Microsoft’s Ignite 2017 in Orlando took place and some very interesting announcements were made. This post sums up some contents and highlights regarding Skype for Business and Teams which were mentioned in one of the sessions (see link/video at the bottom). All contents might be subject to change and only provide a high level overview and summary.

Skype for Business Server (SFBS) 2019

• No Standard Edition Server (UPDATE: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-for-Business-IT-Pro/Skype-for-Business-2019-Standard-Edition-Server-Back/td-p/153886)
• No Director Role
• No Inplace Upgrade (Side-by-Side-only)
• No more silverlight CSCP anymore
• No persistent chat with SFBS 2019
• Probably no SBA but backwards compatbility might be provided

Skype for Business Server (SFBS) 2019 Migrationpaths

• Server 2013 -> Server 2019
• Server 2015 -> Server 2019
• Minimum OS: Windows Server 2016
• Minimum SQL: SQL Server 2016

Current State –> Migration Proposal towards Teams

• No onpremise Lync/SFB server –> Go for a TEAMs pilot (IMP, Meetings, Voice)
• Onpremise SFB server without Enterprise Voice –> Go for TEAMs pilot in coexistence with SFB, migrate to TEAMs over time
• Onpremise SFB server with Enterprise Voice –> Assess current capabilities incl. third-party integrations, service contracts etc., go for TEAMs pilot in coexistence with SFB, evaluate migration feasability to TEAMs or SFB Server 2019

SFBS 2019, SFB Online and Teams Hybrid

• Office 365 Tenant required
• Office 365 Tenant/Cloud (admin) permissions required
• Hybrid aware Office 365 portal
• Call Analytics and Retention in one portal for all useres
• Voicemail Services provided via Cloud Backend for SFB Server 2019
• Auto Attendant provided via Cloud Backend for SFB Server 2019
• Call Queues provided via Cloud Backend for SFB Server 2019
• One experience for all users
• Modern Auth (in Public Preview for SFB Server) –> AAD

Meeting Migration Service

• Scheduled Meeting Update Service
• Replaces Meeting Migration Tool
• Supports moving user from SFBS to SFBO
• Supports Exchange Online or Exchange Server 2016 User Mailboxes

CloudPBX

• Bring your own trunk
• No CCE

Skype for Business Server (SFBS) 2019 Response Groups News?

• No news/no new features regarding on premise response group/s

High Availability – Windows Fabric

• New Fabric
• EE 1 – 16 Frontends (not 2!)
• EE 2 does not work –> Quorum problem! Not usable

Future Roadmap Microsoft UC?

More details might be provided on the October 2017 Roadmap of TEAMs.

Source of the above information

 

To stay up to speed do not forget to check out http://skypepreview.com for new (preview) features and functions on SFB/Teams as well as the other links listed in my previous posts here on this blog.