Time2Market's Cloud Complete Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)

First off... this blog post is going to come across as a sales pitch and that is because it is. I'm not going to insult your intelligence... but there is a lot of confusion out there as to what is offered with various different Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) solutions and where they can fit into an organizations plan to further their communications. I'm not going to go into detail about all the other offerings out there, but what I'm going to do is offer you detail about Time2Market's Cloud Complete offering. We also offer a Cloud Custom option, that adds some additional functionality, but this blog post will focus on the Cloud Complete offering.

Anyone who knows me... knows that I'm not a fan of the "cloud". The reason is because I think it is one of those terms that gets thrown around and decisions made without really understanding the implications of turning over control to the cloud. I'm not saying that it doesn't make sense 100 percent of the time... because it actually does in a lot of scenarios.  I just don't like the blind run toward the cloud that I see a lot of people doing just because all the cool kids are doing it.

Having said that, Time2Market's Cloud Complete offering is a hosted UCaaS that is a Multi-tenant... Enterprise Voice... Skype for Business environment.

Yup.. you read that right... Skype for Business.

Time2Market's cloud is not based on the now defunct Lync Hosting Pack that was limited to the same feature set and Lync Online.

The is a Skype for Business hosted environment with feature sets that to my knowledge are currently not offered anywhere else. Those feature sets even include the new Broadcast Meeting offering that depends on a hybrid implementation with Office365. We even leverage Exchange Unified Messaging in Office365.

Now why would an organization want to do this. It is simple... instead of investing in all the equipment, server licenses and professional services to implement an on-premises solution that has costs as a capital expenditure. This allows an organization to move these costs to the operational expenditure column. The Cloud Complete offering scales and shrinks as you do and is a totally managed service from deployment to support. In short, you focus on your business, not running a Unified Communications infrastructure.

So what are some of the things that Time2Market offers in its Cloud Complete that make it unique...

• E-Faxing Services
• Advanced Call Routing Options
• DID Parking
• Common Area Phones
• Standalone Fax Services
• Unlimited Calling Plans
• Auto Attendant
• Dedicated Conference Bridge
• Room Systems and Video Integration
• Conference Room Audio Devices
• 800# Support
• Paging Applications
• Contact Center (Clarity)

But here is the really big key to Time2Market's offering, we have a whole organization that will help you every step along the way with a White Glove Service. Cloud Complete isn't a self service type of offering, instead it is an offering where you have a whole team of people who have been in the business of helping organizations communicate for decades. Here are some of the things we can help you with...

• Office365 Tenant Setup/Mail Migration
• Unified Messaging Setup
• IP Phone Setup
• On-Premises Active Directory Integration
• Auto Attendant Configuration
• Room System Installation
• Device Consultation

But wait.... there's more!! Sorry couldn't resist saying that.

But really there is more... Time2Market has created a Self Service web based portal that gives easy access to the following tasks...

• Password Reset
• Add New Users
• Assign DIDs
• Modify/Update Conferencing and Global Dialing Policies
• Update Federation Policies
• Get Support
• Access to Usage Reports and Billing Info
• Access to training, tips and tricks

What are you waiting for? Interested in Time2Market's Cloud Complete offering or have further questions? You can contact me by SIP or email using jonathan at t2mdev dot com or by calling 303 997 2100.

So... you want to be a Lync Architect

For at least a couple years now my employer has been on a constant search for talent to deploy Microsoft Lync and the components that are part of that ecosystem. But it is getting harder to find guys that will fit in with the company culture and have a good set of fundamental skills (or phenomenal skills if we get lucky).

So I thought I'd write a post, from my perspective, about what some of the skills are that it takes to work as a consultant in this Microsoft Unified Communications world. Engineers and Architects that can do this type of work WELL are a rare find. They posses knowledge from multiple disciplines (data, voice, server apps, security etc) and combine them all to help a customer deploy a solution that fits their needs. My hope is that this will finally convince some people that are on the fence to jump in (and increase the pool of talent).

... and no you don't have to be an Architect to jump in, you can start out being an Engineer or working the support desk. You can learn as you go.


The Hard Skills

Here is the bottom line... the more of these the better.

The more of these you are excellent at... the better consultant or support engineer you'll be for your customer.

Nobody... Nobody will be an expert at all of these. But sometimes the secret is knowing others that are experts in that area... or knowing where/how to find the answers.

If you are weak in most these areas... no problem... go buy a computer, create a lab of your own and pick something and start to learn. With Microsoft based software there is usually no lack of freely available knowledge you can learn from and there are certainly plenty of books out there on all of these topics. Don't expect you will learn all of this in two weeks. I've been gathering knowledge for as far back as 20+ years and that knowledge still applies to what I do today. But everyone has to start somewhere.

Here is the list that I've come up with...

