Ok, now my head is getting dizzy from the number of times Microsoft Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger has had outbound VoIP-to-PSTN calling (2006), then pulling outbound VoIP calling (early 2008), and then putting it back in. Also, I believe it was 2004 when the Messenger client used Net2Phone before they pulled the plug. Well, apparently outbound PSTN dialing using VoIP is back in!

Windows Live Messenger has now teamed up with Telefónica to offer VoIP services. Previously Net2Phone and Verizon have had exclusive deals with Microsoft's Messenger client.

When you click on Make a Phone Call you see the dialpad window and it explains you can sign up with Telefonica's Voype service to call directly from within Windows Live Messenger.

Telefónica's rates seem decent as compared to SkypeOut. For instance,Telefónica charges $0.014 per minute for the U.S. comparaed to $0.021 SkypeOut calls. Unfortunately, there is no dial-in (DID) capability equivalent to SkypeIn with Telefónica's service.

The service uses prepaid amount in dollars. Increments of $5, $10, and $20 are available and you can set it up to automatically recharge the account when it reaches a certain threshold. To use it you just need Windows Live Messenger 8.0 and above.

If Microsoft really wants to compete with Skype what they should do is partner with all the major SIP trunking service providers (Bandwidth.com, DIDX, Junction Networks, Packet8, etc.) and offer them all as a drop-down list within Windows Live Messenger for quick and easy configuration. After all, unlike Skype which is proprietary, Windows Live Messenger is based on the SIP protocol. Further, Microsoft could allow Windows Live Messenger users to manually enter their existing SIP trunking service provider account info, essentially making Windows Live Messenger a SIP softphone client able to make and receive calls. Microsoft could even do revenue sharing with the SIP trunking service providers.

Even better, Microsoft could offer the ability for users to enter in custom SIP credentials to use with the user's SIP-based IP-PBX! Since in this scenario the connection is direct to the IP-PBX no revenue sharing is required. Of course, since SIP is SIP, a user could simply go into manual mode, and enter in, for example, their Bandwidth.com SIP trunking info thus bypassing the drop-down list, connecting directly to Bandwidth.com and eliminating any revenue share Microsoft might receive.

However, Microsoft could restrict the manual SIP credentials entered simply by having a database of their SIP trunking providers' URLs or Microsoft could simply stick something into the SIP header which the SIP trunking service providers can parse and detect and then give credit/revenue to Microsoft for sending the call from Live Messenger onto their network. So many ideas,  I should write a book.

Today, I was awarded a 2009 Microsoft® MVP Award, making this the second year in a row I've been granted this prestigious award that has fewer than 5,000 awardees worldwide.

As part of the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) announcement, a message from CEO Steve Ballmer said, "As the independent voice of users worldwide, your influence on technical communities is felt in many ways--enhancing people's lives and contributing to our industry's success. We're deeply grateful to you for sharing your feedback, comments, answers, and expertise with technical communities. In recognition of your commitment, Microsoft is pleased to honor you with the Most Valuable Professional Award. Thank you for empowering the community with your outstanding leadership!"

Amazon just announced that Amazon EC2 will soon run Windows Server and SQL Server. The announcement was made to Amazon Web Services developers this morning. This announcement may be partly in response to Microsoft who has been building a hosted development platform of their own. In fact, Microsoft is expected to announce the hosted platform officially at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Bob Muglia, Senior Vice President of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, will keynote and is expected to unveil Microsoft's cloud computing solution.

According to an Amazon representative, starting later this Fall, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) will offer you the ability to run Microsoft Windows Server or Microsoft SQL Server. Today, you can choose from a variety of Unix-based operating systems, and soon you will be able to configure your instances to run the Windows Server operating system. In addition, you will be able to use SQL Server as another option within Amazon EC2 for running relational databases.

Amazon EC2 running Windows Server or SQL Server will allow you to deploy ASP.NET web sites, high performance computing clusters, and other Windows-based applications. Amazon said, "By choosing Amazon EC2 as the deployment environment for your Windows-based applications, you will be able to take advantage of Amazon's proven scalability and reliability, as well as the cost-effective, pay-as-you-go pricing model offered by Amazon Web Services."

They added, "Our goal is to support any and all of the programming models, operating systems and database servers that you need for building applications on our cloud computing platform. The ability to run a Windows environment within Amazon EC2 has been one of our most requested features, and we are excited to be able to provide this capability. We are currently operating a private beta of Amazon EC2 running Windows Server and SQL Server."

Check out http://aws.amazon.com/windows if you are interested in being notified later this Fall when the offering is released.

I discovered two Microsoft job postings several weeks ago and have been meaning to blog the discovery that Microsoft Office Communication Server R2 will ship in December of this year. One is for 'Software Development Engineer in Test - MBD - RTC' and the other for 'Lead Software Develpment Engineer in Test - Office Communications Server'. One of the job posting says:

"The Office Communications Server team is starting a new deployment/management/administration team at Beijing. The Office Communications Server product team must deliver both an on-premise version of the Server as well as offering a hosted Service for Small and Medium Businesses. The test lead needs to understand current infrastructure (MMC, Setup.Exe, MOM, etc.) to help out in next release called wave13 due to ship in December 2008.

