The Importance of Session Border Controllers in Microsoft Lync Deployments

By Rich Steeves
TMCnet Web Editor

There is now doubt that communications are speeding up, and more and more companies are deploying unified communications technologies to attempt to keep up with that increased pace. According to some experts, SIP technology is the virtual oil that greases the machine of unified communications, making it run faster. And at the crux of SIP technology is the session border controller. In order to get the most out of unified communications technologies, such as the increasingly popular Microsoft (News - Alert) Lync, the session border controller must play a key role.

The session border controller market has grown at a rapid rate in recent years and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future as companies look to implement SIP-based unified communications. SBCs are the core of a SIP voice network, and must be scalable, reliable and simple to use with a robust feature set. And, when integrating with Lync, the SBC connects the SIP trunks to the Lync Mediation Server. Without a session border controller, Lync would have to punch holes in your firewall to get access to your service provider, which is never a good idea.

For people who are interested in learning more about session border controllers, what they are and what they do, or how they integrate with a Microsoft Lync deployment, there was a recent free webinar that covered this topic. The webinar, hosted by SBC provider Sonus, was titled “The 5 Critical Facts About Integrating Session Border Controllers with Microsoft Lync.” It explained the role of the SBC in SIP trunking, why enterprises need SBCs, what Microsoft Lync integration means with an SBC and what to look for when purchasing an SBC intended for use in a Lync environment.

To listen to an archived version of the webinar, click here.

Edited by Brooke Neuman