Essentially, Lync is OCS (Office Communications Server) with new and improved unified communications features such as e911 and "search by skill." But the general feature set of corporate instant-messaging, audio/video conferencing and voice-over-IP telephony remains the same.

Microsoft is, however, dedicating more resources and marketing to Lync (and giving it a shorter, catchier brand name). It has also beefed up the amount of partners for Lync as it takes on Cisco, Avaya and IBM in the UC (unified communications) space.

Lync Server and client software are available for purchase on December 1. The Microsoft cloud-based version of Lync, Lync Online, is due out next year, as part of Office 365.

The lure for businesses with Lync is that it is capable of augmenting or replacing traditional PBX and conferencing systems, thereby saving companies money on hardware and licensing costs.

But there are other serious considerations for companies looking at Lync. It makes communication easier and could be a money saver, but it has the potential to be a worker distraction, and voice and video eat up network bandwidth.