Persistent Chat Overview
Persistent Chat is a Lync server role that
enables administrators and/or users to create chat rooms containing
persistent conversations based on specific topics and categories. The
persistent nature of the messages enables Lync users to view ongoing
conversations at their leisure, and also search for information within
the chat rooms. The benefits of Persistent Chat become evident when
there is a need to share information with multiple people on a specific
topic, and that data needs to be available at a later time and be
easily searchable. Although this can be accomplished to some degree
using other forms of communication, none of these other forms is as
effective as Persistent Chat for these specific requirements. Some of
the primary uses for Persistent Chat are project communications, group
discussions, meetings, and knowledge bases.
Note
Persistent Chat was available as a
third-party trusted application with previous versions of Lync, and was
known as Group Chat. With Lync Server 2013, Persistent Chat is now
being included as part of the Lync topology along with other Lync
server roles for the first time. For this reason, along with other
important architectural changes, Persistent Chat will likely find more
widespread adoption than ever before with Lync Server 2013.
Like several other Lync server
roles, Persistent Chat consists of a front-end component as well as a
back-end SQL database component. As further detailed in later text,
these components can in some cases be collocated with other Lync 2013
server roles depending on the Lync topology and the requirements for
Persistent Chat.
