The differences between Lync On-Premises and Lync Online (Shared / Dedicated)

May 5th, 2012 | Tags: ,

Almost a year ago I wrote a post on the differences between Lync On-Premises and Lync Online, since then Lync Online has gone through a series of updates and I have become more aware of Lync Online for dedicated customers.

Let me cover off some basics for those unaware:

  • The Office 365 which can be purchased by individuals, small businesses and medium to large sized Enterprises via the Microsoft Office 365 website – this version of Office 365 is Shared or S and is a shared or multi-tenanted Microsoft Cloud platform aimed at the mass market.
  • For large Enterprise businesses (typically 5000+ users), Microsoft offers a dedicated version (or D), which has more similarities between the On-Premises version of Lync Server 2010, the features and deployment characteristics are however not identical. In this dedicated model Microsoft hosts dedicated servers for a specific customer, there is also a more personalised service with enhanced SLA

So back to the matter at hand, I have updated the feature table, the original being sourced from the Office 365-S Lync Online service documentation, with the new features available within the Shared platform and now included the Dedicated version of Lync Online. I hope this helps! 🙂

 Features Lync Server 2010 Lync Online (S) Lync Online (D)
Lync Skill Search in SharePoint Server   (on-premises) Yes No Yes
Lync Skill Search in SharePoint Online No No Yes
Persistent Group Chat Yes No No
Privacy mode Yes No No
Lync external connectivity (federation and Public IM connectivity)
IM/presence/audio/video federation with   other OCS/Lync Server/Lync Online organizations Yes Yes Yes
IM/presence/audio/video with Windows   Live Messenger Yes Yes Yes
IBM Sametime federation Yes No Yes
IM/presence federation with XMPP   networks (Jabber, Google Talk) Yes No Yes – via customer hosted XMPP gateway
IM/presence with AOL, Yahoo Yes No No
Meetings (audio/video/web conferencing)
Meeting attendee capacity 250 250 250
Web Scheduler Yes (installed separately) Yes No
Desktop sharing Yes Yes Yes
Application sharing Yes Yes Yes
White boarding and annotations Yes Yes Yes
PowerPoint upload for online   presentations Yes Yes Yes
Upload for other file types No No No
Multimedia content upload No No No
Polling Yes Yes Yes
Ad-hoc multiparty PC-based audio/video Yes Yes Yes
Authenticated attendee in Lync Web App Yes No Yes
Unauthenticated attendee in Lync Web App Yes Yes Yes
Lync attendee client Yes Yes Yes
Scheduled conferences (using Outlook   plug-in) Yes Yes Yes
Outlook delegation for scheduling   meetings Yes Yes Yes
Meeting join via Lync optimized conferencing   devices See Meeting Room Devices. Note: Polycom   CX7000 is not currently supported Yes Partial (RoundTable only) Yes (Polycom   CX7000 is not currently supported)
Lobby Yes Yes Yes
Interoperability with certified partners   for dial-in audio conferencing (ACP) No Yes No
Phone dial-out from scheduled meetings   via third-party dial-in conferencing service No Yes No
Client side recording and playback Yes Yes Yes
Server-side recording and playback No No No
Generate a link to a scheduled meeting   via web page No No No
Scheduling an online meeting in Outlook   Web App No No No
Exchange Online Outlook Web App and   Communicator 2007 R2 or Lync 2010 Integration No No Yes
Native dial-in audio conferencing on   Lync server Yes No Yes
Screen Snapshot (Desktop Annotation) No No No
Backstage/Content Preview for presenters Yes Yes Yes
Mute all attendees Yes Yes Yes
Mute individual attendees Yes Yes Yes
Unmute all attendees Yes Yes Yes
Unmute individual attendees Yes Yes Yes
In-meeting attendee permission controls Yes Yes Yes
Interoperability with on-premises video   conferencing systems Yes No Yes (via approved   customer hosted gateway)
Voice and telephony
Lync-to-phone (calls with landlines and   mobile phones) Yes Coming soon via (ACP) Yes
Call hold/retrieve Yes No Yes
Call-via-Work in Lync Mobile Yes No Yes
Dial-out from ad-hoc Lync meetings Yes No Yes
Advanced call controls (transfer,   forward, simul-ring) Yes No Yes
Access to Exchange Online voicemail Yes No Yes
Team call Yes No Yes
Delegation (boss-admin) for Voice Yes No Yes
Call park Yes No Yes
Outgoing DID manipulation Yes No Yes
E-911 Yes No No
Dial plans and policies Yes No Yes
Common Area and IP desk phone support Yes No Yes
Resilient branch office appliance Yes No No
Call Admissions Control (CAC) Yes No No
Support for analog devices (such as FAX) Yes No No
Response groups Yes No No
Private Line (secondary DID for   executives) Yes No Yes
Interoperability with third-party PBX or   trunks Yes No Yes
Presence interoperability with   third-party PBX No No No
RCC (click-to-call) with on-premises PBX Yes No No
Malicious call trace Yes No Yes
Unassigned number Yes No No
Network QoS – DSCP Yes No Yes
Media path optimization Yes No No
Phone number management Yes No No
CDR and billing reporting Yes No Yes
Integration with call center solutions   (Aspect) Yes No No
Client support
Lync 2010 Yes Yes Yes
Lync Web App for participating in   scheduled meetings Yes Yes Yes
Lync 2010 Attendee client (joining   meetings) Yes Yes Yes
Communicator for Mac client Yes No Yes
Lync for Mac client Yes Yes Yes
Office Communicator Web Access (2007 R2)   client Yes No No
Office Communicator 2007 R2 client Yes No No
Lync 2010 Phone Edition (Lync-based IP   phones) Yes No Yes
Lync 2010 Attendant client (receptionist   rich client) Yes No No
Communicator Mobile (Windows Phones 6.x) Yes No No
Lync 2010 Mobile client Yes Yes Yes
BlackBerry   Enterprise Server integration for the BlackBerry client with the Lync Server   2010 Yes No Yes
IM and media encryption Yes Yes Yes
IM filtering Yes Yes Yes
Anti-malware scanning for meeting   content and file transfers Yes (partner solutions) No No
IM archiving (server side) Yes No Yes
Exchange/SharePoint interoperability
Presence interoperability with Exchange   and SharePoint on-premises Yes Yes Yes
Presence interoperability with Exchange   Online and SharePoint Online Yes Yes Yes
Unified Messaging interoperability with   Exchange Online Yes No Yes
Unified Messaging interoperability with   Exchange on-premises Yes Yes (with Exchange 2010 Hybrid Server) No
Lync Online and Lync on-premises, and administration
Lync optimized common area phone and IP   phone device auto updates Yes No Yes
Automatic Lync client update via inband   client provisioning Yes No No
Server/cloud coexistence (split domain)   on user basis (some users on-premises, some users online) No No No
Splitting workloads (for example,   IM/presence/voice on-premises, conferencing in the cloud) No No No
PowerShell support Yes No No
Bigfin (web) UI Yes No No
Customer   self-service configuration portal No Yes No
Attendee/user reporting No No No
Reporting (CDR, QoE) Yes No Yes
User Management via customer Active Directory Yes Yes (with ADFS 2.0) Yes
Third-party API support
Client-side   APIs Yes Yes Yes
Server-side   APIs Yes No No
Customer clients using Microsoft SDK Yes No No
  1. May 5th, 2012 at 20:54
    Reply | Quote | #1

