8:30 - 9:30 AM
Breakfast and welcome
9:30 - 10:30 AM
Integrating Exchange and OCS for UC
10:30 - 10:55 AM
Break
10:55 - 11:55 AM
HA and Storage
Exchange Server 2010 includes some changes to availability and storage architecture. New database mobility and redundancy features raise key considerations when deploying the server in your datacenter.
Let’s talk about the future of Exchange high availability and storage architecture.
Some things to think about:
• How can Exchange 2010 high availability and storage features be used to deploy large mailboxes at low cost?
• How can Exchange 2010 high availability simplify your deployment?
• With Exchange 2010 high availability, is RAID still a requirement?
10:55 - 11:55 AM
Voice
Gartner published their 2009 IT organization and user predictions in February. In the area of UC, they stated that the desk phone could be removed in many organizations today with little or no impact to the performance of individuals. They predict that by 2013, 40% of knowledge workers will have abandoned or removed their desk phones in favor of laptops and mobile phones. (Source: Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2009 and Beyond: Where is the Money, 4 February 2009.)
Let’s talk about your experiences to date, your expectations for the future, and the obstacles to achieving Gartner’s prediction.
Some things to think about:
• What is your perception of OCS as a UC solution that addresses your enterprise's voice requirements?
• OCS R2 adds a number of new voice capabilities. Which of these do you expect to be most powerful in terms of expanding deployments and why?
11:55 - 1:30 PM
Lunch
1:30 - 2:30 PM
Information Protection and Control
Every day information loss impacts individuals and businesses around the world. From bad publicity to legal fees to lost revenue, securing data within an organization and ensuring you have the proper controls to manage is important for any organization that deals with sensitive or confidential information.
Exchange 2010 provides quite a few mechanisms to gain insight into data that flows through Exchange and take control of how that data is used and who it is accessed by. Let’s talk about the information protection and control features within Exchange.
Some things to think about:
• How they can be used effectively?
• How do you use them today?
• What needs do you see for your organization in the future?
1:30 - 2:30 PM
Conferencing
Microsoft unified communications technologies make conferencing easier to implement and manage. Let’s get together and talk about Microsoft’s vision for unified conferencing – what it means to you, and how best to enable every information worker to communicate and collaborate with their colleagues within the company and around the world.
• How do geographically and time-shifted teams, flexible work schedules, and the need to communicate impact productivity?
• Real costs and benefits of UC – What are the real and perceived values for deploying on premise vs. using a service?
2:30 - 2:55 PMBreak
2:55 - 3:55 PMArchiving
Exchange 2010 introduces new archiving, discovery and message retention capabilities in the Exchange Server. PSTs have long been a problem for end users and IT pros and the suite of archiving and compliance features aims to tackle some of these problems while laying the architectural groundwork for future functionality.
Some things to think about:
· What are the drivers for the personal archive for your environment?
· What would be your deployment roadmap to move PST data from the desktop to the personal archive for your environment? What would the desired end user experience be?
· What other future capabilities in the personal archive would make it more compelling for you?
2:55 - 3:55 PM
Management
Thinking about deploying voice with Office Communications Server 2007 R2? Well if so, interoperability with your existing voice infrastructure, or learning how to strike out with a completely new solution - will certainly be top of mind.
In this discussion we will dive into these topics and explore them from the aspects of what is available and supported with OCS, what customers are considering and doing today, and how interoperability facilitates the move to software-powered communications.
Some things to think about:
• Given the voice interop scenarios that are supported… what is your team actually doing, and what led you to those choices?
• How have the changes in OCS R2 impacted your plans and your current infrastructure?
• The message coming from most PBX vendors is to upgrade in order to use RCC. When does it make sense to use RCC?
3:55 - 4:20 PM
Break
4:20 - 5:20 PM
Client Access and Mobility
Today’s mobile workforce makes demands that matter to IT teams. Let’s get together and talk about cell phones and browsers (EAS and OWA) and their connections to Exchange Server – what it means to you in IT, what it means to your users: your experiences to date and your expectations for the future. What are the challenges and the opportunities on your mind today?
Some things to think about:
• What do you think about when you think about mobile management?
• How heterogeneous is your mobile environment – is your IT department or your end users primarily driving the landscape?
• What web access programs do the organizations you work with make available besides OWA? Are they looking to consolidate this? Why or why not?
4:20 - 5:20 PM
Interoperability
Unified Communications and software-powered VoIP represent a disruptive trend and a paradigm-shift for communications solutions.
Let’s talk about this paradigm shift from the IT management perspective.
• The unique organizational opportunities and challenges that OCS introduces by blurring the traditional lines between IT and telephony;
• The innovative approach to audio quality in OCS (Quality of Experience);
• How advanced Call Data Records (CDR) capabilities enable a more informed discussion of productivity and ROI.