Technical data

DATA CENTER and CAMPUS NETWORKS DEPLOYMENT GUIDE
Deploying Brocade Networks with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 6 of 52
Figure 1. Microsoft Lync Server 2010 expanded deployment.
Eight Front End Servers running the recommended hardware can support 100,000 active concurrent users per pool.
The following considerations apply to the Enterprise Edition consolidated configuration:
• A single Enterprise Edition server can be configured as an enterprise pool.
• A hardware load balancer is required when two or more Enterprise Edition servers are configured
as a pool.
• The back-end database must be deployed on a separate computer.
Microsoft recommends deploying hardware-based load balancers to distribute traffic to the Microsoft Lync Server
2010 Front End Servers. This allows organizations to scale, increase performance, and provide redundancy.
Survivable Branch Appliance
Because of the centralized deployment model of Microsoft Lync Server 2010, UC-enabled users at a remote site are
dependent on the servers in the data center for their communication and collaboration needs. Hence, they are
vulnerable to losing communication capabilities when the Wide-Area Network (WAN) is unavailable. Since “always
on” is a requirement for voice communications, it is imperative that the current UC solution continues to provide the
ability for branch users to make and receive calls, even when the network from the branch to the primary data center
is unavailable.
Survivable Branch Appliance (SBA) is a partner offering connecting the Microsoft Unified Communications
environment to the branch office PBX and/or the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), while providing local
UC services and full branch office survivability. It comprises a single Windows Server application packaged in an
appliance form factor and loaded with Microsoft Lync Server 2010 software, which maintains branch office
communications even if the WAN connection to the data center becomes unavailable. With easy installation that can
be performed by a non-specialized network technician, centralized management from the data center, and seamless
operations in the event of a network outage, it is uniquely suited to the IT requirements of medium and large
branch offices.