, 2008, 10:00AM-11:00AM PST (Pacific Standard Time)
Thursday, Jan 31^st, 2008, 1:00PM-2:00PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)
Click to register or copy the following url:
https://audiocodes-training.webex.com/audiocodes-training/k2/j.php?ED=2253242&UID=995196892&FM=1

cu there !

OCS/Asterisk integration work in progress

FYI - if you are interested in creating a test environment with Asterisk PBX, then you should take a look at Ryan Newington post on this or better yet subcribe to his RSS feed to get the updates.