MS Office Communications Server 2007 protocols

Following are the protocols with thier descriptions which are using in Office Communications Server 2007. SIP Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard signaling protocol. Office Communications Server 2007 uses SIP to initiate, manage, and terminate interactive sessions between one or more participants during instant messaging, data collaboration, on-premise audio/video conferencing, or telephony on an IP-based network. HTTP HTTP is a standard request/response protocol used for communication between clients and servers. In Office Communications Server 2007, HTTP is used for communication between the Focus and conferencing servers, download of Address Book Server updates to Office Communicator clients, and download of meeting content on users’ computers. CCCP Centralized Conference Control Protocol (CCCP) is a custom protocol in Office Communications Server 2007. CCCP is used for the exchange of the conference creation information and the control commands between Office Communicator clients and Office Communications Server 2007. PSOM Persistent Shared Object Model Protocol (PSOM) is a custom protocol in Office Communications Server 2007 that is used for transporting on-premise Web conferencing content such as conference ID, associated security keys, expiration time, and user roles and privileges. SRTP Secure Real-Time Transport Protocol (SRTP) is an IETF standard protocol that provides encryption, message authentication, integrity, and replay protection to the relayed Real-Time Transport Protocol (RTP) data. In Office Communications Server 2007, SRTP is used for the secure transport of audio and video content to various media devices such as microphones and speakers. RTCP Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP) is an IETF standard protocol. Office Communications Server 2007 uses RTCP in conjunction with SRTP to convey information about the signal quality of an on-premise audio/video conferencing session among the various media devices.

More on Unified Communication platform

Today we had a very good session with Danie Odendaal Microsoft solution specialist-portals & Collaboration for Middle East and Africa. He was presenting us the vision of Microsoft in terms of Unified Communication platform. He gave us a demo in which he dialed to MS exchange and listened voice mails, calendar entries and contacts. It is very good to see that now Microsoft speech technology is so much improved, we were able to give our commands easily without having accent problem. Also Ms is supporting number of languages but Arabic is not yet supported and it will be available in the second quarter of 2007. We got to know that office communication server (OCS) will be available in two versions, standard and enterprise. Standard will be the same as live communication server 2005 with some major enhancement. OCS enterprise will include MS live meeting bundled for live meeting and video conferencing. We also saw couple of IP phone models created by Microsoft partners. One of which has OCS client built in (not remember exact models) and one is connected to PC by USB. OCS client model can show you all the details such as dialed calls, missed calls, OCS users list with their status, conferencing facility and many other feature of OCS. USB phone don’t have any interface, it will connect with OCS client installed on PC and one can control it from there. If PC is off your calls will redirected to the exchange voice mail. We will be getting more information from Microsoft on unified communication.

Downloadable book for Sharepoint 2007

A great book for Sharepoint 2007 deployment project. Contains all upgrade scenarios and do's and don'ts. Must require before beginning any Sharepoint 2007 deployment. http://technet2.microsoft.com/Office/en-us/library/900143fd-5397-4fa2-92ad-5af4c116ee7d1033.mspx?mfr=true

Unified Communications Platform

Microsoft has released its new unified communication platform. Microsoft joined hand with Nortel and other VoIP giants in 2006 to create a platform based on Microsoft technologies for providing users a single interface for meeting collaboration challenges. Microsoft vision is to provide its customers a platform to communicate with their team member, partners and vendors without geographical limitation. Major components of this platform are Microsoft live communication server 2007, Microsoft office communicator 2007, Microsoft Speech server, Microsoft Live meeting, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 and Microsoft SharePoint portal 2007 and other partner products for different functions. A user using this platform is able to place call or initiate a video conference with their partners or peers connecting from any communication device and from any geographic location. Now if you don’t have PC but have phone, you can still check your email by dialing Microsoft exchange server and hear your emails. People can leave voice messages for you while you are offline or away and you can get these voice messages directly in your inbox. Microsoft partners had already created some powerful applications based on this platform focusing on specific business needs such as managing human capital, Customer service excellence, Collaboration between remote offices in real-time manner and many other needs. For further details, following is the link http://www.microsoft.com/uc/default.mspx

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Scalability Project - Server Consolidation

Following link contains the description of the test which Microsoft has conducted for finding out the optimized SQL server 2000 configuration for more then 500 databases hosted in ASP (application service provider) environment. Interested part is the architecture of PACE a financial software from Microsoft bCentral™ for medium business which create a new database for every customer. Which according to Microsoft is not a traditional application architecture and advocating that this architecture is suitable for maximize data security check it out http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnsql2k/html/sql_asphosting.asp

Time's Person of the Year

Findout who is Time's Person of the Year ;) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html

WSS 3.0-Feature FrameWork

Microsoft WSS 3.0 is a new and totally revamped version of WSS 2.0 contains number of new enhancement one of which is "New feature framework". So what is New feature fame work well according to Microsoft it is the new model for defining templates for Windows SharePoint Services sites. It helps you to define lists and other features, such as menu items, by including sub folders in the site definition structure Developing site definitions by implementing features gives us a greater degree of control, flexibility, and reusability than the site definition model for previous versions of Windows SharePoint Services. Previously each list definition was defined inside the context of a single site definition. In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, each list definition can have its own feature. Features also offer a modular approach because they do not define the entire blueprint for a site. The feature framework also improves the manageability of Windows SharePoint Services sites. In Previous version there is no mechanisms present for modifying site definitions and then applying those changes to existing sites. Now in new version features can be activated or deactivated on an existing site. For example, you can create a feature that defines a custom list type, an instance of that list type, and an event handler or a workflow on that list instance. After the feature has been installed on the server or Web farm, it can be activated in any site. Feature activation can be done from following ways:

• By Windows SharePoint Services user interface.
• By command line.
• Writing custom code by using Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 object model.

If a site no longer requires a specific feature, it can be deactivated.

After reading this you will be thinking that what is feature in terms of WSS.3.0. Well according to Microsoft a feature is a set of elements that help a user to accomplish a particular goal or task. For example, you can create a feature called My Favorite Links that is used to store a list of links on a per-user basis. The feature might include:

• A custom list for storing the links.
• A custom menu item, labeled Add to Favorites, that is attached to the menus of all links in the site. When clicked, the menu item will add the link to the favorites list.
• A Web Part that renders the user’s top 10 favorite links, based on usage and link tracking.

Each of these pieces of functionality is an element. Elements are not typically useful on their own, but they are packaged together to form a useful feature that adds functionality to a Windows SharePoint Services site.

You can create features for any of the following levels in the Windows SharePoint Services hierarchy:

• Web Application
• Farm
• Site Collection
• Site