Windows Live/MSN/Hotmail PIC licensing no longer needed for federation!

Big licensing news effective today, if you have OCS 2007 and want to federate with MSN/Hotmail/Live no additional PIC license is required anymore.  Yahoo and AOL federation still require a PIC license per OCS user who require it  however.

 Here is the official product team announcement:

 Effective July 1, 2009:

· The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.

· Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live.  (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)

· With Windows Live federation, customers will be able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.

In addition, MSFT also released the Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity Provisioning Guide