News

Istanbul Becomes Office Communicator 2005

Microsoft will call its new integrated communications client Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and release the product to manufacturing in 90 days, the company said Tuesday.

Formerly code-named "Istanbul," Communicator is Microsoft's preferred client for Live Communications Server 2005. When LCS 2005 originally shipped in December, the primary client was Windows Messenger.

Communicator is designed to provide presence information and offer communication through IM, voice, video, telephony and access to Web conferencing.

In April, Microsoft will release a service pack for LCS 2005 that adds support for the Communicator client. In addition, Microsoft delivered public instant-messaging connectivity (PIC) for enterprise-grade connectivity from LCS to the MSN, AOL and Yahoo! public instant messaging networks.

PIC licenses will be available on a per-user, per-year subscription basis beginning April 1. The license will include access to the three major public IM networks. The PIC license will be an additional charge on top of the LCS license and Communicator Client Access Licenses.

About the Author

Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.

Featured

  • Microsoft Appoints Althoff as New CEO for Commercial Business

    Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced the promotion of Judson Althoff to CEO of the company's commercial business, presenting the move as a response to the dramatic industrywide shifts caused by AI.

  • Broadcom Revamps VMware Partner Program Again

    Broadcom recently announced a significant update regarding its VMware Cloud Service Provider (VCSP) program, coinciding with the release of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) 9.0, a key component in Broadcom’s private cloud strategy.

  • Closeup of the new Copilot keyboard key

    Microsoft Updates Copilot To Add Context-Sensitive Agents to Teams, SharePoint

    Microsoft has rolled out a new public preview for collaborative "always on" agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing enhanced, context-aware tools into Teams channels, meetings, SharePoint sites, Planner workstreams and Viva Engage communities.

  • Windows 365 Cloud Apps Now Available for Public Preview

    Microsoft announced this week that Windows 365 Cloud Apps are now available for public preview. This aims to allow IT administrators to stream individual Windows applications from the cloud, removing the need to assign Cloud PCs to every user.