10 Things Everyone Should Know about Skype For Business

Identify Pitfalls Between Physical Vs Virtual...Virtual Good: Lower TCO, Reduced Time for Deployment, Increased Operational efficiency. VirtUAL Bad: Reduced performance for Larger server depoloyments. Specific requirements, no live migration, no dynamic memory, no thin provisioning, no oversubscription, reserved processors recommended.

QoS - you NEED it. Careful planning is required relating to bandwidth allocations. Group policies ensure packet marking on all devices. You need to decide on which modailities to prioritise. Test and monitor.Identify Pitfalls Between Physical Vs Virtual...Virtual Good: Lower TCO, Reduced Time for Deployment, Increased Operational efficiency. VirtUAL Bad: Reduced performance for Larger server depoloyments. Specific requirements, no live migration, no dynamic memory, no thin provisioning, no oversubscription, reserved processors recommended.

Backing It Up - Virtual Snapshops and SQL exports are NOT supported. Use management shell commands Export-CsConfiguration, Export-CsUserdata and Export-Cs*. Make sure you have tested with a a lab environment where you're able to test a restore from scratch.

Emergency Services - clients are everywhere and on many devices. Networking and cable management is critical. Third party solutions may be required. Windows 7 and below don't support LLDP to identify and locate people is not supported.

Session Border Controllers - add security, flexibility, make up for missing features, such as ELIN, Lync expects the client to provide the Music on Hold, but an SBC can provide it instead, Routing, SIP header manipulation, E911 gateway)

Understand what you're replacing - What options are necessary to replace and what functionality is being taken away? What business processes are needed to change? Perform a full audit.

User Adoption - More than just IM and a phone! Build excitement before deploying. Train users on basic use. Offer advanced training after deployment. Ensure users know about all the functions. Provide examples to inspire. Monitor adoption through SfB reporting.

Monitoring - see problems before people become aware of them. Quality of calls. SBS reporting, SQL monitoring, 3rd Party monitoring such as SCOM, Solarwinds, Nectar. 3rd party reporting, such as EventZero, IR Prognosis.

Know Your Options - 40+ Desk phone models, 20+ contact centres, 100+USB devices, IP gateways, SBCs, Load Balances, SIP trunk providers.

Only use Skype for Business or Lync qualified materials.