Hi Blog World,
First of all since this is my first blog post I figured I
would spend a few minutes introducing myself. My name is Tony Larsen, I have been
working in the IT space for over a decade in numerous roles, for most of my
past my passion has always aligned me with Microsoft UC. I started in the space
back in Live Communications Server 2007. I then started my journey down the
road of UC waiting for the day that big business would see the light of the
power of MSFT UC. Now in my time I work for Avanade as a Group Manager within
the Lync Solutions group. We focus on enterprise rollouts of Enterprise Voice.
This is an amazing time since big business has finally latched on and we are
going full steam ahead.
So, my first blog I feel is fitting. Since I started working
within UC I always found it challenging to find a way to have a functional lab.
Other than the bits of Lync the gear is hard to get, having a functional PBX
isn’t the easiest especially for someone new to the field. For the next few
posts I am going to show how I get my lab up and running connecting to the SIP
world and ringing Cisco phones (flashed with a generic SIP firmware), Lync
Polycom Phones, and SIP trunks to the real work. What does all this require one
might ask?
- Virtual instance of Lync 2013 Standard
- FreePBX – 5.2.11
- SIP trunks from any carrier – Since getting a Lync certified SIP trunk isn’t the cheapest I prefer to use FreePBX to terminate cheaper SIP trunks that I can do a Pay-as-you-go
- Teliax
- Les.Net
- Cisco IP Phone 7960
- Polycom CX500
This solution gives someone the opportunity to lab out the
complete power of Lync 2013 with Enterprise Voice. As I get the lab setup and
working I will continue to post my findings. Hope to see you all back soon.
Tony
