Ed Brill: ServerWatch: A new era in real-time communications (review of MS Live Communications Server 2005)

Lots of moving parts required to deploy chat capabilities….

…Installation and configuration of LCS 2005 is where both the joys and the tribulations of an intensely integrated product first become apparent. Here is at least a partial list of other Microsoft products that are either required or can provide useful services for LCS 2005: …..

…Although LCS 2005 has improved over the previous version in offering assistance in the installation and configuration process, it’s readily apparent from the above list that
there is a lot of jiggering to be done for successful integration….
[Via Ed Brill]

Every now and then posts and articles come up about the ever so complex Microsoft platfrom and all these different components needed to get things running …They are also very easily quoted without checking their level of reality …

One line Ed forgot to quote from this article :


“One of the distinct advantages for companies like Microsoft is it can afford good documentation. In this case, Microsoft may have outdone itself, not only in the depth, but in quality of its support material.

I would be the last person to say that it is all straight forward and ‘ only one box’. On the other hand a lot of these discussion are often not by experts knowing all the ins and outs of the Microsoft platform. In return I am ever so curious about the complexity of ‘ alternative platforms’, so if the Microsoft LCS implementation and integration seems complex, let’s look at Sametime Lotus Instant Messaging: Well, read it for yourself, I am not the expert : What are the requirements for Notes instant messaging in Notes 6.5?. Not in this overview : OS for Servers, integration with productivity tools such as MS Office, etc. Complexity ios a very relative thing I guess …