Skype for Business isn't going away, however a new Skype for Business Server will be released in the second half of 2018 for on-premises deployments. This is going to see Teams picking up a range of new communications capabilities, such as connectivity to phone networks, with all the attendant features like voicemail, conference calling, and call transfers. With Teams showing strong momentum and already subsuming many communications features, there's some logic to this change. AdvertisementĪnnounced today, Microsoft is going to move all communications features into the Teams client and will be making the Teams client the core communications client for Office 365 users, replacing the current use of the Skype for Business client. Teams offers an IRC-like approach to instant messaging and corporate chat, overlapping in part with Skype for Business, and Redmond has integrated voice and video messaging into Teams using Skype's technology. The company then built a new communications service, the Slack-like Teams. Microsoft also rebuilt the Skype communications infrastructure, moving away from Skype's old peer-to-peer system to a more conventional client/server system, with the company arguing that this made better sense for enabling features such as synchronized message history across devices, and the abundance of occasionally connected devices like smartphones. Skype for Business picked up the ability to bridge to the Skype network. On the corporate side, Lync was renamed (again) to Skype for Business. On the consumer side, it folded the Messenger and Skype networks together and then ditched the Messenger branding, unifying under the Skype name. It also offered connectivity to the regular phone network. It offered a similar set of capabilities to Messenger but over private servers, with greater administrative controls.
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Those with long memories will remember that Microsoft had Messenger (or Windows Messenger, or MSN Messenger) for its mass-market consumer messaging platform, with instant messaging, Internet-based voice and video chat, and Office Communications Server-later renamed Lync-for its enterprise messaging platform.
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The company is shaking up its communications offerings for Office 365 users, as it continues to try to figure out how to make the best use of its various assets. Microsoft's Ignite business and IT conference started today in Orlando, and, as we've come to expect, the big emphasis was on the continued evolution of Microsoft's cloud, machine learning, and software-as-a-service offerings.