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Business users today are under serious pressure to provide even greater efficiency in all of their assigned

tasks. With new government sanctions for compliance, reduced labor, and the globalization of the

workplace with outsourcing, the ability to access information and expertise, while reducing travel and

associated costs is extremely difficult. Time-to-market pressure has increased with the pressure applied

to companies to provide products and results to validate shareholder investments. The corporate land-

scape has changed as well with reduced travel, increased telecommuting, and geographic disparity with

outsourcing and globalization of the workforce. All of these challenges demand solutions to increase

productivity and collaboration, while reducing costs. The Microsoft Unified Communications platform

has placed a focus on providing a solution for each of these challenges, leaving time for innovation and

ingenuity.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the Microsoft Unified Communication platform

and to introduce Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 with Service Pack 1, a product that

addresses the aforementioned business challenges by providing a unified platform of real-time communi-

cation and collaboration solutions. This chapter covers the following Microsoft Unified Communications

components:

❑ Live Communications Server 2005 with Service Pack 1

❑ Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)

❑ Transport Layer Security (TLS)

❑ Microsoft Office Communicator 2005

Introducing Microsoft Office Live

Communications Server with SP 1

Part of the Microsoft Office System and the Microsoft Unified Communications suite of products, Live

Communications Server 2005 SP1 provides enterprise-level security, scalability, and performance by

offering a flexible infrastructure and enterprise platform that enables real-time communication and col-

laboration. The launch of Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 was the answer to numerous customer

and industry requested features, including telephony integration and call control features, Instant

Messaging threat protection and filtering, and the most exciting feature of them all, Public Instant

Messaging Connectivity (PIC). The PIC feature within Live Communications Server now provides the

capability to communicate with popular public Instant Messaging applications, including Yahoo Instant

Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger, and a new client application called Microsoft

Office Communicator 2005. With the Communicator 2005 client, a user can now seamlessly communi-

cate with co-workers, business partners, customers, friends, and family with one client application. The

purpose of Microsoft’s “unified communications” vision is not only to supply customers with a solution

that fits their immediate needs, but also to provide a foundation for future development and enhance-

ments. As many companies are starting to implement Instant Messaging and real-time communications

technologies within their enterprise infrastructure, Live Communications Server provides a complete

solution, and one that is integrated within the Microsoft Office suite of products. Moreover, it provides

Chapter 1

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