Page 9 - NewsLync Winter 2014

NewsLync by Telecom Reseller
9
Winter 2014

HEYN
AVILLA

High availability in Lync
Sure . . . We

By Chris Heyn, General the client to automatically register with a pre- way. Controls have also been included so can do that!
Manager of Kemp Technologies Italy
defined backup. This maintained basic voice that a user’s media stream won’t be hair- M
Wavailability but resulted in loss of capabilities pinned through the Lync Online service By Pam Avila, DiscussUC.com
A
ith the release of Microsoft Lync such as conferencing and contact list.
when making phone calls from an office re you tired of keying in a user id
2013 customers are interested Multiple mediation servers connecting running a local PSTN gateway.
and passcode a multitude of times
in what’s new. While it doesn’t
totally re-invent the proverbial wheel com- to the same PSTN gateway or SIP trunk Persistent Chat can be defined in the every day? Wouldn’t it be great
pared to its predecessor, it does add many required redundant DNS A records pointing Topology Builder as with other roles and a to just say your name or a word instead? Meet voice biometrics – a technical term
enhancements. Here are a few.
to the same IP to fool the Topology Builder. separate client is no longer required.
for voice recognition. Consider voice bio-
There has been significant role con- Lync 2013 supports M-N trunk routing. New feature enhancements provide an metrics as not only a way to make technol-
solidation. Monitoring and Archiving have This allows for multiple trunks pointing to effective framework for maximizing uptime ogy tools more user-friendly but also as
been deprecated and Front End server now different gateways as well as for gateways and availability. Global load balancers par- an important element in the next wave of
communicates directly with the monitoring with multiple trunks for different Mediation ticularly benefit Edge server deployments security in our industry.
and archiving databases.
Servers.
by providing cross-site resilience and use In a very basic example, imagine log-
Lync 2010 introduced a backup registrar Hybrid deployments with a mix of on- of a single Access Edge FQDN. GSLB ging onto your PC, laptop, tablet or smart-
for deployment resilience. When a user’s premise and Lync Online servers are now solutions make this possible by serving phone just by saying your name. Imagine
home pool became unavailable it allowed
also possible. Lync Online users can even responses for DNS queries for delegated
accessing your bank account via smart-
make calls via an on-premise PSTN gate-
See HEYN, page 1-
phone or the internet and performing secure
ebanking transactions with just your voice.
Imagine in your business world, using
voice biometrics in conferencing situations.
Ever been driving to a meeting when you have to be on a conference call at the same
time (using your headset, of course, so that
you’re not arrested)? How do you enter the
conference bridge PIN at 70 mph? Envision
your voice as the easier alternative to pro-
viding the PIN.
According to John Cognata, CEO of
integrator SOFTEL Communications, “The
list is significant of industries that can
benefit from voice and even facial biomet-
rics applications.” In healthcare, access
to patient information can be granted or
denied based on voice biometrics. In law
enforcement, information residing on tab- lets in patrol vehicles can be secured yet
still be readily accessible to officers.
In the general business environment,
voice biometrics can replace the need for
password resets for every employee’s
Nick Davis is a VIP customer devices. Employees in the field or other
remote locations can just pick up a smart-
He prefers to use email
phone or landline to report attendance from
anywhere, anytime.
And I’m his preferred agent OK – so you can see the possibilities
voice biometrics offers, but.....
His emails get routed to me
Admittedly, the convergence of voice
and data technologies has created some
amazing new tools, like voice recogni- tion (biometrics), for end-users. It has
I check his contact history also created some significant challenges
for resellers – including telecom dealers,
Respond to his question promptly V ARs/MSPs and integrators – as they
work to understand their opportunities and
Give him the VIP treatment expertise requirements in an expanding
and rapidly changing technology environ-
Makes him happy
ment. And customer IT departments are no
less challenged trying to find experienced,
Which makes my job easy
knowledgeable VARs/MSPs/integrators to
provide technology solutions for their orga-
nization’s business needs.
Today, a growing number of VARs/
MSPs and integrators are leveraging their unique expertise and experience with tech-
nologies such as voice biometrics to carve
out market niches for themselves. For exam-
ple, integrator SOFTEL Communications
combines their extensive experience in
telecommunications with their extensive
experience in data communications to offer
solutions that bring significant added value
to Microsoft Lync users. Within their port-
folio SOFTEL has developed unique solu-
tions leveraging Lync and using a voice
biometrics interface as an authenticator into
Windows devices.
Companies like SOFTEL can be a value add for other resellers, as well as a
strong resource for end-user customers.
Technology tools such as voice biometrics A
can make our lives easier and businesses
more productive, but they’re also requir-
ing a level of integration and development
expertise that provide real opportunities for
the SOFTELs in our business. ☎

For more information, please visit: www. softel.com or call Ray Martin (rmartin@softel.
com Tel: 770 613 5300 ext: 7162).