14 DAY TRIAL // The second half of 2010 will bring with it the next iteration of Office Communications Server. A specific availability deadline was not offered for codename Communications Server “14”, however, Microsoft already provided the first taste of the product. Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Office Communications Group, demonstrated Communications Server “14” publicly for the first time at the VoiceCon Orlando 2010 conference on March 24. Customers can get a feeling of the next generation of Office Communications Server via the screenshots at the bottom of this article.
“At VoiceCon, we’re demonstrating and talking about Communications Server ‘14’ for the first time anywhere. We are also sharing our vision for the future of communications. We see a future where communication is more open, costs less, and is easier to use – and it is always at your fingertips in a variety of applications,” Pall noted.
Microsoft’s software-centric vision of unified communications is evolving to produce a complete communications solutions with the advent of Communications Server “14.” The promise from the Redmond company is that the next version of the UC solution will bring to the table support for enterprise telephony, in addition to other software-enabled communication capabilities.
Work has been done in order to ensure that Communications Server “14” will fit seamlessly into IT infrastructures that are already running Microsoft Technologies. The next version of the company’s unified communications software would integrate with Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 and Exchange 2010, Microsoft revealed. At the same time, Communications Server “14” is designed to act as a platform that will support applications featuring embedded communications.
“With software at the center, innovation in this industry has accelerated, leading to the introduction of new capabilities that leapfrog traditional hardware-bound communications systems,” Pall added.
Microsoft hasn’t exactly made public data related to the success of previous versions of Office Communications Server. However, the company did indicate that uptake was extremely strong. Adoption for Communications Server grew by double digits in the past three years, and in excess of 70% of the Fortune 100 are already running OCS, with seven of the top ten pharmaceutical companies, eight of the top ten aerospace companies, and nine of the top ten banks having also embraced the technology.
Still, there is even more room for growth in the market for unified communications software, which is poised to hit $14.5 billion by 2015, according to Forrester Research forecast.