As the team ramps up in MBD China, the team gain experience in these areas and can form opinions/ideas as to how best to architect a new solution for the future. The test lead will work with PMs and Devs to identify scenarios, architect and build a new solution for both on premise and hosted offerings due to release in Q2 2010 for deployment/administration/monitoring. The new team would to build a new infrastructure that is conducive to hosted environments.

Examples include: web based flavor of management tools, a topology builder that can visually display a topology and once the solution/topology 'compiles', settings can be rolled out across the server farm (as opposed to admin's having to run setup.exe on every machine out there). Monitoring also needs to be addressed in such a way that the server or service can be somewhat self correcting when alerts fire notifying administrators of a problem.

Key Areas of Responsibility:
Attract, Lead, Train, mentor, grow, and retain SDET talent at all levels
Work closely with the program management and development teams to drive quality through design and implementation
Participate in product spec reviews, design, triage, scheduling, and other product development process
Develop comprehensive test plans assuring the overall quality of the project, including functionality, security, performance and scalability
Hands-on writing test cases and test code
Lead the SDET team in implementation of a scalable, efficient test automation strategy
Work closely with program management and development teams to ensure appropriate quality metrics and goals are defined and tracked throughout the project lifecycle
Drive quality criteria for release and signoff
Work with other SDET leads and managers to ensure engineering excellence initiatives are driven effectively across the Commerce Platform Group."

Apparently, Beijing, China will host some core Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 folks instead of Redmond, Washington in the U.S. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Seems like American IT jobs are constantly being outsourced. But I guess it's a global economy and I'm certainly not for protectionism either. Just very sad that IT jobs are outsourced because labor costs are less expensive than in the U.S.

One very fascinating part of this job posting is where it says, "architect and build a new solution for both on premise and hosted offerings due to release in Q2 2010 for deployment/administration/monitoring. The new team would to build a new infrastructure that is conducive to hosted environments."

It would appear Microsoft wants to take OCS 2007 into hosted environments by 2010. Many service providers offer very successful hosted Exchange 2007 services, so offering hosted unified communications (IM, VoIP, video, collaboration, etc.) via a hosted OCS 2007 offering is a natural progression. Hosted OCS 2007 is a much higher value proposition than hosted Exchange email services and could be a boon to service providers. One advantage of a hosted OCS 2007 offering is that it removes the complexities of deploying OCS 2007 in the enterprise.

So look for a hosted OCS offering in 2010. You heard it here first!

This blog entry will show live video streaming (via my Windows Mobile 6.1 phone's camera) of various ITEXPO events, including keynotes, receptions, and of course the exhibit hall. I'm going to broadcast starting at 3:30pm PT (6:30 ET) when Skype's Jonathan Christensen and Microsoft's Xuedong Huang and Sonus Network's Vikram Saksena will be keynoting. So if you couldn't make it to ITEXPO, you'll at least be able to see the keynotes in just a few hours.

I'll also livecast the show floor when it opens. I'm going to "future date" this post so it stays on the very top of my blog's home page. I'll update this blog post as I find out exact times I will be live video blogging.

Live Video Feed (when available) follows:

Today at ITEXPO, Microsoft will announce a few more SIP trunking service providers that come pre-configured in the Response Point unit making it virtually plug-and-play when selecting a SIP trunking service provider. At ITEXPO Microsoft will announce they are adding NGT, Cbeyond, and Junction Networks. In addition they are also adding support for broadband VoIP service provider Packet8, as well as Bandwidth.com, a provider of Internet and managed services, including SIP trunking.

At ITEXPO Microsoft will also announce that they will be supporting the ClearOne IP conference phone (MAX IP Response point), what Microsoft told TMCNet they consider one of the best quality IP conference phones out there.

Additionally, Sangoma will announce a board/gateway in a PC (NetBorder Express Gateway Card for Microsoft Response Point) that also supports Response Points network auto-discovery method. Perhaps the biggest news is that Microsoft is announcing T1 support through a partnership with Quintum and a special Response Point compatible T1 gateway that supports T1/E1/PRI. It also supports Response Points auto-discovery, so it's very easy to add a T1/E1/PRI trunk line to the system. This marks the first time Response Point supports digital T1 trunk lines. With analog trunk lines already supported, the addition of T1 support should open up more opportunities to sell this product in the SMB space.

I live video streamed the ITEXPO keynotes from earlier today using my Windows Mobile 6.1 phone. But in case you missed it, I recorded the live video stream.

