It's all good

POSTED BY: KEN CIRCEO, MSS Lead Tech Writer

Now that I'm over the initial jolt of learning that Speech Server will be integrated with Office Communications Server (nee LCS), I thought I'd take a minute to write down my reaction and how I expect the integration to impact my work. (I'm just talkin' here. It's therapeutic. Bear with me.)

I don't mind change. If I did, I wouldn't last long in this industry. Making software isn't like making aluminum. Things don't just stay the same year after year, decade after decade. So when someone above me decides to integrate my product with another product, I accept it. In fact, at my pedestrian level, accepting the change is critical; understanding the reason behind it is far less important.

After last week's announcement, one of our partners said that adding MSS to OCS will give his company "a more extensive set of capabilities on which to build compelling unified communications solutions for our customers." Wow. It's hard to read that without marvelling at the jargon. I wonder if that was off the top of his head.

One of our VPs (I forget which one) calls it tipping over the siloes. I don't doubt that, but I also don't get it. I'm going to need Tillman to explain to me exactly what "tipping over the siloes" means. Maybe it has something to do with merging the API sets, or at least letting them hook into each other. Whatever it is, Tillman will straighten it out. He has a good bird's eye view on the software industry. I bet he can instantly see how integrating MSS with OCS will affect our customers, their companies, and the MSFT stock price. Also, he's more left-brained than I am, which is why he's got a far better shot at becoming a VP than I do. But, trust me, I can live with that. Both Tillman and I know that I'm not the brightest guy in the world (see picture).

So as far as the whole integration goes. Hey, if it's ok with Microsoft, it's ok with me. I'm still running the video project, doing the whole Community Lead thing, and cranking out Help docs and whitepapers. And I'm sure in the weeks ahead, even the technical details will start making more sense to me.

Really. It's all good.