Skype for Business, previously known as Microsoft Lync, is a unified communications platform that integrates common business tools like instant messaging (IM), presence, video conferencing, and voice communication into a single interface. It was developed by Microsoft to enhance collaboration across organizations. Skype for Business allows businesses to improve productivity and streamline communication while leveraging existing Microsoft infrastructure, such as Active Directory and Exchange.

How Skype for Business Works #

Skype for Business operates on a client-server architecture where client applications communicate with Skype for Business servers. The server handles various communication tasks, including managing user presence, routing messages, handling voice/video traffic, and coordinating meetings. The platform uses several key protocols:

• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol): Manages voice and video calls, initiating, maintaining, and terminating sessions.
• MTLS (Mutual Transport Layer Security): Ensures secure communication between servers and clients by encrypting traffic and authenticating endpoints.
• RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol): Facilitates the transmission of audio and video data in real-time.
• HTTPS: Used for accessing services such as address book queries and other web services.

The server components in Skype for Business handle tasks such as authentication, registration, presence updates, messaging, and call processing.

Clients (such as desktop apps or mobile devices) connect to the server via these protocols to establish communications.

Load Balancing Architecture for Skype for Business #

In a large-scale environment, it’s crucial to ensure the continuous availability of Skype for Business services. Load balancing is a key solution to distributing client requests across multiple servers, improving both performance and redundancy.

Skype for Business supports load balancing in two primary configurations:

• DNS Load Balancing: This method resolves client requests to multiple server IP addresses, distributing the workload across multiple servers.
• Network Load Balancing (NLB): This uses a hardware device or a software solution to manage traffic between clients and Skype for Business servers. NLB provides more control over traffic distribution and health monitoring, which makes it a preferred solution for mission-critical applications.

In either configuration, the load balancer ensures that no single server is overwhelmed with traffic, and it automatically routes clients to available servers in case one fails.

Configuring Skype for Business for Load Balancing with RELIANOID #

RELIANOID offers advanced load balancing solutions tailored for complex communications platforms like Skype for Business. Integrating Skype for Business with RELIANOID’s ADC (Application Delivery Controller) improves reliability, performance, and scalability by evenly distributing communication traffic across multiple servers.

Steps to Configure Skype for Business for Load Balancing with RELIANOID #

1. Install RELIANOID ADC: Deploy the ADC on your network to act as the primary load balancing controller.
2. Configure SIP Traffic: Configure RELIANOID to handle SIP traffic for voice and video calls by creating virtual IPs (VIPs) and assigning appropriate server pools for call handling.
3. MTLS and HTTPS Handling: Set up the ADC to handle encrypted traffic using MTLS for server-to-server communication and HTTPS for web services like the address book and management tools.
4. Health Monitoring: Configure health checks on RELIANOID to monitor the availability and performance of Skype for Business servers. This ensures that traffic is only directed to fully operational servers.
5. Session Persistence: Enable session persistence to ensure that user sessions remain connected to the same server during active communication, even in load-balanced environments.
6. DNS Integration: Implement DNS-based load balancing as a secondary method to ensure redundancy in traffic routing.

The RELIANOID Technical Team can help you with any doubts and even meet online to provide the help you may need.

Advanced Security for Skype for Business with RELIANOID #

Security is paramount in unified communications platforms, particularly when dealing with sensitive business communications. RELIANOID provides advanced security features that enhance Skype for Business’s built-in protections.

• Traffic Encryption: RELIANOID ensures that all communication between clients and servers, as well as between servers, is encrypted using strong encryption protocols such as TLS and MTLS.
• Intrusion Detection and Prevention: The ADC offers real-time traffic monitoring and threat detection to safeguard against potential intrusions or malicious traffic, such as denial-of-service attacks.
• Access Control: RELIANOID’s platform allows for detailed access control policies, ensuring that only authorized users and devices can connect to Skype for Business services.
• DDoS Protection: With built-in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) mitigation features, RELIANOID ensures that Skype for Business services remain available even under attack.
• SSL Offloading: RELIANOID ADC can handle SSL encryption and decryption, reducing the processing load on Skype for Business servers, improving performance without compromising security.

Conclusion #

Skype for Business is a powerful tool for enterprise communication, and its effectiveness is further enhanced through proper load balancing and security mechanisms. By integrating RELIANOID’s ADC solutions, organizations can optimize Skype for Business’s performance while ensuring robust security measures are in place to protect communications. Whether distributing traffic across multiple servers or safeguarding sensitive data, RELIANOID offers the infrastructure needed to scale and secure your unified communications environment.

Contact us if you need any more information or help to set it up.