Robin Gilijamse and I attended LyncConf 2014 in Las Vegas last February. We had a really good time attending parties from the UCArchitects and several other sponsers. We enjoyed some real American food an explored the strip a bit. The weather even permitted a dive in the Resort pool and we generally had a really, really good time.
Keynote
Apart from the good times there where also some tech sessions we have attended. Kicking off with the Keynote was Gurdeep Singh Pall, the Vice President for Lync & Skype Engineering at Microsoft. During the keynote he suggested to replace ‘unified communications’ with the term ‘universal communications’. This signifies the direction Microsoft is heading with Lync. To create a communication platform that is available on any device, at any location and even transcends the boundary between consumer and enterprise platforms as Lync and Skype possibilities will be further developed.
He Announced Full HD video chat will become available between Lync and Skype this summer. Also native interoperability with Tandberg Video Conferencing devices is coming in the near future.
Furthermore they are aiming to create a consistent experience for work and personal situations by bringing Lync and Skype closer together.
Apart from the Tandberg en Skype – Lync video chat there are some more thing Gurdeep addressed. There is a javascript wrapper heading our way that will let you run Lync in a browser. There should be regular updates for the mobile clients. Lync Online will get PSTN dial-in/dial-out support and support for meetings with +1000 users.
More details on this can be found on this blogpost by Gurdeep.
Ecosytem
It became clear while roaming the Tech Expo there are quite a few developers and suppliers of applications and peripheral for use with Lync. From status lights you van put on your desk to Video Conferencing System, headsets, desk phones and Survivable Brach Appliances. It becomes apparent Lync is growing and business is booming.
Fortunately there are quite a few API’s so the number of options is expanding.
This creates opportunity for everyone to expand upon the existing technology and come up with their own solutions. Also it gives customers great choice in all kinds of third party solutions, ranging from headsets, presence lights, to monitoring software and big video conference systems.
Concluding
Lync is serious business. The Ecosystem is getting better and better. Microsoft is going lengths to ensure Skype and Lync will deliver a seamless communication experience. A lot of third parties are creating products to enhance and expand the capabilities of Lync, both through software and hardware solutions.
At this moment Lync is available on a wide range of devices. The Android tablets will be added this year, leaving out Linux and a new client for Mac OS X (they still have a somewhat functioning 2011 client though).
If Microsoft keeps this up, Lync will become a real Universal Communications Solution in the years to come.