Why Microsoft voice

Why Microsoft (new in VoIP market), and not Cisco, Nortel, Away or anyone else…
Earlier this year I threw a party in IT office when the last Linux server died. RIP, my archenemy! No more Google to find THIS one singe command for THIS one version you were on. My concept how GMC network should be run finally become reality.
If you are Educational Institution, K12 or High Ed, look at your environment. How many business or else applications you see that were meant to be run on Linux? Or MAC? When was the last time an online student application was developed for Mozilla or Safari first, then tweaked to work with Internet Explorer, or it was the other way around? Or your college application or anything else for that matter… Can someone PLEASE show me a school book that starts with “Make sure you login as ROOT…” or “Start you iTunes and make sure you set your status to show the song you are listening at the moment before you proceed further…” How many times you were tricked by your IT people to “put this on Linux – it is free and I know it”? Make no mistake – this is part of the “job security” conspiracy. I am sure this will piss a lot of people out there, but it is time to “think reality”.
So, let see - I have 1,300 computers in seven campuses all over the state of Georgia. Because of AD DS, I control every aspect of the environment behavior. Software installation and updates, group policy management, email, you name it. All, except… voice. So, what would be the logical choice for implementing voice solution in our College? Hmm, why I don’t we spend (taxpayers) money for third party VoIP solution – we will be completely dependent of their integrators, support, software updates, proprietary servers, with extraordinary yearly support fees, but… who cares – ain’t my money anyway. Well, I do! Georgia Military College is a “semi” State agency – only 20% of our budget comes from the State and our business model is entirely market oriented. You can’t spend what you don’t have (unless you are Democrat in the Congress, of course) and increasing efficiency while lowering cost is our mantra. Amen to that!
We already have Campus Agreement with Microsoft - the sweetest deal one can get out there. Oh wait, Office Communications Server enterprise CAL is included - the one for the voice part of OCS. This means I can not only integrate presence and chat, but the entire Unified communications concept in my environment while spending just a fraction of the cost other vice I would with third party? All I have to do is to deploy few servers, change the phones, setup a SIP Trunk and actually cut my cost for phone service 80% while introduce features my users never dreamed of…