As Skype for Business Online gains adoption, there are more questions regarding feature support with Exchange On-Premises and pure Skype for Business Online (not hybrid). Specifically, what integrated features are supported and what limitations exist? This article provides a summary of what to expect in this scenario.
For starters, Exchange Server 2016/2013/2010 on-premises and a pure Skype for Business Online is supported with the right configuration. This Microsoft Support article is not well advertised but is a good reference on how to support this scenario: How to integrate Exchange Server 2013 with Lync Server 2013, Skype for Business Online, or a Lync Server 2013 hybrid deployment.
More details on co-existence with Exchange Server, support criteria, and limitations in various combinations of on-premises and online are detailed in this TechNet article: Plan to integrate Skype for Business and Exchange. Note, this article highlights a best practice, which is to “move the user’s mailbox to Exchange Online before moving the user’s Skype for Business home“. In practice, I have not found anything detrimental to moving the Skype for Business user first; aside from the feature limitations discussed here.
The most challenging issue I’ve seen so far is multiple sign-in prompts in the SfB client, especially when MFA is enabled. This can happen with SfB on-premises and Exchange as well however, and I have not been able to pinpoint anything specific with the SfB user residing online.
Generally, from a feature standpoint, the full set of integrated features are supported with the exception of:
- Outlook Web App integration – Instant Messaging and Presence
- Outlook Web App integration – Scheduling Meetings
- Unified Contact Store
- High Resolution Photo’s (in the SfB/Lync client)
Feature support does differ slightly between Exchange 2016/2013 and 2010. Here I’ve summarized the feature support for just Exchange 2016/2013 vs 2010 on-premises and SfBO scenarios, and highlighted unsupported features in red:
| Skype for Business Feature | Exchange 2016/2013 | Exchange 2010 |
| Presence in Outlook | Y | Y |
| Respond via IM, PSTN Call, Skype Call or Video Call from an Outlook email | Y | Y |
| Schedule and join online meetings through Outlook | Y | Y |
| Presence in Outlook Web App | N | N |
| Respond via IM, PSTN Call, Skype Call or Video Call from an OWA email | N | N |
| Schedule and join online meetings through Outlook Web App | N | N |
| IM/Presence in Mobile Clients | Y | Y |
| Join online meetings in Mobile clients | Y | Y |
| Publish status based on Outlook calendar free/busy information | Y | Y |
| Contact List (via Unified Contact Store) | N | N |
| High-resolution Contact Photo (Requires Lync 2013 or Skype for Business clients at a minimum. Not supported for LWA, mobile apps, Lync 2010, Lync for Mac, and other older clients.) | Y | N |
| Meeting delegation | Y | Y |
| Missed Conversations history and Call Logs are written to user’s exchange mailbox | Y | Y |
| Archiving Content (IM and Meeting) in Exchange | N | N |
| Search archived content | N | N |
| Exchange UM Voice Mail | Y | Y |
| Server Side Conversation History | Y | N |
Hello, Thanks for the good post regarding Skype for Business Online Coexistence with Exchange On-Premises.
I am searching for an installation guide to set this scenario up, but haven’t found one. Do you have some good links for a configuration example?
Thanks and best regards
Yunus