Skype for Business CCE–Cloud Connect Edition Has Been Released

Microsoft wants you to be able to use Office 365 Cloud PBX even if you still want to use your existing PSTN connections and the solution is a suite of virtual machines that enable a PSTN gateway on your premise.

In the past we have helped various customers that wanted a small Skype for Business (Lync) implementation and even wrote Technet article that dealt with the issues of small implementations. Interestingly the CCE is attempting to address a somewhat similar scenario and a somewhat different way: Have the Skype for Business Cloud PBX workload being handled by Office 365 Cloud PBX and a lite suite of VMs that essentially enable a gateway to connect to Office 365.

A question that might come up for very small sites: Why not use the VM’s to run Skype for Business Server itself ? Here are some reasons I think of immediately:

• Office 365 Cloud PBX also includes the Voicemail workload (which would be another server in Exchange UM if doing on premises setup)
• No need for an onsite SharePoint Server for hosting PowerPoint for meetings
• Ability to do Skype for Business Broadcast Meetings
• Get Office 365 resiliency you likely won’t have on a small Skype for Business Server setup

Go get it!

Download:
http://aka.ms/getcce
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51693

Plan for Skype4B CCE:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt605227.aspx