For the 6th year in a row Microsoft has topped the Gartner UC Magic Quadrant with the Microsoft Lync product. Below is an excerpt from the article. The full article link can be found at the bottom of this post. As well as the overall market pro’s and con’s with the other UC players (Avaya, Cisco, Shoretel, Mitel, NEC and others)
Microsoft
Lync 2010 offers a full suite of UC functionality. Although the real-time functions in Lync — including voice, telephony, video and related conferencing — are not as mature as other functions (such as IM/P and Web conferencing, email and UM), they have improved significantly over the previous version, which was known as Office Communications Server 2007 R2. Microsoft has developed a strong set of technology and service partners that offer a growing ecosystem.
Microsoft offers a visionary approach for addressing enterprise communication and collaboration requirements. Enterprises looking into UC should consider the Microsoft solution and, at a minimum, understand the vision and how solutions of this type might change their business processes. Enterprises considering deploying Lync telephony and video should understand its limitations and infrastructure requirements.
Strengths
- Microsoft has had an impressive and growing list of Lync and Exchange UM deployments, from small (fewer than 300) to midsize to very large (more than 10,000) enterprises, in both centralized and distributed configurations. Although a few of the deployments report that they have completely eliminated their PBXs, most current deployments use Lync for some employees, while other employees and functions remain on the PBX.
- Microsoft’s pending Skype acquisition offer, along with the Lync Online and the Office365 cloud service offerings, suggest that Lync will mature as a comprehensive and hybrid UC product.
- Companies report that, once deployed, Lync functions can be integrated into business processes and applications, providing new, different and effective ways to perform tasks. In some cases, these new functions are achieved by deploying Lync enhancements from a growing list of ecosystem partners.
- Microsoft has better positioned Lync to compete in telephony markets by adding several partner telephone handsets, by bundling of basic Lync functions in the Core client access license (CAL) and by offering a specific Lync Voice CAL.
Gartner UC Magic Quadrant August 23rd, 2011
