Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Every enterprise IT environment is different, every IP network is different, every enterprise telephone infrastructure is different, and therefore, functionality requirements for a product such as Office Communications Server 2007 vary from enterprise to enterprise as well. Office Communications Server 2007 offers a variety of deployment options and allows enabling of several different scenarios as seen in Part II. And it lets enterprises choose their enterprise-specific level of security, availability, and compliance to regulatory requirements.

All these different options and choices can become overwhelming for administrators who have to define their individual Office Communications Server 2007 deployment strategy based on the enterprise-specific IT environment and IP and telephone network and functionality requirements. It is particularly difficult for administrators who are working for the first time with Office Communications Server 2007. But even administrators who already have experience with Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 deployments and want to enable some new scenarios (such as Conferencing and Enterprise Voice) need to become familiar with the new aspects of the planning and deployment process that result from these new scenarios.

The goal of this part of the book is to walk through the Office Communications Server 2007 planning and deployment process for a fictitious company named Contoso by using the guidelines and structure provided in the "Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Planning Guide" and the "Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice Planning and Deployment Guide." In Chapter 12, several deployment guides are used to implement an Office Communications Server 2007 deployment for Contoso. All documents mentioned herein can be found on the CD and are part of the official Office Communications Server 2007 documentation. Many notes, hints, best practices, and recommendations-as well as sample uses for some Office Communications Server 2007 Resource tools-have been added to provide additional value to the reader.