Iluminari Tech to Provide Premier Lync Voice Solution Support

Calgary, Alberta – April 8, 2013 – Iluminari Tech, a leading provider of next-generation unified communications solutions, has achieved status as a Lync Certified Support Partner. Iluminari Tech completed the certification for Lync 2010, and was the first partner to complete the certification process for Microsoft Lync 2013^®.  For customers, it means Iluminari Tech is able to be a single point of contact for planning and deployment to post-deployment support providing you peace of mind that your voice system meets performance, quality and serviceability requirements.

Lync combines the telephony features of an IP PBX with Instant Messaging and Audio/Video/Web Conferencing to help improve communications and lower costs. As with any business-critical telephony system, it is essential to have a support solution that addresses all components including software, hardware, network, gateway, and system interoperability. Having a single point-of-contact to deliver this support can shorten issue response times and enhance user experiences. With these requirements in mind, Microsoft Premier Services has developed Lync Certified Support Partner model that can provide the right Lync voice support to meet unique business needs.

Lync Certified Support Partners have unique access to dedicated Microsoft Premier Support escalation engineers and the commitment and backing from the Microsoft. Lync Certified Support Partner status and program enables Iluminari Tech to meet the need for a simple, consistent process that provides maintenance and support for complex systems.

“Support has always been an integral part of our offerings to our clients,” said Angela Hlavka, Iluminari Tech’s President and CEO, “and having gone through the rigorous process of becoming not just a Lync Certified Support Partner but also globally the first Lync 2013 Certified Support Partner puts our company in a very exclusive category with a limited number of partners worldwide. This latest achievement will provide streamlined support for our Lync customers that is backed by Microsoft expertise.”

“Today’s integrated workplaces demand similarly integrated communications technologies, and solutions like Microsoft Lync are already helping Canadian businesses transform the way they work and drive bottom line benefits,” said Jason Brommet, Group Manager Microsoft Office Division at Microsoft Canada. “Thanks to a modern toolset that empowers employees to communicate from their desktops using advanced voice and instant messaging technologies, the possibilities are limitless, and Microsoft is extremely pleased to be working with a pioneering partner like Iluminari Tech to help Canadian businesses continue to thrive.”

“When you deploy a Lync voice solution alongside instant messaging/presence, and conferencing, you need a partner that understands the complete solution – software, hardware and network,” said Evan Zaleschuk, Iluminari Tech Lync MVP. “In addition to this latest announcement, Iluminari Tech has developed partnerships with leading manufacturers of Microsoft Lync qualified endpoints, gateways and services so that we can be that single point of contact to support your entire unified communications infrastructure built on Microsoft Lync.”

This announcement builds on Iluminari Tech’s strong legacy with Lync. Its Lync Adoption Toolkit includes their award winning Lync Evaluation and Deployment Processes, the ‘Lync-in-a-Box’ solution, the Lync Budget Calculator, Implementation Best Practices, End User and Administrator training, and Lync Quickstart (Pilot). A series of live events and webinars is available at http://www.iluminaritech.com/lync-2013 for clients to gain insight into the new features and how to take advantage of the benefits.

About Iluminari Tech

Iluminari Tech is a privately held Canadian company that specializes in implementing next-generation Microsoft communication and collaboration solutions. Iluminari Tech is Microsoft Gold Communication Partner, Managed Partner, Certified Lync Support Partner and Certified Trainers that provides the expertise, best practices and training to successfully implement communication and collaboration solutions utilizing Lync and Office 365 on-premises and in the cloud.

For more information, please contact:

Angela Hlavka
President and CEO, Iluminari Tech
info@iluminaritech.com
[1-877-895-7323]

The team at Microsoft Canada is focused on ensuring that they help set you up for success by providing the information and tools you need in order to be get the most out of Microsoft based solutions, at home and at work.

Twice a year, Microsoft sends out the Global Relationship Study (GRS for short); it’s a survey that Microsoft uses to collect your feedback and help inform their planning.  If you receive emails from Microsoft, subscribe to their newsletters‚ or you’ve attended our any of their events you may receive the survey.

The important details:

• Timing      – March 4^th to April 12^th 2013
• Sent From      – “Microsoft Feedback”
• Email Alias      – “feedback@e–mail.microsoft.com”
• Subject Line      – “Help Microsoft Focus on Customers and Partners”

Many of you already read the Microsoft Canada IT Pro team’s blogs‚ connect with them on LinkedIn and have attended their events in the last year or so. So you may already know that you’re their top priority. So they want to hear from you.

Pierre, Anthony and Mitch use the GRS results to shape what they do, how they do it and if it’s resonating with you. Tell them what you need to be the “go-to” guy (or gal).  Tell them what you need to grow your career.  They want you to be completely satisfied with Microsoft Canada.

