Updated Lync 2013 Licensing Guide – November 2013

This newly released Lync 2013 Licensing Guide has some interesting amendments in four main areas with, as usual, some licensing elements disappearing completely and other freshly-imagined notions taking their place. Get the guide here: http://aka.ms/tnydo0

Out: Connectivity to Public Instant Messaging Users

  • Firstly, there’s an update on the capability to connect with certain public IM service providers. Windows Live Messenger disappears completely (end of an era!) and it’s confirmed that the agreements in place with AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and Yahoo! Messenger will end on 30 June, 2014

In: Lync Room Systems

  • If you’ve not heard of these, then this Lync Team Blog article is a good place to start (http://bit.ly/1cYdmpQ). Essentially, a Lync Room System is an “integrated meeting room solution” that consists of high definition touch displays and video cameras, wideband audio and a meeting console – that’s everything you need for your successful Lync meeting of course! If you feel the need for a picture of said system then you’ll find one on the Lync Team Blog. It is, in fact, a full Lync client and, as such, it’s a device that needs to be licensed, and you’ll need to allocate a Standard and Enterprise CAL to it if you’re licensing by device

Out: Lync Online Plan 3

  • Lync Online Plan 3 (for Microsoft-hosted Enterprise Voice) disappears from the guide. Customers with an Office 365 E4 plan continue to get a subscription to the Lync Server Plus CAL which means they can use an on-premise Lync server to deploy Enterprise Voice or, alternatively, the recommendation is to work with a partner for a hosted solution. Full details on page 17

In: New Licensing Lync Devices section

  • There’s a new section on licensing devices that connect to a Lync server. There’s good news that your USB headset won’t need to be licensed (!) and more useful confirmation that “Optimized for Lync IP Phones” will need Standard and Plus CALs (or their users will, of course). But for me, the most interesting note was that Lync phones don’t need Windows CALs as they authenticate against Lync Server, not Active Directory, and don’t access any Windows Server features