Why is Lync The Killer SDN Application?
The key to showing the promise of SDN is to find a real-world application to showcase capabilities. I recently wrote about using SDN to slice education networks. But this is just one idea. When it comes to real promise, you have to shelve the approach and trot out a name. People have to know that SDN will help them fix something on their network or optimize an troublesome program. And it appears that application is Microsoft Lync.
MIssing Lync
Microsoft Lync (neè Microsoft Office Communicator) is a software application designed to facilitate communications. It includes voice calling capability, instant messaging, and collaboration tools. The voice part is particularly appealing to small businesses. With a Microsoft Office 365 for Business subscription, you gain access to Lync. That means introducing a voice soft client to your users. And if it’s available, people are going to use it.
As a former voice engineer, I can tell you that soft clients are a bit of a pain to configure. They have their own way of doing things. Especially when Quality of Service (QoS) is involved. In the past, tagging soft client voice packets with Cisco Jabber required setting cluster-wide parameters for all clients. It Continue reading