Discontinuation of support for Session Border Controllers in Exchange Online Unified Messaging

Microsoft

In July 2018, we will no longer support the use of Session Border Controllers (SBC) to connect 3rd Party PBX systems to Exchange Online Unified Messaging (UM).  We're making this change to provide a higher quality of service for voicemail, using Exchange standard and Skype for Business protocols. Customers considering a new deployment of this scenario should be aware that they will have a little less than a year to complete one of the migrations below.  Customers with existing deployments remain fully supported until July 2018, including moving voicemail-enabled mailboxes from Exchange on-premises and voicemail-enabling new mailboxes.

 

The following configurations are not affected by this change:

  • Skype for Business Server (on-premises) connected to Exchange Online UM
  • 3rd party voicemail solutions that deposit voicemail messages into Exchange Online mailboxes through APIs, rather than an SBC connection
  • All forms of Exchange Server UM (on-premises)

 

There are several alternative solutions for impacted customers, one or more of which must be implemented prior to July 2018.

 

  • Option #1: Complete migration from 3rd party on-premises PBX to Office 365 Cloud PBX. 
  • Option #2: Complete migration from 3rd party on-premises PBX to Skype for Business Server Enterprise Voice on-premises.
  • Option #3: For customers with a mixed deployment of 3rd party PBX and Skype for Business, connect the PBX to Skype for Business Server using a connector from a Microsoft partner, and continue using Exchange Online UM through that connector. For example, TE-SYSTEMS anynode UM connector can be used for that purpose.
  • Option #4: For customers with no Skype for Business Server deployment or for whom the solutions above are not appropriate, implement a 3rd party voicemail system.

 

Although only a small number of customers are affected by this change, we know that planning for changes to voice platforms requires time to evaluate options, and to implement the selected option.   We encourage you to start this process soon.  For more information, please visit the following pages:

 

Exchange Online Unified Messaging

Exchange Online UM support for 3rd party PBX via SBC

Cloud PBX

Skype for Business Server Enterprise Voice

 

Note: this post is also on the Exchange Team (EHLO) blog.

62 Replies

@Steve Conn

For Option 3,

1) what SfB Server infrastructure

and

2) what licensing

will be needed to pass the calls through to Exchange Online UM?

Thank you

Basically this stops all of our Office 365 deployment plans forever. Even in a small organization one year would be a laughable amount of time to make this change. How can we ever plan for future use if necessary services are dropped like this?  Please communicate that to those who made this decision.

From another of the few customers hit by this - I couldn't echo everything Greg said more.  We are in almost the exact same boat, and while we had a target painted on our PBX, it wasn't something we were hitting in a year.

 

I guess it was only a matter of time before drinking more of hte MS kool-aid bit us though, as sad as that reality is.

AudioCodes has also announced a solution to remedy this... it's actually pretty clever: 

http://online.audiocodes.com/exchange-online-unified-messaging-x-um

 

I feel the same way - we were just about a week away from implementing an SBC and already purchased it (from AudioCodes). Now we have to go back to the drawing board to see what our options are. 

I'm in the same boat. Our primary voice platform is Cisco CallManager and we have SIP connect to on-premise Exchange Unified Messaging presently. We were trying to move that to Exchange Online (via an SBC) to accomodate moving our thousands of users to Exchange Online. Just bought the SBC. Just bought the subscription to SPE E3 so we could do all this. NOW we find out days later that they're dropping the SBC connection capability and don't have any other option (other than to upgrade to E5 so we can do Cloud PBX and drop our existing full phone system which would be millions of $ wasted). 

 

Microsoft, what about options like Azure Voicemail - could you make that a viable transition or include that capability for your E3/SPE E3 customers that might have other IP PBX on-prem? 

I do have a SfB on-premise environment but used primarily for IM/presence/conferencing. We could use that as an intermediary to get to Exchange Online UM (if that's even supported) but I can't just buy thousands of Enterprise Voice (EV) licenses for SfB either just to accomodate this thing. I'd rather not go full 3rd party voicemail either. 

 

Thanks, 

 

Chris

+1 (with thousands of users currently on EUM), 1 year is way too quick and would be better if Microsoft had a competing product that could also fit the bill or allow us to transition to in the meantime (is Azure Voicemail a thing, something that could work for IP PBX/Exchange Online EUM customers?).

Steve,

will Lync 2013 On-Premise need to upgrade prior to 7/2018?  Or, are we uneffected also.

If your company uses SBCs with Lync or Skype for Business to connect to Exchange UM for voicemail, you will be affected. You should begin planning now.

 

-Jeff Guillet [MVP | MCSM]

www.expta.com

 

But if you're using Lync/Skype and connected with Exchange Online UM, you're most likely unaffected as this traffic will travel through your Edge server, and not a specific SBC (even if you use an SBC to connect to your phone company).  This is mostly for third party PBXs who connect an SBC to the O365 SBCs to get to Exchange Online UM.

Yes, my understanding is that we connect through the Edge for UM integration.  The blog didn't specify Lync 2013 under the "not affected" bullet points, so I was just confirming whether it was specific only to S4B.

Correct, this only affects customers who use SBCs to connect to Office 365. Some companies have more than one PBX and may use SBCs for O365 connectivity, even when they have Lync/S4B in their environment.

Just to clarify, Is Microsoft allowing us to still deploy SBC to Exchange UM currently? (Specifically in the .EDU space) provided we are fully understanding that support will end in July 2018?  The late disclosure of this after budgeting decisions and purchases have been made for the upcoming year is troubling.

Greg,

 

I agree, most institutions (I am in Highter-Ed) have already commited to their fiscal year projects and implementation schedules. We are essentially being forced to allocate budget for a major infrastructure change with very little notice and adequate time to implement. The initial notification should give users the time to plan both technically and financially to this type of infrastructure change. Then, there should be some time allotted to allow for a migration to take place. I am both shocked and disapointed that this decision was made with little regard to the implications and effect this has on customers that invested and commited to using UM. 

 

 

You can if you set it up before July 2017 I think... otherwise, no.  If you had it set up before, you can continue to operate until 2018.  If you haven't started yet, the option shouldn't be there anymore.

Actually, there's nothing preventing customers from deploying SBC integration solutions up until the day the SBCs are decommissioned in Office 365. There's no mechanism to surface a warning to customers that the SBCs are being decommissioned, so hopefully customers will see the notifications posted in the O365 Message Center.

I stand corrected, thank you @Jeff Guillet.  I swear I remember that the creation of new IP Gateways was blocked after July.  I must have dreamed that.

No worries. I had to check with @Steve Conn directly on that.

This is still a huge issue for us, as it is the primary reason we can't currently deploy our Exchange Online subscription. This announcement was made 2 days after we made a multi-year commitment to SPE E3, predicated on the nature of our SBC design working. 


Now we're back at square one (only we're paying for it, dramatically).  Considering all the user feedback, is Microsoft considering a further reprieve or what other options might exist that would allow customers to still use Microsoft services for Exchange Online/Unified Messaging even if we aren't on the Microsoft Cloud PBX?