• Active Directory
• SQL Server
• Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 etc
• Server 2008 R1/R2 and 2012 R1/R2
• Office Communications Server 2007 R1/R2
• Lync Server 2010/2013
• Exchange 2007/2010/2013
• System Center 2007/2012/2012 R2 via @fabriziovlp
• Hyper Visors (Microsoft, VMWare etc) via @fabriziovlp
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (Microsoft, VMWare, Citrix etc)
• PowerShell
• .Net Regular Expressions (RegEx)
• Private Key Infrastructure/Certificates
• Layer 2 Networking (Switched)
• Layer 3 Networking (Routed)
• IPv4
• IPv6
• TCP/IP
• Quality of Service
• Firewalls
• Network Sniffer (Wireshark, Message Analyzer)
• SIP
• Audio Codecs (G.711 etc)
• HTTP/HTTPS
• ISDN PRI and the associated protocols/capabilities
• T-1 (Telephony based digital circuit)
• DS-1/DS-3 (Data based digital circuit)
• Frame Relay
• Avaya Blue (Nortel)
• Avaya Red (Traditional Avaya)
• Cisco Unified Call Manager
• Mitel
• Inter-tel (owned by Mitel now)
• Shoretel
• PBX Dial Plans
• PBX Features
• Analog device types
• Fax and Fax Server
• T.38 Codec (for Fax over IP)
• Modem (Yes credit card and postage machines still use this)
• Gateway/SBC (Sonus, Audiocodes, etc)

The Soft Skills

• Good listening skills
• Good presentation skills
• Good communications skills (verbal and written)
• Patience
• Attitude toward constant learning
• Self starter
• Working alone
• Working in teams
• Working with other teams
• Juggling lots of tasks/jobs at once
• Prioritizing tasks
• Bing/Google searching for information
• Networking (the people kind)

Getting There...

This one is all on you. My unique path took me from being a network manager/admin at a University, to working 11 years for Nortel and then combining all that experience into what I do now. Some of this is hard to learn in a lab unless you are loaded with money. 

You need to surround yourself with people that know about the skills you need to work on. This is where the networking (the people kind) really comes in handy.

How do you do this?

• Go to local users groups
• Go to local conferences. 
• Go to some industry conferences. 
• Get on twitter and follow people that tweet about the things you want to learn about. 
• Get on LinkedIn and make some connections and join some discussion groups. 
• Read the Technet forums
• Read some books

I'll keep updating this as I think of things... but bottom line is that this stuff isn't easy, but it is something that is able to be learned given enough time and effort.

Next meeting of the Colorado Unified Communications User Group is all about bringing back some goodness from the Microsoft Exchange Conference (MEC)!

We are excited to have Jason Sherry (Exchange MVP) come talk to us about Exchange migrations!

"Exchange cross forest migrations: Free or 3rd party tools?" is the title and this session will cover the steps required to migrate from one Exchange 2000 or higher forest to Exchange 2010/2013 in another forest. A high-level outline of the steps, scripts, Microsoft tools, and notes from the fields will be discussed.  Discussion will cover the scripts included with Exchange 2010 and 2013 to migrate mailboxes across forest and how to migrate contacts, groups, policies, and many other settings that aren’t migrated by those scripts. The main focus will be the many additional steps, solutions, and scripts required to do a full fidelity migration. This session will not go into detail on Forefront Identity Manager and 3rd party solutions; however the use of them will be discussed.  This session will mainly focus on the needs of small to medium companies (< 3,000s of mailboxes). Information discussed will be helpful to any size organization that needs to do a cross forest migration.

We are also super excited to announce that ENow will be sponsoring this months meeting and we will get to hear from them about their tools inconjuction with Exchange and Hybrid solutions. If you haven't seen their products, check them out or follow them on Twitter: @ENowConsulting.

We hope that you will join us on May 29th from 4-6pm for this great session.

Also... I have another great #ucoms Update deck... you won't want to miss this one!

The meeting will be held at the Microsoft office in the Denver Tech Center.

Microsoft Offices
7595 Technology Way
Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Please RSVP so we can make sure there is enough food and drink

Colorado Unified Communications User Group for 2014

It's 2014 and the Colorado Unified Communications User Group is getting ready to fire back up again. The leaders have been working on a new schedule for this year and we have some great plans for this year... some I'll share... some will have to wait til later in the year ;-).

First off... we are going to have a monthly discipline that is going to be either Lync, Office 365, or Exchange. We try to find a sponsor every month related to the discipline and then we will have either one of the leaders or a member give at least one presentation... also related to the discipline.

Also, at every meeting, during the time we are serving food and beverage, we are going to have a new "Lync Update" presentation that will be a quick summary of the big Unified Communications related news items since the last meeting. This may include issues, announcements, blog posts... you name it. Anything we deem the Colorado Unified Communications User Group community might be interested in knowing.

First up for January, Plantronics will be our sponsor and they will be giving away some headsets! The topics for this meeting on January 30th at 4:00pm are:

• Lync Meeting Etiquette
• Deploy Lync Voice

The meeting will be held at the Microsoft office in the Denver Tech Center.

Microsoft Offices
7595 Technology Way
Suite 400
Denver, CO 80237

Please RSVP so we can make sure there is enough food and drink