Microsoft Hosting Partner Technical Advisor Blog!

Answers for the KevinTunis Post:

Can the Microsoft Solution: Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5 be deployed on Microsoft Virtual Server on a single server running Microsoft Longhorn 64-bit?

For testing and demo purposes yes, for production purposes we recommend that you don't use virtualization. Also, I would recommend following the guidance in the Consolidated Server Guide for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5 for a 5 server deployment. You can find that solution here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/5/5/c5561094-b0fa-4f9a-9a36-65c345d887ee/HMC-3.5%20Consolidated%20Server%20Deployment.zip

In the Demo Hosted Solution the website that is used to demo provisioning hosted solutions - is it and the web services available in Microsoft Solution: Hosted Messaging and Collaboration 3.5 download?

Yes, it is available in the download of the HMC 3.5 Solution. There is a more up to date version of the web service available in the Consolidated Server Guide solution; guidance on rebranding is also provided. Please use the link provided above. I recommend visiting www.solutiondemo.net to experience both web services, this is a free demo site hosted by Microsoft where anyone can get an account to test drive our hosted solutions.

How does the Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Solution Components integrate into this solution?

In short, the solution currently supports a dedicated CRM server for each hosted client but still utilizing the shared AD and Exchange Servers. I recommend downloading the Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Solution Components from: https://members.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/webhosting/hostedmessaging/default.mspx.

That download also contains the planning and deployment documents.

Follow-up to spiv's Office Live quesitons:

That’s a great question spiv, and we appreciate your feedback.  Office Live (and our other ‘Live’ services) have generated significant excitement and attention from the hosting community over the last number of months, and no one could be more excited about the level of enthusiasm around Software as a Service than the hosting community!  Obviously there have been some questions about how service providers will be able to leverage these new services, how they can differentiate themselves, and what our ongoing strategy for supporting our hosting community is. While these are all great questions, please keep in mind that this is a technical blog, focusing on the technical aspects of designing, implementing and managing a Microsoft hosting environment, and as such we’re probably not the best group to be trying to answer your specific questions right now.  For the best information on Microsoft Live Services and what the means to hosters, I would strongly recommend that you keep your eyes on the monthly Hosting Newsletter that is published by Michael Van Dijken.  His team is working hard at putting together information on this topic that relates specifically to our hosting providers.  Don’t get the newsletter?  Follow this link to sign-up:

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/programs/windowswebhosting.mspx

It’s the best way to keep up to date on everything that’s going on within the Hosting group at Microsoft.

 -Rob

Follow Up on the KevinTunis post:

There will always be pro’s and con’s to virtualization, one of the pro’s is to be  being able to offer quick restoration of service, but you will always be limited when it comes to performance.  Please see the KBA 320220 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320220/en-us) for the support policy of Exchange Server in a Virtual configuration, plus host and Virtual machine considerations.

A few other things to consider is that CRM is not currently supported in a Virtual environment and we have not performed scaled testing of HMC 3.5 in a Virtual environment.

The download I recommended in the previous post includes the following:

• An optional add-on component to the Hosted Messaging and Collaboration version 3.5 solution. It is recommended that any service provider deploying “Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Professional Edition for Service Providers” download and install this component.

• Hosted CRM Deployment guide

• Hosted CRM Planning guide

-Chuck

It’s an exciting time to be working with products that fall under the Unified Communications umbrella.  Within Microsoft Unified Communications is comprised of our real-time collaboration group (Live Communications Server and Live Meeting) and our messaging group (exchange)

Live Communication Server (LCS) falls under our Hosted Messaging and Collaboration Solution.  If you haven’t read up on that product I’d encourage you to check it out at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/communicationsserver/FX101729111033.aspx In my opinion we’ve documented that product as good or better than anything else we’ve come out with.  Information specific to hosted scenarios can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/hostedmessaginglive.mspx

We also just released the Microsoft Solution for Enhanced VOIP Services 1.0 (EVS) which gives service providers a scalable multi-service solution enabling enterprise class Unified Communication services in a multi-tenant environment.  The solution is based on Hosted LCS and includes Office Communicator extensions for Advanced Call Forwarding and Call History.  This release supports Sylantro.  We are currently gathering requirements to support other vendors in our next release.

In addition, Office Communications Server 2007, which is slated to be released the summer of 2007, will support on-premise web conferencing and multi-party audio and video. http://www.microsoft.com/uc/Technologies.mspx  Exchange 2007, which is slated to be released by the end of this year, will also support unified messaging.  http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/features.mspx  We’ll wrap these products into a future version of HMC.  

-Adam