Forum Discussion
MicrosoftDiscontinuation of support for Session Border Controllers in Exchange Online Unified Messaging
The message was retracted, and the original recommendations stand. However, even though this was retracted, be advised that ultimately Exchange Unified Messaging is a dead product based upon very old technologies and will very likely never see new development or updates. It's not a direction you'd want to head unless you have no other option. I suppose there's a chance that the vendor products that connect with it will be able to leverage Azure VM in future versions, but that's pure speculation on my part at this point.
Thanks Anthony. From what I can tell, Azure VM requires Phone System PBX licensing. It doesn't make sense to license Phone System while simultaneously attaching your users to an external PBX (essentially double-paying), except perhaps in a migration scenario.
I think customers who leverage Exchange UM with a 3rd party PBX are still looking for solution to go to the cloud. I was disappointed to confirm that X-UM requires Enterprise Voice CALs, and am currently trying to find out whether anynode has the same requirement.
Anynode will have the same requirement I suspect, it's just the way it's designed to communicate. It's basically an trusted application bolt-on to Skype that delivers direct to voicemail from what I understand.
- Yep, that is the case. We are now looking at AVST as there is no cost effective alternative solution that avoids the extra licensing.
I like AVST, I've used them on deployments even in the Lync days when the corporation wasn't fully on Exchange.