Claims-Based Federation Service using Microsoft Azure

In this post I will discuss how you can setup Microsoft Azure to provide federation services with claims authentication in the same way that an Active Directory Federation Service (ADFS) farm would on-premises. This can be achieved with an Azure subscription, Access Control Services (ACS) and an Azure Active Directory (AAD) instance. The key benefit of using Azure SaaS is that Microsoft have taken care of all the high availability and load scaling configuration, therefor you have no need to manage multiple ADFS servers to gain the same desired functionality.… [Keep reading] “Claims-Based Federation Service using Microsoft Azure”

Lync IP Phones – VVX Media Phone Alternative

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Updated 16 July 2014: The new 5.1.1b VVX Firmware has been released by Polycom and can be found here
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The Polycom VVX Media Phones offer an additional option for Lync Enterprise Voice customers over the traditional consumer choice of ‘Optimized for Lync’ Aries phones running Lync Phone Edition firmware. I recently came back in touch with these devices and this blog post is some of my latest observations.

Microsoft extended support for the Aries phone firmware till 2023 which shows Microsoft’s commitment to traditional telephony devices and to vendors of Lync IP phones continuing sales for some time into the future.… [Keep reading] “Lync IP Phones – VVX Media Phone Alternative”