Microsoft’s Biz IM Server Goes Gold

After nearly six months of beta testing, Microsoft’s Office Live Communications Server 2005 is ready for prime
time.

The next iteration of Redmond’s enterprise instant messaging product
was released to manufacturers on Tuesday with enhanced real-time
communications capabilities but full-fledged interoperability with
America Online’s AIM and the Yahoo Messenger networks won’t be available
until the first quarter next year.

Microsoft originally announced the interoperability
deal with AOL and Yahoo back in July. That deal called for Microsoft to
pay AOL and Yahoo for access to millions of IM consumers and resell that
access to businesses running LCS 2005.

When it goes live in the first quarter of 2005, the interoperability
service will be sold as add-on modules within LCS 2005.

For the first time, the Live Communications Server will be available
in both Standard and Enterprise Editions and Microsoft said the new
version adds improvements to federated identity capabilities, instant
messaging and presence integration.

With federated ID, two or more businesses can share IM and presence
awareness in real time in an encrypted, authenticated and managed
environment. Microsoft promises that LCS 2005 will eventually allow
users to share presence information and IM with suppliers and customers
using all three major IM networks — MSN, AOL and Yahoo.

The new version also comes with improvements to remote user access;
increased scalability to allow up to 15,000 active IM users per server
and a new tiered architecture using Microsoft SQL Server.

LCS 2005 ships with Windows Messenger as the preferred IM client but
the eventual plan is to adopt the Istanbul
client to power instant messaging, telephony integration and
PC-based voice and video.

Istanbul is currently in beta and is scheduled to ship in the first
half of 2005.

RELATED NEWS AND ANALYSIS

• Ethics and Artificial Intelligence: Driving Greater Equality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  December 16, 2020

• AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  December 11, 2020

• Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  December 04, 2020

• Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 18, 2020

• Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  November 10, 2020

• Top 10 AIOps Companies

  FEATURE |  By Samuel Greengard,
  November 05, 2020

• What is Text Analysis?

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  November 02, 2020

• How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 29, 2020

• Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 23, 2020

• The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  October 16, 2020

• Top 10 Chatbot Platforms

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  October 07, 2020

• Finding a Career Path in AI

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Guest Author,
  October 05, 2020

• CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science

  FEATURE |  By Guest Author,
  September 25, 2020

• Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 25, 2020

• Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2021

  FEATURE |  By Cynthia Harvey,
  September 22, 2020

• NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 18, 2020

• Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 14, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]

  ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |  By James Maguire,
  September 13, 2020

• IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI

  FEATURE |  By Rob Enderle,
  September 11, 2020

• Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality

  FEATURE |  By James Maguire,
  September 09, 2020