Microsoft Lync 2013 - Ready for Takeoff!

Microsoft announced tonight that Lync 2013 has reached the Released to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone and it will be Generally Available for the first quarter of 2013.

Microsoft simultaneously announced that Office 2013, Exchange 2013, and SharePoint 2013 have also achieved RTM status and will GA in the same time-frame:

• GA is planned for Q1 2013
• Volume License customers with software assurance can start downloading mid-November 2012.
• TechNet and MSDN subscribers are expected to get access around mid-November 2012 also.
• The 2013 products will be available on the Volume Licensing price list on December 1.
• New capabilities will start showing up in Office 365 Enterprise subscriptions in service updates starting in November and continue through to general availability.

Here are the official announcements:

• Lync 2013 reaches RTM!
• The New Exchange Reaches RTM!
• Office Reaches RTM!
• SharePoint reaches RTM!

This is a major milestone for Lync 2013 and the whole Office 2013 family.  Paul Thurrott has an interesting write-up about the Office 2013 RTM on his Supersite for Windows blog: http://www.winsupersite.com/article/office-2013-beta2/office-2013-rtm-144488.

For a summary of what to expect in Lync 2013, see my previous blog entries:

• Microsoft Lync 2013 Preview Released!
• Getting Started with the Lync 2013 & Office 365 Preview
• 10 Tips for Installing the Lync 2013 Server Preview
• The Lync 2013 Preview Unified Contact Store (UCS)
• Office Web Apps Server in the Lync Server 2013 Preview

Tip – you will have to wait until the GA releases to use the RTM version.  But the Preview release is still available here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/hh973389.aspx.  Note: there is a link at the bottom of the page to download the MSI file.

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