I believe everyone knows about Skype, which had been acquired by Microsoft in May 2011. Skype is a best solution for chat, voice and video available publicly.

I am going to talk about Skype for Business rather than Skype. Many professional may think, Skype is launching a new solution for enterprises which will compete with other UC solution available in the market.

To clear this doubt, clear answer is NO.

Skype for Business is a new product line for Microsoft UC solution which will replace Lync. Same as branding, Lync Server 2013 will be replaced by Skype for Business (SfB) server 2015 and Lync client 2013 will be replaced by Skype for Business client and it will be part of the Office 2016. This is a major move from Microsoft which has taken towards the known solutions which are freely available in the market and used by Billions of people worldwide whereas business version of those are paid, for example one drive and one drive for business.

There are no major changes in the SfB Server architecture as well as in SfB client. Right now, have a quick look and feel about SfB client and stay connected to know much more. J

SfB client logo looks like same as Skype or old Lync 2010 client logo where “L” has been replaced by “S”.

Same as Lync 2013 client you can see your contacts by groups, status, relationships etc.

Pictures can be seen in round shape instead of square shape.

Below is the new look of conversation between within the enterprise and between enterprise and ad-hoc external users.

 

Above picture is indicating, vidoe calling is now available between Skype(live+hotmail+outlook) and SfB clients.