    Nice article Adam, thanks for this update to make things more clear!

  2. John Harte
    May 7th, 2012 at 03:03
    Reply | Quote | #2

    So, User Management via Customer AD is a no with Lync Online?

    Then what is the purpose of AD FS 2.0? Is it not able to authenticate lync clients?

  3. Adam [I’m a UC Blog]
    May 7th, 2012 at 10:52
    Reply | Quote | #3

    Hi John,

    Good shout, I’ve updated the matrix.

    – Adam

  4. John Harte
    May 7th, 2012 at 12:29
    Reply | Quote | #4

    Good deal Adam, b/c I’m in the middle of that deployment right now. 😉 I’ve still got the proxy servers to install. Currently I’ve got AD FS 2.0 (completely different that AD FS for 2008 R2) working for portal.microsoftonline.com logins…but Lync is still not working. I believe it’s the reverse proxy server that microsoftonline.com needs to complete the lync authentication…. that’s without re-reading the deployment documents.

  5. Adam [I’m a UC Blog]
    May 7th, 2012 at 12:38
    Reply | Quote | #5

    Can you authenticate your Lync client via the on-premise ADFS 2.0 service? If you can’t then try to login to the control panel via this user and check ADFS pass-thru works without any issue (or cert complaints). Also ensure your registry settings are correct (if you are not using the Office 365 Desktop setup)

    – Adam

  6. John Harte
    May 7th, 2012 at 13:22
    Reply | Quote | #6

    That’s exactly the issue, I’m not able to authenticate with Lync and our onsite ADFS 2.0 server. However, I can auth with that server using portal.microsoftonline.com! 😉 That’ what’s confusing.

    So, registry settings? I don’t recall reading anything about registry settings. I’ve made all the necessary internal DNS changes… what the MS online portal works with the ADFS pass-thru.

  7. John Harte
    May 7th, 2012 at 13:55
    Reply | Quote | #7

    I take that back, I’m able to get internal lync working… I’m guessing Friday all of my dNS entries hadn’t taken hold yet. the SRV records.

    So, now on to the ADFS 2.0 proxy server and we are fully ready for Lync Online SSO.

    Still curious on that registry setting.

  8. Adam [I’m a UC Blog]
    May 8th, 2012 at 08:36
    Reply | Quote | #8

    Hi John,

    See manually configure Lync – here

    – Adam