New SharePoint On-Demand Release from Ascendum Seeks to Ease SharePoint Implementation
May 9, 2012
SharePoint is becoming the industry standard for content management with over 65,000 companies using the software and more than 100 million licenses in place worldwide. In “Ascendum Unveils Latest Innovation: New SharePoint On Demand(TM) Changes the Rules by Taking Away the Hassles but Not the Power of Industry-Leading Platform,” Eric Weissmann discusses a new SharePoint On Demand ™ program that seeks to take the worry and hassle out of managing a SharePoint integration. The release aims to meet the needs for companies that have limited budget and administration resources but are still looking for the full power of the SharePoint platform.
A spokesperson from Ascendum comments on the release:
This simple yet powerful solution will unleash the true power and functionality of the SharePoint platform for our customers,” said Tim Ryan, Ascendum’s Vice President of Business Development. “This new product shows again how we at Ascendum are continuously innovating to meet the needs of the market here in Cincinnati and throughout the Midwest.
Two levels, Basic and Advanced, are available in SharePoint On Demand ™ and each comes with a set amount of administrative time from Ascendum and off-premises hosting. Ascendum is a global IT services firm headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. The firm focuses on IT consulting, application development management, infrastructure management services, talent management, and on-demand services.
The press release is a brief read that may be worth looking at to stay in the loop on the new application that may help your company implement SharePoint. To maximize your SharePoint investments beyond implementation, consider Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Part of the full suite of solutions is the Fabasoft Folio Connector, which provides uniform, reliable management of your digital content. Here is a highlight:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is able to search all data sources connected to the platform simultaneously. In addition to data from, for example, Microsoft Exchange or the file system, the Fabasoft Folio Connector allows to query information objects and documents from Fabasoft Folio, too.
With on-premise and Cloud information pairing capabilities, Mindbreeze provides a comprehensive and enterprise-grade solution that adds rich value to your business knowledge. Read more at Mindbreeze, where they seem to have the benefits of a proper installation down pat.
Philip West, May 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
IBM Asserts Its i Technology Can Handle XML
May 9, 2012
IBM asserts that DB2 can do big data, including XML in IBM Systems Magazine’s “i Can Use XML in a Relational World.” Blogger and IBM employee Nick Lawrence writes:
“In this most recent round of announcements, IBM has included support for the XMLTABLE table function in SQL. XMLTABLE is designed to convert an XML document into a relational result set (rows and columns) using popular XPath expressions. This function has been referred to as the Swiss army knife for working with XML because it can help solve a wide variety of XML related problems.”
Lawrence recommends a good XML TABLE tutorial, located in the SQL XML Reference in IBM’s Info Center. He also identifies and elaborates upon areas that he says could use some more clarification. For example, a way to create an XML response document that involves creating the document “inside out.” I guess that’s a technical term?
It’s a helpful piece if that’s the route you want to travel. However, it involves lots of code, lots of fiddling. A bit like mining asteroids we think.
Our question: Why not use a NoSQL data management system? After all, big data is what those do best.
Cynthia Murrell, May 9, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Supporting Growth in the LED Ceiling Light Industry
May 9, 2012
The prevalence of ceiling-mounted lighting based on light-emitting diode (LED) technology is increasing as consumers become more energy-conscious, as the cost of such fixtures continues to drop, and as more styles of these lights are produced. However, given the level of competition present in the lighting industry, the design process involved in creating attractive fixtures, and the relatively limited market for replacement parts, manufacturers of LED ceiling lights must manage their product information efficiently in order to succeed.
The market prospects for the industry is described in a recent blog post entitled “LED Ceiling Light Market Trends”:
“… the selling point of the LED bulb [is that it] has a product life cycle cost [that] is less than … [that of] incandescent bulbs, so the market is able to expand …”
Considering this growth potential, manufacturers of LED ceiling lighting would be well-advised to implement an agile product lifecycle management (PLM) solution that would enable them to find, reuse, and share their product data effectively so that they will be able to quickly react to market trends and maintain their competitive advantage.
Tonya Weikel, May 9, 2012
The Identity Crisis of Newspapers
May 9, 2012
A real journalist explains that real journalism is in a bind. Gigaom ponders, “What is The Purpose of a Newspaper?” In the write up, Mathew Ingram reflects on Felix Salmon’s recent Reuters’ blog post. Salmon proposed that the New York Times, financially beleaguered as newspapers are these days, start to sell early access to breaking stories. The idea was widely panned, of course, not least because it would put potentially investment-affecting information in the hands of subscribers before the rest of us. Ingram added his voice to the critics’ chorus, but the situation did start him pondering the plight of papers.
Naval gazing is a calming activity for some. It worked on the Titanic for some passengers a century ago.
