The Future of Skype for Business and Skype for Business Online
We discussed this in our article—choosing between Microsoft Teams and Skype for BusinessOn-Premise for phone services is still a headache. Some companies are even opting for a cloud-based phone solution—such as Avaya, Cisco, or Mitel—rather than an Skype for Business on-premise solution, mainly because they’ve heard that Skype is going to disappear.
Really?
It is clear thatthere was indeed some confusion in Microsoft’s marketing communications. In fact, no distinction was made in the roadmap between the Skype Online version and On-Premise. Obviously, the solution UC in the Cloud, Skype Online, will be replaced by Microsoft Teams. Whether for technical or business reasons, some companies are reluctant to switch to cloud-based solutions Cloud. As a result, Microsoft recognizes that it must continue to offer on-premises telephony solutions. Today, support for the Server is still supported and will continue to be supported in the future. End-of-support for the Skype for Business Server 2019 and 2015 is scheduled for late 2025. Once again, no one at Microsoft has said that there won’t be new versions Server after the 2019 version.
...and by then we have time to see it coming!
At Lambert Consulting , we love new technologies and therefore appreciate the Microsoft solution Teams. To ensure that adopting this new tool didn’t disrupt our users, we had to find a way to use it that met our needs and, above all, fit our current environment. To prevent it from becoming a substitute that complicates the processes already in place across our infrastructure (SharePointDynamics 365 and integrations with SfB), we sought to understand how MS-Teams could complement our work and add value to our teamwork. Despite the solution’s many advantages, we decided—for our organization—that it was best to stick with Skype for Business Server for the telephony portion only and stick with Teams for the rest.
Just like us, your company is unique, and we’re committed to ensuring you have the best tools to meet your business challenges. Here are several hybrid scenarios for companies that would like to migrate their phone system to Microsoft Teams in the medium term.
Skype for Business On-premises only,
Skype for Business On-Premises + Microsoft Teams,
Microsoft Teams with Direct Routing (with SBC on-site)
Microsoft Teams with Direct Routing (with SBC managed in one of our partner data centers)
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