Windows 8 Will Incorporate Comprehensive Skype-Lync Package

Skype was picked up by Microsoft for $8.5 billion last year, and since then Microsoft has been looking at ways for Skype to be incorporated into the Windows environment. The Skype platform has some similarities to Microsoft's UC platform Lync, which Microsoft has been attempting to push, and Microsoft has understandably been trying to extract the concurrences in order to produce more unique systems. The results of this latter project have so far remained unmentioned in detail on the Microsoft Lync blog.

Microsoft Lync's product marketing manager and Microsoft Lync Team blogger, Brian Crum, states that the team has been actively gathering feedback from customers, partners and the analyst community, in order to aide Microsoft in refining the unified communications experience of Lync. In correspondence with the launch of Windows 8, Microsoft will be enhancing Lync, delivering a new, custom-built platform in line with the present mobile-centric world.

The "new Lync" will now have multi-touch controls, HD video compression technology for advanced group video conferencing features, and much better connectivity to OneNote for a shared OneNote real-time experience. However, the most exciting piece of news is that Lync will provide direct connectivity to the Skype back-end, allowing users to connect, IM and Skype users. The level of connection will be direct between platforms, and will make it easier to create cross-platform UC conversations. Users will now have the ability to collaborate without needing an enterprise back-end. As Skype is nearly "platform-agnostic," non-Windows devices will also be able to make use of this service.

Intel-based Windows 8 tablets and ARM-based Windows 8 RT tablets will make this original Lync/Skype integration available. The Lync 2013 desktop client will also compliment this synthesis, as will the extended Lync Web application and Lync apps for iOS, Android, Nokia, Symbian and Windows Phone. It is plain to see that the Windows 8 tablet world has positioned itself strategically across platforms, and have therefore set Microsoft up as de facto arbiter of UC, particularly as many users are already frequently utilizing Skype.

Microsoft is able to attack the UC space aggressively, as is expected of it. The Lync/Skype procedures of Microsoft are en par with Jabber of Cisco Systems Inc., and both companies' plans move us toward a world where UC will enable a common denominator of communication, maintaining the usefulness and productiveness of mobility. True mobile collaboration and connectivity is allowed by UC.

An increased willingness to roll out a mobility plan (which includes a built-in communication platform) will be displayed by companies, and furthermore, those companies already utilizing Microsoft and Skype will find this approach particularly ideal, and will perhaps be more inclined to use the Windows 8 platform for mobile work and mobile collaboration. Emerging UC connectivity, like that of Lync and Skype, sets the stage for enhanced and interoperable UC technologies in the future.

It is important that UC is viewed as a powerful corporate-wide service with impact directed at business productivity and particularly the influx of mobile devices in the workplace. Channel partners should be aware that there will likely be considerable crossover in mobile device management, bring-you-own-device to work and UC space. Those channel partners innovative enough to provide packages which encompass all of these things will most probably benefit in the future. (CY) Link