Microsoft Lync Unified Communications
CEM delivers affordable, real-time Microsoft Lync Service Assurance to Enterprises and Service Providers
Microsoft Lync connects people in enterprises everywhere as part of their everyday productivity experience. When underlying IP network issues affect a user’s Lync experience, unified communications (UC) managers need to solve those problems immediately. Traditional UC monitoring solutions use an element monitoring approach to identify the root cause of service degradations. This approach does not accurately provide insight into what the user experiences during that event, nor does it automatically correlate the disparate data into actionable insight for root cause and trending analysis.
The Underlying Problem in Unified Communications
Without an effective means to quickly identify and correlate network issues to the session and content events of a specific call, fault isolation and remediation for enterprise-class UC environments, such as Microsoft Lync, is unpredictable. This unpredictability translates to high UC user service case counts, lengthy time-per-case and root cause misdiagnosis. The subsequent avalanche of data from multiple sources requires highly skilled technicians to manually filter and correlate “haystacks” of forensic data from disparate components. Fault isolation also depends upon the hope that the same root cause event will happen while the after-the-fact diagnostics traces are enabled. After days or weeks of hunting through “haystacks” of data, the root cause “needle” is rarely found.
The NetSocket Solution for Microsoft Lync Environments
NetSocket's CEM UC service assurance solution for Microsoft Lync 2013 and 2010 is more than just monitoring; it provides complete IP network information correlation for Lync environments. CEM automatically correlates, in real time, all session, content and topology data to each user call, enabling managers to quickly anticipate, isolate and remediate the root causes of network-based UC problems. CEM delivers immediate insight into underlying IP networks without costly probes at each endpoint or burdening the performance of all Lync elements with post-event diagnostic traces. Ultimately, CEM lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO) and delivers a superior Lync user experience.
Empowering Microsoft Lync users with the enhanced optimizations that CEM provides begins with NetSocket incorporating support for the new and powerful Microsoft Lync Network Diagnostics API into its patented IP Correlation Engine®. This API enables CEM to provide a real time hop-by-hop IP topology path identification and recording of all media streams for all Lync voice and video calls down to the Lync user endpoint. The identification of specific route paths in real time for each call allows support personnel to correlate a user’s complaint to the likely root cause of service degradation within a few clicks, significantly reducing the time to resolve issues and the TCO of Lync operations and support.
NetSocket IP Correlation Engine is now turbo-charged by incorporating the new Microsoft Lync Network Diagnostics API
NetSocket Cloud Experience Manager (CEM)
Demonstration for Microsoft Lync
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NetSocket Cloud Experience Manager (CEM) for Microsoft Lync Solution Brief |
Benefits
- Enhanced UC Service Assurance for Microsoft Lync Users and Support Staff
CEM facilitates Lync event root cause analysis, identification and resolution in just a few clicks, minimizing the manual efforts of IT operations and support personnel. - Accurate Forensics and Correlation
CEM’s forensic data is derived from all calls – including those affected by service disruptions. After the fact, hunt-and-peck trace enabling and analysis are not required, nor are costly probes at every endpoint. CEM provides, real-time hop-by-hop path identification across Lync, as well as heterogeneous UC and network environments, eliminating other network elements from the hunt for the root cause. - Quicker Root Cause Analysis and Time to Resolution
CEM’s deep visibility and correlation of UC session, content and IP topology layers yields a 70% reduction in MTTR (mean-time-to-repair) UC service degradations. - Trend Analysis and Reporting
CEM historical reports and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) identify mid- and long-term trends for predicting capacity and performance actions enabling administrators to anticipate caseload peaks and take action through proactive alerting. The enhanced visibility afforded by CEM provides both a reduction in TCO and a greater predictability for Microsoft Lync operations - Reduced Complexity in Managing the UC Network
CEM provides a comprehensive, well-organized, “single pane of glass” web-based GUI and workflow structure that allows a much greater percentage of UC service cases to be quickly managed at help desks without requiring expert resources. Ample forensic data is supplied if escalation to higher-skillset agents is required. CEM also supports manager-of-manager applications such as Microsoft System Center – delivering KPI threshold crossing alerts and other service-related data to unified management solutions.
CEM GUI and System Management - TCO Reduction, Customer Satisfaction and ROI
The total lifecycle cost of your Lync deployment will be dramatically reduced through CEM’s more accurate forensics and reporting, quicker MTTR, reduced caseload and more efficient personnel utilization. Improvement in the user service experience will yield an un-paralleled return on your Microsoft Lync investment.
NetSocket has been tested and qualified as an ISV in Microsoft's Unified Communications Open Interoperability Program for Lync Communications Server 2013 and 2010.
For more information on how NetSocket can optimize your Microsoft Lync experience, contact: CEM_Lync@netsocket.com
Resources
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NetSocket - The Ideal Solution for Unified Communications Service Assurance White Paper |
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Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2013
July 7 – 11, 2013
Houston, TX
Come see us at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference on July 7 – 11, 2013 in Houston, Texas!