For many organizations, e-mails and voicemails are critical for daily operations. Although the requirements for the minimum uptime may change, every organization desires to achieve a high level of availability. A factor that needs to be considered while deploying a UM system is the ability to continue to provide service to users when a key component, such as an IP gateway or Exchange server, becomes unavailable. In order to guarantee continuous access to e-mails and voicemail, you have to correctly plan and implement a solution that ensures the availability of all components providing these services.

UM requires the integration of an Exchange deployment with the existing telephony system. A successful deployment requires not only consideration around Exchange, but also a detailed analysis of the telephony infrastructure in place. Whether you are deploying UM using IP PBXs, VoIP gateways, or Lync, all the deployment options for UM have several steps in common...