AOL to start charging in 2015 for Sametime Gateway connectivity
Tags :Sametime gateway AOL clearinghouse
IBM has announced that AOL will charge IBM Sametime Gateway customers to connect through the Clearinghouse to the AOL AIM public IM service. There is also a new form that everyone must fill out to continue your federation and this comes with a cost now.
AOL has offered this magical behind the scenes service for a long time. The Clearinghouse acts as the intermediary connectivity point between enterprises and the public AOL IM service. It has been free up until this point. Based on the above image I imagine there is tiered pricing that will be given. You have to fill out this form to even get a quote on the pricing.
You should also be aware of the quickness at which you need to act on this announcement
AOL needs to complete all on boarding requests by the end of the year. They will start deprovisioning on January 5, 2015 for those companies that do not reach out to them before December 31, 2014
I did manage to find an FAQ on the AOL site about the changes. This new agreement also elevates you into the AIM Total Access program for enterprises. There is a ton of benefits to being in this program if you are a heavy Sametime to AOL user. If you use it sparingly then this program offers way more than you will use.
What is changing?
Since 2006, in partnership with AOL, IBM has intermediated the set-up of federation between AIM and IBM Sametime with its own provisioning process. This process is being decommissioned at the end of the year. Both AOL and IBM recognize that there is still a demand for AIM Federation with IBM Sametime, and we are working together to minimize disruption and ensure that the change will not have any impact on your daily operations.
I will update this article soon on what pricing I receive back and other obstacles. Yes my old book on Installing the Sametime Gateway is still out there.
blog comments powered by Disqus
On Thursday, December 4th, 2014 by Chris Miller
