The Urgency of the Cloud for Enterprise
January 10, 2012
It seems that moving IT infrastructure to the cloud is no longer an innovative alternative, but is rather becoming the standard, the norm. IT teams need to embrace the change and shift their thinking away from the football team sized IT staffs of the future. This is not just a general trend, but one that specifically applies to large organizations’ enterprise solutions as well. Rob Lamear focuses on the need to move SharePoint to the cloud in, “Why You NEED SharePoint in the Cloud Now.”
Lamear is referring here to the budget crunch pushing the urgency of the Cloud:
C-levels in every country are no longer telling me that the Cloud is something ‘we are looking at,’ but rather have turned the conversation to ‘We need the Cloud!’ They know they need to slash IT budget dollars and use them in other areas of the business. At best, they use the extra money to innovate and differentiate in the global marketplace. At worst, they need to save to survive.
The question we have to ask is how complicated and costly is the initial move to the cloud. Is there a simpler solution that combines efficient enterprise search with functional, affordable cloud services? We think Fabasoft Mindbreeze might be just that solution.
Read a little more about their cloud services:
The Cloud makes your business mobile; Mindbreeze finds its way in the Cloud. This intelligent search is available as a Cloud service. This means that, if you so desire, Fabasoft Mindbreeze can run without any installation whatsoever – we operate the search engine for you. All the data that you manage in the Cloud is made searchable by Fabasoft Mindbreeze. This makes Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise the center of excellence for your knowledge in the Cloud too.
Implementing Fabasoft Mindbreeze in the cloud alongside your existing SharePoint installation is a switch that improves the efficiency of your search as well as your infrastructure. There’s no configuration and no maintenance. If your organization spent less time and money maintaining your enterprise system, in what other areas could you invest those resources? It is definitely worth consideration, and Fabasoft Mindbreeze is worth a second look.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Maturity Model May Aid Product Data Accessibility
January 10, 2012
Finding product data is not always efficient, but it is essential to manufacturers. Productivity and innovation are stunted when data is lost or not easily found. Jim Brown from Tech-Clarity tackles the issue by offering his “Maturity Model for Product Data Accessibility.”
He classifies product data accessibility into five levels – The Wild, Wild West, Basic Search, Advanced Search, Access and Aggregate and Search Based Applications. Each level describes a specific way to search for product information. Brown says his model:
Needs some work in order to really be robust. And no maturity model should really include a level called ‘the Wild, Wild West.’ But I hope it serves as a way to get people thinking about the different ways companies can access, aggregate and use their product data to drive more business value.
Brown’s Access and Aggregate level may be the most important for manufacturing growth. This level pulls disparate data together to get a more full view of the product. He mentions that Inforbix uses semantics to intelligently discover relationships between data. A company like Inforbix who finds, re-uses and shares product data could certainly boost innovation and productivity. Though Brown’s maturity model has several strong points, his view on disparate data is vital to manufacturing future.
Jennifer Wensink, January 10, 2012
Connotate Embraces Big Data
January 10, 2012
The Internet is an environment where unregulated data is being created at rapid rates. It has become far too much for company staff to keep track of. Therefore, software that collects and organizes Big Data is becoming a hot commodity for enterprises all over the world.
According to the recent news release “Staffing and the Volume of Information are the Primary Big Data Challenges” Connotate, Inc., a provider of solutions that help organizations monitor and collect data and content from the Web, announced the results of its Big Data Attitudes and Perceptions Survey.
Connotate CEO Tom Meyer said:
Our research shows that Big Data goes beyond technology and is an HR challenge for corporate America. While it is important that organizations devote resources to Big Data, employees must be freed from the information fire hose so they can concentrate only on the information that is relevant to their tasks. Connotate’s Agent Community data extraction and monitoring tools are a proven force multiplier, enabling companies to drastically reduce the amount of personnel needed to run and achieve significant ROI from Big Data projects.
The Connotate survey suggests that companies are finding it too time consuming and impractical for their staff to sort through Big Data. Companies focused on data fusion are responding to the explosion in social content. Clients demand; vendors respond.
Jasmine Ashton, January 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: PowerShell Packs a Mighty Punch for SharePoint
January 10, 2012
Migration Solutions for SharePoint and Office 365 Users
January 10, 2012
The New Year always brings about an avalanche of resolutions, some reasonable and some completely unattainable, as people strive to become a better, slimmer, more productive, smarter, funnier, happier, and/or healthier selves.
Maybe your New Year’s goals are to cut back on coffee, quit smoking, save more money, lose weight, or be better organized? Or maybe your resolution is to figure out a solution for converting those pesky Google Docs to your fancy new enterprise system. If the latter is the case, then Google-users have one more reason to celebrate in 2012, as MetaVis Technologies recently announced in “MetaVis Now Offers Google to SharePoint Migration” that they have created a solution that allows Microsoft SharePoint or Office 365 users to migrate their Google Apps and Google Docs.
According to the MetaVis announcement:
“MetaVis Migrator for Google Apps [http://www.metavistech.com/product/metavis-migrator-google-apps] allows customers to migrate Google content to either a hosted or on-premise-based SharePoint solution while preserving valuable metadata required for compliance and governance policies….With the MetaVis Migrator product line up, customers can migrate content from multiple sources including SharePoint 2010, 2007, 2003, file shares, Exchange Public Folders, Outlook Folders and now Google.”