This year, Pierre, Anthony and Mitch have delivered 30 IT Camps and counting across the country.  Giving you the opportunity to get hands on and learn how to get the most value for your organization.  They have a few more events planned this year, so keep an eye on their plancast feed for events near you.  Based on your feedback, topics they’re planning to cover will include:

• Windows 8
• Windows Server 2012
• System Center 2012
• Private Cloud
• BYOD – Management and Security

That’s not all.  They’ve heard you loud and clear so in addition to hands on events, they’re also delivering more technical content online via the IT Pro Connection Blog.  Windows 8 continues to be a big area of focus for them.  They covered a lot of great content at launch and they’ve complimented that with new content like:

• Security Concepts
• Enterprise Focused Content
• Windows 8 and System Center 2012 Integration

In addition to this, there are some valuable online resources you can use like Microsoft Virtual Academy, Microsoft’s no-cost online training portal.  Or software evaluations (free trials) on TechNet that allow you to build your own labs to try out what you’ve learned.
Regardless of how you engage with the team at Microsoft Canada‚ you’d probably agree that they hear you. They’d also encourage you to continue to provide that great feedback. They thrive on it‚ they relish it‚ they wallow in it and most importantly of all‚ they action it. So please keep connecting with them and keep it coming! Pierre, Anthony and Mitch are listening.

Resources, Tools and Training

• Tim Horton’s Gift Card Contest– We’re giving away 350 Tim Horton’s gift cards, all you have to do to qualify is download a free qualifying software evaluation (trial).  Download all three for more chances to win, but hurry, the contest closes soon.*

• Windows 8 Resource Guide - Download a printable, one-page guide to the top resources that will help you explore, plan for, deploy, manage, and support Windows 8 as part of your IT infrastructure.

• Windows Server 2012 Evaluation – Get hands on with Windows Server 2012 and explore the scale and performance possibilities for your server virtualization.

• Microsoft Support  - Get help with products‚ specific errors‚ virus detection and removal and more.

• Microsoft Licensing  -Visit the Volume Licensing Portal today to ask questions about volume licensing‚ get a quote‚ activate a product or find the right program for your organization.

*No purchase necessary. Contest open to residents of Canada, excluding Quebec.  Contest closes April 11, 2013 at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Three-Hundred-and-Fifty (350) prizes are available to be won: (i) $10 CDN Tim Horton’s gift card.  Skill-testing question required. Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries. For full rules, including entry, eligibility requirements and complete prize description, review the full terms and Conditions.

• For a list of features supported on each mobile device, see the Mobile Client Comparison Tables* in the Microsoft TechNet library.

Microsoft Lync 2013 for Windows Phone

• Quick Reference Card – Download (.PPT) *
• Download
• FAQ

Microsoft Lync 2013 for iPhone

• Quick Reference Card – Download (.PPT) *
• Download
• FAQ

Microsoft Lync 2013 for iPad

• Quick Reference Card – Download (.PPT) *
• Download
• FAQ

Microsoft Lync 2013 for Android

Coming soon

Date Wednesday, February 27^th 8 am PDT and 5 pm PDT

Why Attend?

• Learn how the new Office 365 can help people do
their best work in a world of devices and services

• Hear customers talk about how Office 365
is transforming the way they deliver productivity
tools across their organization

• See how Office 365 delivers new experiences
combining the power of social with collaboration,
email and unified communications

• Join in a live Q&A with Microsoft executives
and product experts

• Lync-Skype connectivity/federation — sharing of presence, instant messaging (IM) and voice will be available to Lync 2013 in the coming months. Video for Skype-Lync Connectivity sometime in the next 18 months
• Lync 2013 mobile applications for iPhone, and Windows Phone 8 will be available in early March, with Android coming later. Demos were done of the new versions of these applications which all get VOIP and video over IP. In addition, iPad users also get the ability to view shared desktop and application content in a Lync meeting. Still no statements from Blackberry on an updated client to match other platforms.
• Lync Meeting Room System will be available in the upcoming 6 months from Crestron, SMART, Polycom and Lifesize.
• New Windows 8 Lync Client available on Friday … includes Snapview for Lync. Surface Pro has all the mobile and desktop capabilities.
• Lync Online Quarterly Updates.  Enterprise Voice in Lync Online sometime over the next 18 months.
• Structured Meetings in Lync Online and Lync Server sometime over the next 18 months – to allow discontinuation of Live Meeting
• Lync Server Next Release Q2 2014
• Interop with 3rd party VTCs
• 90 out of the fortune 100 use Lync with 90% of all deployments on-premises today

Microsoft Is committed to 4 Pillars with Lync and Skype

• People Centric Design
• Access and Reach
• End-point Device of Choice
• Security, Reliability and Services

Iluminari Tech is now an Aruba Certified Partner and is proud to announce Aruba as part of our Lync 2013 Partner Ecosystem.  Lync 2013 ushers in a host of new capabilities for mobile devices. With the additional mobility features the Wi-Fi infrastructures in the enterprise need to keep pace.  As the only Lync networking infrastructure vendor qualified by Microsoft, Aruba plays an important role in Lync mobility applications and the Lync community more broadly.

Wi-Fi-enabled mobile devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets are on track to outnumber desktops, and enterprise networks are moving rapidly from wired to wireless as the preferred way to connect.

The enterprise workforce expects unified voice, video, instant messaging (IM) and other applications that run on platforms like Microsoft® Lync™ to work on these personal mobile devices. However, the voice and video experience on enterprise wireless LANs (WLANs) has been historically unreliable.

