Just this morning Microsoft has announced, by way of Twitter and new posts on the Office and Skype blogs that the Lync Server product will be rebranded as Skype for Business.
Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Skype, Gurdeep Singh Pall, released the following message to Twitter coinciding with the official blog articles confirming the hunches of many in the industry on how Microsoft would ultimately tie the Lync and Skype products even more closely together.
The articles do not go into much detail at all about exactly what is happening, outside of some semblance of a rebranding but a closer look at some of the statements do point to a few important items.
In the first half of 2015, the next version of Lync will become Skype for Business with a new client experience, new server release and updates to the service in Office 365.
This basically means that the next on-premises server, clients, and Office 365 releases of what would be Lync will now simply be renamed, and the Lync name will be apparently be deemphasized. Surely this does not mean that the existing consumer Skype platform would be positioned to businesses, or mean the death of Lync as a platform. For all intents and purposes the two separate products must still exist : the consumer ad-driven solution known as Skype, and the enterprise-grade solution known to all as Lync which will simply be rebranded as Skype for Business.
Many enterprises will continue to run on Lync 2010 and 2013 platforms if they have just upgraded and moving to the next platform may be far off for them, while others will be excited to start evaluating the next release to see if it is a candidate for them to warrant upgrading to.
And speaking of upgrades the following statement seems to validate the rumors that in-place upgrades will be supported in the next server release cycle.
Current Lync Server customers will be able to take advantage of these capabilities simply by updating from Lync Server 2013 to the new Skype for Business Server in their datacenters. No new hardware is required.
Ultimately this rebranding fits a pattern that the product has had since it was first rolled out as Live Communications Server (LCS) 2003 and then 2005. It was brought into the Office collective by name as Office Communications Server for the next two releases (2007 and 2007 R2), followed by two more release cycles rebranded as Lync 2010 and 2013. So this is not a surprise at all given the history of the product.
Furthermore a redesign of the Windows client has also occurred in the past three release cycles (Office Communicator 2007, Lync 2010, and Lync 2013) so this change also comes as no surprise. A closer look at the Windows client shows that while the design borrows the color scheme and icons from Skype, the layout and function is still most definitely Lync at its core.
On a personal note I have known about this rebranding for quite some time and have already gone through the five stages of loss and grief that the rest of the technical community will undoubtedly be experiencing starting today.
- Denial – “Well that’s a silly idea, so clearly they will come to their senses.”
- Anger – “Stop changing the name already! People just became comfortable with Lync.”
- Bargaining – “ Look, how about using the Skype client with the Lync server, akin to Exchange and Outlook”"?”
- Depression – “Well, forget this. I’m going to stop blogging about the product and join a monastery.”
- Acceptance – “OK, I suppose it’s not the end of the world. There might be some upside here.”
It will be confusing for a bit as the lines are blurred between the consumer and enterprise products, but in the end the user community (and not necessarily IT administrative staff) should benefit the most. Imagine an employee, already comfortable with operating the Skype client on their personal computer and devices, seeing this familiar interface on their corporate workstation and devices, both handheld and in conference rooms? Nearly 5 years ago there was roughly the same initial reaction to the new Lync rebranding of OCS and the product itself clearly won over many fans in the years to come. On the upside at least I won’t have to hear anyone calling it ‘Lynx’ anymore. 🙂
Can't wait to understand what, from a techncial perspective, changes with this next version. Moreover, what, if anything, MS's plans for O365 are going to be. Specifically, any enhancments around enterprise voice in an online instance, ect.?
Brand recognition is great, now when people ask what I do I can truly say I work with Skype!
Can't wait to hear more on this as we start to get into December!
"On the upside at least I won’t have to hear anyone calling it ‘Lynx’ anymore."
This alone is worth the upgrade!
The amount of times I've heard it called Lynk (Lie ink)…
+1 Matt! I've even heard it referred to as "Lynch" more than a few times.
Also, gone will be people's inexplicable tendency to capitalise Lync to LYNC. Guess they'd never say SKYPE?
Huh? Imagine they just hand out iPads and everyone used to Facetime knows exactly how to use the device and place calls.
My friends (non IT) sometimes asked me,
– what are you doing at IT ?
– unified communications and Lync system………….
– what is uc and Lync?
– do you know or use Skype?
– yeap
– so Lync is like Skype for organizations and business + additional functionality.
Funny you should say that. I have had the almost the same conversation. "What do you do?" We develop software for Microsoft communications known as Lync. "What's that? Sort of like a business version of Skype.
cant wait to hear more about Skype for busyness server
Looking forward to testing this new version upgrade.
When and where it could be possible to download the new version to try and test?
Microsoft has not released anything yet, the new version is still in development.
Will skype for Business also can be in cloud and on-premises?
Yes, just as Lync is offered in both formats Skype for Business will be no different.
Hi Jeff, what do you think is the timeline for when this can realistically be considered as a solution to upgrade to. We have customers that are looking to leapfrog Lync 2013 for example and are already trying to engage us on the best way forward….
Personally I quite liked being referred to as having “The Lyncs Effect” when doing installs!
I guess I will have to wait till the ignite conference to get any useful information on this.
We covered a lot of the recently released details in the recent Chicago Lync Users Group meeting. You can also find a lot of that information floating around the web now on the server platform.
It is almost March 2015 any news on “Skype For Business” available for download. both Client and Server.
There was a Office 2106 Tech Preview available which contained the SfB client, but other than that you’ll have to wait for Microsoft to announce the release of the product.
HI,When I upgraded from Lync Server 2013 to Skype for Business Server 2015, I found no records in archived monitoring , I found this problem because: Centralized Logging Service Agent Service could not be started!
This problem had occurred in the Lync Server 2013 before, now in Skype for Business Server 2015 appears again.
Like this:
http://www.lyncexch.co.uk/lync-server-centralized-logging-service-agent-service-could-not-be-started/
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3008181
Whether behind the patch will fix it as soon as possible?
The above is my guess, if not please also indicate, thank you!
Hi,
I am seeking for the high-end phone that support boss function (eg. delegation, simultaneously ring) and also support video call.
If you have any information, please advise.
Thank in advance.
Thomas
The Polycom VVX models can address those requirements. Take a look at the ‘VVX’ tag in the cloud here for related articles.