We know that SharePoint has become the magnet for third-party enhancements. With more than 100 million SharePoint licenses deployed, the demand for SharePoint functionality is rising sharply. Growth in SharePoint was robust in 2011, and 2012 may be another banner year for Microsoft’s most popular enterprise solution.
At Search Technologies, we put the customer first. If a solution requires a third-party component such as MataVis’ or original programming, our engineers have the deep technical know how and engineering expertise to make next-generation information access a reality. To learn more about Search Technologies, point your browser at http://www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google TV Love: Buy Affection
January 9, 2012
I am documenting this story, but I do not have confidence that it is 100 percent accurate. The posting appeared in Slashgear and “Google Reportedly Paying Smart TV Vendors to Use Android.” The point of the write up is financial. On Google’s side, if the story is true, distributing some of Google’s cash hoard to consumer product manufacturers is as American as allowing members of the House and Senate to play squash with lobbyists or engage in some stock trading not permitted others.
If this statement is accurate, then we are racing toward lowest possible cost:
Exactly how much Google is paying manufacturers to use Android rather than their own smart TV OS is unknown, though the decision to switch to ARM-based chipsets likely means the actual hardware costs are minimal.
Three observations:
First, buying love works, and it is less messy that “real” love. “Real” love is like “real” consulting provided by failed home economics majors.
Second, in a race for least cost, the winner is the person who finds away around certain hurdles. These may be technical, procedural, financial, or legal. Excitement ahead may trigger memories of Cisco Systems’ adventures with router manufacturing in a far off land.
Third, what if US consumers don’t want lots of applications on a TV. I, for instance, am happy if I can find a current episode of Lizard Lick Towing, a fine example of modern reality television. It reminds me of the spate of predictions from Gartner, Forrester, Ovum, and others about technology. Excellence makes find bed fellows. “Find” equal “search” to me.
Here in the goose command center in Harrod’s Creek, we will be “watching” for news at 11.
Stephen E Arnold, January 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Inteltrax: Top Stories, January 2 to January 6
January 9, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, the way many industries are rightfully and wrongfully utilizing analytics.
One of the best stories about traditional industries embracing big data was our story, “Police and Intelligence Communities Share Analytics Needs” which showed how law enforcement and data mining are a match made in heaven.
Slightly further down the scale was our look, “Auto Industry Needs Analytics to Survive,” which showed some small successes in the car industry with analytics and encouraged a wider adoption of practices.
And something completely different came from our article, “Online Reputation Analytics a Mixed Bag,” which chronicled the companies that use analytics to gauge a person’s online reputation and fix it. Our opinion is not so high, however.
This is one of the most exciting aspects of big data analytics. It’s fun to see how established businesses and industries utilize the technology for improvement. At least in most cases (We’re looking at you Reputation.com). Keep up with us as we follow more industry exploits in the world of big data analytics.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
January 9, 2012
Language Functionality of SharePoint 2010
January 9, 2012
SharePoint 2010 offers language packs that when installed allow for site and site collection creation in various languages without separate SharePoint installations. However, there are reported errors when trying to make the language packs work on top of Windows 7. A workaround is provided here in, “How to install SharePoint Server 2010 Language Packs on Windows 7.”
The blogger suggests:
When trying to install SharePoint Server 2010 Language Packs on top of Windows 7 you might receive the following error – ‘Setup is enable to proceed due to the following errors: this product requires Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 …’ – to work around this you can use the same procedure with the language pack installation files as the one outlined for the normal SharePoint installation on Windows 7.
Instead of struggling through language packs and error messages, we wondered if there were easier multi-national alternatives available in the world of third party enterprise. One solution that seems like a great alternative is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Based in Austria, Fabasoft caters to a multi-national and international audience, which has created a product line devoted to quality, usability, and style.
Note the following from the Mindbreeze product description:
Mindbreeze has a user interface that is available in 18 languages. We want all users to be able to enjoy the Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise interface in their native language. Whether Bulgarian, German, English, French, Croatian, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Slovenian, Spanish, Czech or Hungarian – Mindbreeze is as international as your business partners.
Instead of adapting an English solution to meet additional language needs, users might save time and anguish by adopting a solution that is created to meet a variety of language needs. If your organization is in the market for a multi-national enterprise solution, give Mindbreeze a second look and see if it might meet your needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
iPad Apps Offer Manufacturing On-The-Go
January 9, 2012
Product life cycle (PLM) apps are on the rise and it is paying off for manufacturers. Last spring, Teamcenter Mobility from Siemens developed an iPad application that offers engineers product data and more at the touch of a fingertip. Automation World highlighted this new technology in its article “iPad App Empowers the Mobile Manufacturing Workforce.”
This iPad application is very practical. It allows people to “digitally review the most current version of information immediately, rather than working with cumbersome paper documents or trying to find a computer.” It benefits a wide range of employees – from an executive on plane to field personnel walking the shop floor. Siemens Teamcenter software President, Chuck Grindstaff says:
“By making up-to-the-minute Teamcenter data available at the necessary point of activity, our customers can act immediately on accurate information and further reduce the design and production cycle times.”
Several companies are developing manufacturing apps. Inforbix is previewing their new iPad app on their web site. (see: Inforbix iPad App – First Preview). Their customers requested “a mobile solution that gives them access to their product data while out of the office or away from their computers” and they developed a fantastic new app. Though it is not available yet, it is coming soon to the Apple store. Keep an eye out for its release because we believe it will be everything that their customers wanted and more!
Jennifer Wensink, January 9, 2012
Protected: Reference Older and Wiser SharePoint Information
January 9, 2012
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