Aruba WLANs, based on the Mobile Virtual Enterprise (MOVE™) architecture, deliver secure, application-aware network access, regardless of location, device, wired or wireless. This ensures a reliable, high-quality unified communications experience. Certified by Microsoft, Aruba identifies and prioritizes encrypted Microsoft Lync traffic when there is congestion and RF interference. The result with Aruba is an astonishing 74% improvement in communication quality compared to the competition, according to Microsoft Lync Server

Click here to learn more…

Lync Server supports two load balancing solutions: DNS load balancing and hardware load balancing. You can choose different load balancing solutions for each pool in your deployment. Hardware load balancers are required to provide load balancing for the internal and external web services . Kemp also provides “hardware” load balancers in software version for virtualized environments.

The KEMP LoadMaster combines versatility with ease-of-use to speed deployment (see the step-by-step guidelines in the LoadMaster Deployment Guide for Load Balancing Microsoft Lync ) of the complete portfolio of advanced messaging applications and protocols used by Microsoft Lync Server . Layer 7 health checking at the LoadMaster ensures that should one of the servers become inaccessible, the load balancer will take that server off-line, while automatically re-routing and reconnecting users to other functioning servers.

As a part of the solution for Lync, a key component has historically been Microsoft’s Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG). One key feature of TMG was that it offered customers a way to publish and protect workload servers where a clean separation between critical infrastructure and the public internet is essential.

Now that End Of Sale for TMG has arrived, KEMP Technologies will be extending the successful LoadMaster platform with a new security feature pack to build on existing core technologies such as the Reverse Proxy function which has enabled successful joint deployments of TMG and LoadMaster in Internet Facing Microsoft applications.

The entire KEMP LoadMaster product family, including the Virtual LoadMaster (VLM) supports Microsoft Lync, and includes a comprehensive first year warranty and technical support agreement. To learn more about how KEMP’s Loadmaster can be used as part of your Microsoft Lync Deployment please contact us today.

Voice partners can be part of AudioCodes One Voice for Microsoft Lync by offering their customers the complete portfolio of AudioCodes Lync-compatible IP Phones, Media Gateways, Enterprise Session Border Controllers (E-SBCs), Survivable Branch Appliances (SBAs), Applications, Support and Professional Services.

Iluminari Tech to Provide Full Suite of Microsoft Lync 2013^® Services

Industry leader takes collaboration to the next level 

Calgary, Alberta  – Feb 12,  2013 – Iluminari Tech, a leading provider of next-generation Microsoft collaboration solutions, is thrilled to announce the launch of a full suite of services based on Microsoft Lync 2013^®.  Iluminari Tech will leverage Lync 2013’s powerful new enhancements to deliver unprecedented unified communication and collaboration for organizations. For customers, it means industry leading unified communications solutions that deliver consistently rich end user experiences.

“We are excited that Iluminari Tech is providing a full suite of services for Microsoft Lync 2013^®” said Zia Mansoor, National Lync Sales Lead for Microsoft Canada. “This provides customers the advantage and choice that meets their specialized communication and collaboration needs.”

Iluminari Tech’s new services are designed to drive customers’ collaboration competencies, from evaluation all the way through successful production deployment. The suite incorporates comprehensive support models to consolidate multiple ecosystem partners into a cohesive solution.

“Enterprises of all sizes can benefit from Microsoft’s productivity software, both on-premise and in the cloud,” said Angela Hlavka, Iluminari Tech’s President and CEO. “Our offerings help our customers to cost effectively accelerate their adoption of new technologies across the enterprise and help increase employee productivity, efficiency, and organizational flexibility. Our new suite offers flexible options to leverage existing investments, maximize returns and provide support across the ecosystem.”

This announcement builds on Iluminari Tech’s strong legacy with Lync. Its Lync Adoption Toolkit includes their award winning Lync Evaluation and Deployment Processes, the ‘Lync-in-a-Box’ solution, the Lync Budget Calculator, Implementation Best Practices, End User and Administrator training, and Lync Quickstart (Pilot). A series of live events and webinars is available at http://www.iluminaritech.com/lync-2013 for clients to gain insight into the new features and how to take advantage of the benefits.

About Iluminari Tech
Iluminari Tech is a privately held Canadian company that specializes in implementing next-generation Microsoft communication and collaboration solutions. Iluminari Tech is Microsoft Gold Communication Partner, Managed Partner and Certified Trainer that provides the expertise, best practices and training to successfully implement communication and collaboration solutions utilizing Lync and Office 365 on-premises and in the cloud.

For more information, please contact:
Angela Hlavka
President and CEO, Iluminari Tech
info@iluminaritech.com
[1-877-895-7323]

Do not hesitate to contact us for more information about SIP trunking in Canada.

SIP trunking services

SIP trunking enables connectivity to the public switched telephony network (PSTN) directly over SIP. SIP trunking services are offerings from IP telephony service provider partners that offer PSTN origination, termination and emergency services using the SIP protocol. An enterprise can use SIP trunking to connect their on-premise voice network implemented by Microsoft Lync Server.