Verizon Offers New Management Services for Microsoft Lync ...

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Verizon Offers New Management Services for Microsoft Lync

Verizon today rolled out unified communications management services for large enterprises in conjunction with Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

The New York-based telco has enhanced its existing enterprise offerings with a new service called "Managed Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) for Microsoft Lync." Microsoft's Lync is a unified communications solution that supports voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony, video, Web conferencing and instant messaging for organizations via Web clients and dedicated Lync apps.

Verizon's new service adds to existing planning, architecture and deployment services for UC&C infrastructure that are offered through the company's Enterprise Solutions segment. The new service adds the operations component, including outsourced monitoring, maintenance and performance analysis of Lync Server 2010 deployments. The managed UC&C service for Lync is currently available in the United States, plus 19 European countries. It represents the last piece to Verizon's overall lifecycle support for Lync, which can push the skill sets of organizations, according to Bob Riley, a senior consultant for Global UC&C Product Management at Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

"Beyond the initial user experience or the administrative experience, there's a layer of complexity below it," Riley said in a phone interview about Lync. "Because Lync covers so much ground and so many different capabilities, it can touch a large part of the customer's infrastructure. It requires a really big skill set and knowledge expertise to not only to think about it, but also to deploy it and actually operate it. What we're doing with this service is helping customers through that."

SIP Trunking
In addition to addressing operations with the new service, Verizon sells other services that may be needed by companies deploying Microsoft's unified communications solution. For instance, Verizon offers Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) integration with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This "Verizon SIP Trunking" service is separate from the managed UC&C Lync service.

"Where Verizon comes in and adds value is say you want to call a partner that's not using Lync," Riley said. "You have got to make a call through the PSTN. So what we can do is, through our IP Trunking product, we can bring in what we call a SIP trunk. It's our way to deliver our telephony services or voice calling termination on the PSTN to a customer's Lync Server infrastructure."

The Skype Question
As for Microsoft's integration of its consumer-oriented Skype VoIP service in Lync, not a whole lot has been publicized so far, although Microsoft has indicated there will be a Lync-to-Skype federation for business-to-consumer communications. The Skype part doesn't depend on IP trunking, though.

"When you look at Skype, it's all IP, so you don't have to really go through any gateways or utilize our IP trunking," Riley explained. "So, I really can't comment on how that would be routed, but it would probably be more direct routing between the Lync client and the Skype client. I would suspect that the Lync environment would have to be federated with Skype."

Verizon is a Microsoft Gold communications partner, having formed a strategic relationship with Microsoft on SIP technology going back to 2004, according to Riley. Verizon is a qualified provider of IP trunking with Microsoft through Microsoft's Open Interoperability Program (OIP). "Microsoft qualifies us and we certify them," Riley said.

On the management side, Verizon can provide Tier 1 and Tier 2 technical support, using Microsoft Premier Support Services. The company is a Premier Support for Lync Partner, supporting full Lync services and leveraging Microsoft's help desk resources.

"We can do end-to-end management across technologies," Riley said. "We can look at the application level down to the physical transport."

The actual Lync Server deployment on the backend depends on a number of Microsoft technologies, including SQL Server, SharePoint and Exchange, along with Active Directory and System Center Operations Manager for management. System Center 2012 now works with Verizon's Integrated Management Platform for Advanced Communications (IMPACT) technology, which Verizon uses to assure performance and reliability.

What About Lync 2013?
Currently, Verizon is all set to manage Lync Server 2010 deployments. However, it's a participant in Microsoft's Technology Adoption Program and involved in testing Lync 2013. Microsoft has indicated that the Lync 2013 product will be available sometime in the first half of 2013. Riley said that while Lync 2013 is not available yet, Verizon can help customers now with the planning and architectural phases.

As for whether VoIP services will lower costs for businesses, the jury's still out.

"We have TCO [total cost of ownership] tools that can help customers figure that out," Riley said. He added that with IP convergence, cost savings are seen and people have generally said that VoIP saves money.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is online news editor, Enterprise Group, at 1105 Media Inc.

Source: http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/11/08/verizon-offers-new-management-services-for-microsoft-lync.aspx

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European Space Agency working on using rocket fuel in cars

At first glance, hydrogen seems like a brilliant alternative fuel for motor cars. It burns so clean that all it produces is water, it?s the most abundant element in the universe and it doesn?t need all those rare earth elements and heavy metals that electric vehicles depend on. The only trouble is, it?s very difficult to handle. In an effort to make hydrogen cars practical, the European Space Agency (ESA) and Austrian automotive manufacturer MagnaSteyr are adapting technology developed for the Ariane rockets so that it can be used in cars, as part of ESA?s Technology Transfer Programme.

Hydrogen has a few problems as an alternative to petrol. It has a very low energy density, which means you need more of it to do the same job. Though it burns remarkably clean, most of what the world uses comes from fossil fuels, and there are currently only ten fueling stations worldwide. The two biggest problems, however, are that hydrogen molecules are so small that they can easily slip through seals, and the most efficient form of hydrogen is as cryogenic liquid. True, you can refuel a hydrogen car in minutes, but handling a fuel that's cooled to 33 degrees above absolute zero and won?t stay where it should is the definition of ?tricky.?

Hydrogen fuel tank for the Hydrogen 7 (Image: Magna Steyr Aerospace)

In 2006, BMW unveiled its hydrogen car, the Hydrogen 7. It was based on the 670 Li and could run either hydrogen or petrol in its untuned six-liter twelve-cylinder engine, that accelerated the car from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 9.5 seconds. The hard part wasn't altering the engine. It was how to handle the 114 liters (30 gal) of liquid hydrogen.

This is where MagnaSteyr came in. MagnaSteyr was responsible for the systems used in ESA?s Ariane rockets, which burn liquid hydrogen. The company developed tightly-sealed fuel lines and double-walled storage tanks as well as the technology needed to feed fuel to the engine. The latter is particularly important because a tight curve in a pipe can heat fuel as it passes through, with disastrous results.

An Ariane rocket (Image: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Video du CSG)

?It?s a technical challenge to handle that correctly,? says Gerald Poellmann, the head of Magnasteyr?s Hydrogen Center of Competence. ?The tolerance areas are very small, the sealing needs to be tight, the materials can?t have any cracks, you need to prevent evaporation through the materials.?

This technology not only allowed BMW to adapt the engine to use hydrogen, but also to make a fuel tank that was small enough to fit in the boot, yet could store the fuel for up to two weeks.

The Hydrogen 7 (Image: BMW/Magna Steyr Aerospace)

After several million kilometers of driving, the strengths and limitations of the technology have become apparent, such as the tendency of the cryogenic fuel to boil away. The difficulty in handling the fuel also suggests that hydrogen fuel cells may be more practical, though liquid hydrogen would still need to be handled in any supply system.

Only 100 Hydrogen 7s were built and some are still used by BMW for shuttling VIPs, but many problems still remain. Still, the potential of a fuel medium that can be moved about and handled like natural gas, yet burns much cleaner, means that whether in an internal combustion engine or a fuel cell, hydrogen may make the practical jump from rockets to motor cars. ESA believes that its technology transfer policy will be part of this jump.

Source: ESA

Source: http://www.gizmag.com/esa-rocket-fuel-car/24908/

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