The article traces the history of newspapers, with the twin but at times conflicting goals of making money and serving the public good. While it used to be that someone interested in one or two sections of a paper bought the whole thing, now users are picking and choosing their content. Such an audience is no longer willing to pay for content they won’t read. Ingram concludes:
“Maybe the days of mass-market newspapers with a broad readership are simply coming to a close, and what we are seeing is some of those newspapers evolve into controlled-circulation subscription newsletters, who serve the interests of their small readership and nothing else. And perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing — other solutions could theoretically take their place, or at least help share the load when it comes to the public interest. But the long-term effects of that remain unknown.”
Um, isn’t a newsletter a type of newspaper? We think so. All is not lost, my friends, just evolving. No one knows what the picture will look like when (if) the pieces finally coalesce, and it can be difficult to work in a shifting landscape, but that’s life. Change can just as well lead to opportunity as to disaster; much depends on your perspective.
Cynthia Murrell, May 9, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Stunning Statistics about Amazon Cloud Reach
May 9, 2012
Wired’s Robert McMillan recently reported on an oddly scary statistic in the article “Amazon’s Secretive Cloud Carries 1 Percent of the Internet.”
According to the start-up DeepField Networks, Amazon has one of the fastest growing cloud infrastructures. Apparently, one-third of the several million users in the study visited a website that uses Amazon’s infrastructure each day. It is also very popular with many big name companies like Netflix. However, no one really knows exactly how big Amazon’s cloud is.
McMillan states:
“Gartner researcher Lydia Leong estimates that Amazon’s cloud business was $1 billion in 2011, more than five times the size of its closest competitor, Rackspace. Last week Rackspace Chief Technology Officer John Engates was happy to tell us how many servers he has in his data centers: 80,000. But only 23 percent ($189 million) of Rackspace’s 2011 business was in the cloud. That implies that Rackspace could do the same amount of cloud business as Amazon with maybe 100,000 servers.”
It appears that Amazon’s business as slowly been growing faster than we ever realized. Maybe Google and Facebook should stop fighting each other and start paying attention to other threats.
Jasmine Ashton, May 9, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Arnold Columns: Update May 2012
May 9, 2012
We have continued to produce Stephen E Arnold’s for-fee columns. Due to some minor health excitement involving Mr. Arnold, his monthly update about what and for whom he has been writing for money has been on hold. The content continued to flow. Here’s a run down by publication of the for fee columns submitted through May 8, 2012:
Enterprise Technology Management, IMI Publishing, London, UK. ETM publishes my Google column which originally appeared in KMWorld.
- January 2012, “Google Enterprise: The Berkeley Analysis.” The article discusses why a noted university chose Google’s apps, not Microsoft’s. The point is that price cutting is playing a major role in information technology decisions.
- February 2012, “Google Enterprise: Is There a Poison Apple in Paradise?” The column reviews the new version of the Google Search Appliance. The question becomes, “Could Apple pose an alternative to Google, an alternative Google is not anticipating?”
- March 2012, “Google Privacy and Enterprise Licensing.” This write up explores how recent revelations about Google’s approach to privacy may put barriers in place which could slow or block some Google enterprise license deals.
- April 2012, ”Google’s Cloud: Building and Threatening.” The essay considers that Google has been left in the starting blocks by Amazon’s cloud services. Google may catch up, but the pricing of cloud services, regardless of vendor, can be slippery to estimate.
- May 2012, “The Google Myth: Poetics and Glass.” The story considers Mr. Page’s role with Wall Street and Mr. Brin’s assignment to promote Google’s virtual reality “glasses.” Will these modern day Romulus and Remus billionaires continue to coexist in a positive relationship?
Information Today, Information Today, Inc. The Information Today column covers search-related topics for the an information specialist, competitive intelligence researcher or database publishing professionals.
- January 2012, “Augmented Reality: I’ll Be Back”. Autonomy, best known for enterprise search and content processing, has emerged as a leader in augmented reality or AR. The column discusses Aurasma, the company’s AR solution.
- February 2012, “By Jingo: Search Catchphrases 2012.” This article considers the role and implications of marketing phrases used by enterprise search vendors. The majority of the buzzwords have more to do with competitive jockeying than communication to an organization looking for a findability solution.
- March 2012, “Health and Medical Research: Drying Up the Bones.” Web-accessible, public medical information is tough to use. The essay looks at several services, including Quertle.
- April 2012, “Are Analytics the New Way to Search?” Most users don’t search particularly well. Some do not want to formulate search queries. The write up considers the question, “Can analytics deliver search results without asking the user to formulate a query?”
- May 2012, “Google and Microsoft: Interface Flipperoos.” The story points out that the new Google interface looks more like Excite 1996 than Google in 2007. Microsoft, on the other hand, looks almost exactly like Google.com’s interface in 2007. Are flips like this the new approach to search interface innovation?