Here's a link to two video recordings I made for two keynotes:
Skype's Jonathan Christensen (2-3 minute filler in beginning so fast forward)
Microsoft's Xuedong Huang

video quality isn't the greatest. Will have to try and tweak it in the future. Though a lot of it has to do with the poor video camera built into the XV6700

I just met with Microsoft to talk about what's new in their Response Point IP-PBX. They demo'ed the Aastra AastraLink RP phone system which works with Aastra IP phones with the Response Point "magic" blue button embedded onto the phones. The magic button allows you to use speech-recognition to perform call transfers, directory lookups, and more. I met with Richard Sprague, Senior Director, Microsoft Response Point and Xuedong Huang, General Manager, Microsoft Response Point to find out what's new and to see a demo of RP SP1.


Microsoft's Richard Sprague & Xuedong Huang (holding a cordless Aastra Response Point phone)

Microsoft gave TMC's Michael Dinan and myself a demo of the Response Point system, which now features a fully-functional click-to-dial software application, and presence integration. They mentioned they recently added the ability to say "free411" and have it dial the free directory assistance service. Microsoft will be announcing some interesting Response Point news tomorrow at ITEXPO, so stay tuned. I'm also told Xuedong Huang will give an interesting keynote with some insights in the future direction Microsoft will be taking in (unified) communications. He said he will showing a video and it's a one-time only video and won't be available anywhere for viewing. So I'm hoping to capture the keynote session using my liveblogging mobile phone!


Microsoft's demo setup at ITEXPO

During our meeting, Richard Sprague mentioned he read my blog about live video blogging from ITEXPO using my Windows Mobile phone. So I gave him a quick demo and recorded the video. In the video you will see the table Microsoft setup at ITEXPO in a meeting room to demo the platform to the media and analysts attending the show. The video shows some Aastra phones and the AastraLink RP system, which I should mention features PoE (Power over Ethernet) ports for easy plug-and-play installs. Check out the video below, which even features a special hidden dial string that gets you into some uber secret auto-attendant featuring Bill Gates himself as the recorded voice prompts. Alas, my camera didn't pick up the dial string. Too bad Jerry Seinfeld doesn't make a special voice-over appearance.

Update: This video is set to auto-play. Can't seem to be able to disable autoplay. so changing this to a hyperlink to the video. click here to view.

The new Sling Media SlingCatcher and Slingbox PRO-HD (Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB100-100) are now available for pre-order from Amazon and SlingMedia.com at $299.99 each. Just in time for the Christmas holiday season! Woot! Ok, Christmas is still 3 months away, so I'm getting a little ahead of myself.


The highly anticipated SlingCatcher lets you display video content to your TV using a USB drive, but even cooler it can project your PC's display (Youtube, Hulu, etc) and audio to your TV. It can also directly receive a Slingbox feed.

The Slingbox PRO-HD is the first Slingbox to stream in high definition (HD) supporting 1080i resolution and 5.1 surround sound. It can serve video up to PCs, Macs, and mobiles. Slingbox PRO-HD supports multiple inputs including of course component inputs to capture HD broadcast content from your HD set-top box. It also sports an integrated digital tuner including both ATSC OTA and clear QAM - a first for any Slingbox. You'll probably need some serious bandwidth to stream HD video over the Internet, so really this is best for streaming on a LAN not over the Internet. Though Slingbox does some pretty good compression and buffering, so maybe it can?

To pre-order the Slingbox PRO-HD from Amazon before the mad holiday rush (Wii shortages?), head on over here

And to pre-order the Sling Media SlingCatcher SC100-100 Universal Media Player for TV on Amazon, click here

As a fan of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) and with OCS 2007 R2 just around the corner (later this year/early next year), I'd like to see 3rd party vendors offer utilities to monitor OCS 2007's performance to ensure reliability and uptime. After all, your communications are your lifeblood. Microsoft's OCS 2007 is a unified communications (UC) platform that handles several communications methods, including IM/presence, voice, video, and collaboration, so it's even more critical that OCS 2007 stays up. As such, I came across a new product just launched from NetIQ called NetIQ AppManager for Microsoft Office Communications Server.

NetIQ AppManager for Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) was designed to proactively ensure the performance and availability of Microsoft OCS 2007. AppManager's core capabilities of real-time monitoring and management now extend to Microsoft OCS to ensure it is up and running.

Key Points:

• Monitor the health and availability of Microsoft OCS servers
• Monitor session and call activity
• Get alerts when usage metrics reach critical levels
• Report on adoption and usage trends

Key Features and Benefits

• Provide proactive event management - Proactively detects problems with Microsoft OCS and sends alerts to your OCS administrators, often before end users are impacted.
• Enables application health visibility - AppManager's end-to-end service visibility vastly reduces downtime to your business services and visually represents service issues via service maps, helping you understand who is being affected.
• Visualize your data - Use interactive charting and snapshot reports to give a visual view of your data for easier analysis and information sharing.
• Delivers application performance reporting - Leverage AppManager's data repository for all of your management information - events and performance data - giving you a centralized view of all servers and resources. This single repository will also streamline your reporting.

You can find out more about NetIQ AppManager for Microsoft Office Communications Server here.