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[This is pre-release documentation and subject to change in future releases. This topic's current status is: Milestone-Ready]

Topic Last Modified: 2010-07-18

This topology is for an organization that wants to deploy Microsoft Communications Server 2010 functionality with a minimum of cost. Typically, the specific topology shown in this diagram would be recommended for organizations with 5,000 or fewer users, although you can support additional users by adding additional Standard Edition Servers.

• Active Directory Deployment—All Communications Server deployments reside in a single Active Directory forest. For this topology, the customer has Communications Server deployed in the child domain, retail.contoso.com.
  
  
• Voice Pilot—The organization using the exact topology shown in this diagram is currently running a pilot program of the Enterprise Voice feature of Communications Server. Some users are using Communications Server as their sole voice solution.
  
  If they go on to fully deploy Enterprise Voice and remove the PBX system, they should provide high availability for their voice solution by deploying a second Standard Edition Server or moving to an Enterprise Edition Front End pool. A single Standard Edition topology as shown in this diagram is recommended only if you are not deploying Enterprise Voice. Because being able to make calls is mission critical for almost every organization, you should provide high availability if you use Enterprise Voice as your telephone solution.
  
  
• Additional Standard Edition Servers Can Be Added—A single Standard Edition Server can support up to 5,000 users. If you want to accommodate more users or provide some high availability capability for Enterprise Voice (at a minimum cost), you could add another Standard Edition Server to this topology.
  
  For a true high availability solution, you should deploy Enterprise Edition and deploy a Front End pool. Although having multiple Standard Edition Servers would maintain Enterprise Voice functionality should one of these servers go down, an Enterprise Edition Front End pool provides much better continuity of service for other Communications Server features.
  
  
• Branch Office Survivability—This organization is running the Enterprise Voice pilot with some branch office users as well. The branch office does not have a reliable WAN link to the central site, so a Survivable Branch Appliance is deployed there. With this deployed, if the WAN link goes down users at the branch office can still make and receive calls.
  
  
• Edge Server Recommended—Although deploying an Edge Server is not required for internal IM, presence and conferencing, it is recommended even for small deployments. You can maximize your Communications Server investment by deploying an Edge Server to provide service to users currently outside your organization’s firewalls. The benefits include the following:
  
  
  • Your organization’s own users can use Communications Server functionality, if they are working from home or are out on the road.
    
    
  • Your users can invite outside users to participate in meetings.
    
    
  • If you have a partner, vendor or customer organization that also uses Communications Server, you can form a federated relationship with that organization. Your Communications Server deployment would then recognize users from that federated organization, leading to better collaboration.
    
    
  • Your users can exchange instant messages with users of public instant messaging (IM) services, including any or all of the following: Windows Live, AOL, and Yahoo!, as well as XMPP-based providers and servers, such as Google Talk and Jabber. A separate license might be required for public IM connectivity with Windows Live, AOL, and Yahoo!