Changing presence status in Siemens OpenScape. Siemens' alliance with Microsoft allows for interoperability with Microsoft's real-time presence software.
Siemens obviously isn't the only company trying to leverage the expected popularity of Microsoft's Istanbul and future enhanced versions of LCS.
BroadSoft, a provider of network communications platforms, now works with Microsoft to integrate the advanced telephony features of its BroadWorks platform into Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005 and the Istanbul client, thus "presence- enabling" voice calls.
The integrated solution will allow users to launch secure multimedia services from within Windows applications. Users can be selected from an IM list or within MS Active Directory and a conference call then initiated. Participants will automatically be contacted on their preferred device, depending on their "presence" on the MS Office LCS. Microsoft LCS, the Istanbul client, and BroadSoft's BroadWorks will interoperate via SIP.
Scott Wharton, BroadSoft's VP of marketing says: "Just as Microsoft would partner with an IP PBX maker at the premises, they partner with us on the network side. We're providing the voice, video and call control features such as call forwarding, call waiting, and all of the Centrex PBX-like functions. We have a carrier- based solution and Microsoft can provide the presence and messaging on the carrier side as well."
Compatibility with SIP and LCS doesn't necessarily limit product functionality. Allen Drennan, founder and CTO of WiredRed, says that his next platform "will have both full SIP and Microsoft LCS compliance. We're adopting those technologies so that we can be cross-compatible with other products but not give up any of our advanced capabilities. Our product is a real-time routing platform that today does multipoint IM, video and VoIP, which SIP isn't very good at. We don't do point-to-point between individuals because NATs, firewalls and proxy servers get in the way. Instead, we do everything in a three-tier fashion and we have a unified routing model for transport; all data types go over the same port. And we don't have problems such as UDP [User Datagram Protocol] blockages."
History repeats itself?
Stalker Software's flagship product, CommuniGate Pro, is a real-time, allencompassing communication server that handles many messaging protocols. In 2003, as a messaging server, CommuniGate Pro became SIP-based to offer secure instant messaging (via their web-based client, MS Windows Messenger and any other SIP-based IM client), VoIP, video conferencing, app sharing and the like to their customer base.
Vladimir Butenko, Stalker's president and CEO, says "We saw that the market for IM and VoIP is moving in the same direction as the email market was moving 15 years ago. Currently you have the four major IM providers with proprietary technology - almost exactly the same situation as existed in the old email market. AOL and CompuServe were popular but they needed special email clients. Internet messaging was known, better known than SIP is today, but it still wasn't mainstream. The other services eventually died, and Internet email triumphed. Hopefully, the same thing will happen with the IM market and SIP. But it will take quite some time."
"We're not competing with Microsoft on the client side," says Butenko, "but we always replace Microsoft on the server side in the enterprise market, since we are a server company. Windows Messenger actually acts as pure SIP-based client for very basic voice and video communications only. To use it for presence and IM, it employs SIP extensions that work solely with Microsoft's own LCS and now it also works with our server. We can be the server for Windows Messenger, but unlike Microsoft with its LCS, we provide more features. In particular, we've solved firewall and session border control type problems. Ultimately, we see an even wider integration of services."
One size fits all
Many current presence servers are dedicated to network type. Wireless network presence servers differ from VoIP presence servers, which in turn are different from IM servers. BayPackets offers an application server that can work as a VoIPonly app server, or as a converged services platform for multiple networks. Sanjeev Chawla, BayPackets' CTO, has studied the challenges of creating a multi-network, integrated presence resource that provides true service mobility so devices on multiple networks can be presence-aware with a common resource.
"VoIP will continue expanding," says Chawla. "As for service mobility and the enterprise space where employees are moving around and switching devices depending on their location, it's critical that services aren't tightly coupled to specific networks. That's where we have a value add. With multi-network communications, our app server platform lets you plug in any number or type of so-called capability servers, including a 'presence capability server' that brings in presence information from diverse sets of presence servers in the networks and then aggregates it. This information is then presented to the target application via either SIP servlet or JAIN [Java APIs for Integrated Networks] frameworks. We have beta solutions in a couple of top-tier carriers and some are getting ready for lab trials."
Controlling the power
Sophisticated systems now exist for realtime management, security and monitoring of IM, such as the Akonix IM management solution. Another company, Sigaba, has entered the secure messaging marketplace with complete, integrated security solutions for email, IM, statement delivery, wired and wireless messaging. Startups sprout up, as do new products from established players. IMlogic, for example, has announced IM Linkage, an application development and deployment system that enables companies to incorporate presence and IM capabilities into critical business applications.
Presence of Mind
We're changing the paradigm of making a call. Presence will soon be part of automated tasks, not just clearing the way for phone or video calls, which suggests it will probably end up as an operating system component, and not a separate application.
Richard Grigonis is Editor-in-Chief of VON Magazine.
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