At announcements scheduled for both sides of the Atlantic, executives are expected to unveil the software currently codenamed Istanbul, which is billed as providing a single interface for instant messaging, conferencing and telephony.
Part of the Office suite, Istanbul is designed to be the default front-end for Live Communications Server 2005, currently in pre-release, much as Outlook is the default non-real-time messaging front-end for Exchange.
Microsoft said only that Tuesday will see the company unveil its Real-Time Collaboration vision and strategy, reveal new technologies, including tools for video conferencing and instant messaging.
LCS 2005 is designed to support real-time presence-aware communications, such as IM, voice, video and web conferencing. Microsoft chose the SIP and SIMPLE protocols, and its own extensions, as the basis for this functionality.
Microsoft is expected to launch the software with a raft of partners. BT is slated to be involved in the European side of the announcements. The major instant messaging vendors may also be involved.
Last July, Microsoft said it will make optional connectors available in LCS 2005 that allow Istanbul users to see the presence state of and launch communications with users of Yahoo! Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger.