KMWorld, Information Today, Inc. The column for KMWorld discusses enterprise information from the angle of semantic technology.
- January 2012, “Insight from the Information Tsunami.” The column discusses Microsoft SharePoint and BA Insight, a software complement to SharePoint designed to address some of the “issues” associated with Microsoft’s flagship content management system.
- February 2012, “Bitext: Engaging in the Semantic Arena.” The article profiles Madrid-based Bitext, a company emerging as a leader in the enterprise semantic market.
- March 2012, “Xyte and Insight into Online Behaviors.” The write talks about Xyte’s approach to market research and discloses some interesting findings about Facebook. These items suggest Facebook is a more potent online force than some believe.
- April 2012, “Consumerizing Knowledge Management.” The essay considers that analytics programs with training wheels deliver some benefits to enterprise users. However, acting on auto-generated reports without understanding the assumptions behind the report can lead to bad decisions.
- May 2012, “Big Data, Cows, and Cadastres.” The write up looks at specific business pay offs from the analysis of big data. The biggest benefits come from analysts who understand the data and the math behind a particular numerical recipe.
Online Magazine (published six times a year). Information Today, Inc. The features written for Online Magazine focus on open source search in the enterprise. For more than a year, Mr. Arnold’s column has explored a range of subjects related to open source search.
- February 2012, “Open Source Search: Clarity with Lucid Works.” The feature discusses Lucid Imagination’s newest release of Lucid Works Enterprise 2.0.
- April 22012, “Open Source: Fascinating Uncertainty.” The feature takes a look at some of the jockeying which takes place in the open source world involving “foundations.”
If you are a public relations person, an azure chip consultant, or an unemployed middle school teacher, Mr. Arnold does not accept story suggestions for these for fee writings. His policy is to contact people with regard to a question or issue. Mr. Arnold is not a journalist. In a previous life, he indexed medieval sermons in Latin. He does not understand “real” journalism, marketing, public relations, investment bankers, private equity firm owners, and sales people.
These articles are available from the publishers who purchased work for hire. At some point, Mr. Arnold’s staff may post versions of some of the essays on one of the reference Web sites Mr. Arnold operates. For copies of these articles, please, contact the publishers. For a briefing on one of the topics addressed in Mr. Arnold’s for fee writings, please, contact us at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com.
Donald C. Anderson, May 9, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Zuckerberg Grip Should Be Choke Hold
May 8, 2012
In 2012, Facebook seems to be shaping up as the “new” Google. I know that apps for Facebook are not behaving the way some would like. The privacy thing is an issue. Facebook pretty much does what it wants, or, perhaps I should say, “Mr. Zuckerberg does what he wants.”
I spotted an important “real” journalistic position in “Zuckerberg Grip Becomes New Normal in Silicon Valley.” The “old” normal was Google. Hewlett Packard, Oracle, and Yahoo seem oddly out of step in the social analytics, big data, and big upside environment created by Facebook. The concept of the “new normal” is an important one, and I think that other Bloomberg and “real” journalists will hop on the bandwagon and cling until the next big thing rolls along.
Here’s the passage I noted:
Companies that have three or fewer outside board members include Pinterest, an online bulletin board; Dropbox, a provider of Web-based storage; question-and-answer site Quora Inc.; Flipboard Inc., the maker of a magazine-like application for the iPad; and Nest Labs, the creator of a technology-powered thermostat. Zuckerberg adopted a dual-class structure in 2009. He has 10 votes for every other shareholder’s single ballot. Facebook plans to raise as much as $11.8 billion in the IPO, the biggest offering on record for an Internet company. The Menlo Park, California-based company would be valued at as much as $96 billion in the deal. “People look at Facebook and see what they have done,” said Stephen Venuto, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in Menlo Park, who helped Facebook set up its initial corporate-governance structure. “It’s become a much more common thing to implement dual-class capital structures in Silicon Valley companies.”
Several observations:
First, Zuckerberg is likely to keep control going forward. As a one-man band, the new normal is more power to the technologist executive. Good for the executive, perhaps no so good for some other constituencies.
Second, the lousy financial climate has shifted the financial firmament. The beneficiaries of the “new normal” may not be financial institutions which, despite protestations to the contrary, prefer to have control. The “new normal” is that power is divided differently.
Third, the implosion of the social media shock wave is likely to take out people, partners, and users. Facebook is a different type of outfit; that is, it is member based and chock full of content with a significant specific gravity. Explode high mass content out of Facebook. Interesting repercussions are likely.
The “new normal” may be fresh and innovative, particularly from a financial vantage point. Stable? I am no so sure.
Stephen E Arnold, May 8, 2012
Inktomi and Fast Search: Two Troubled Search Companies, One Lesson
May 8, 2012
I found the write up by Diego Basch interesting and thought provoking. I have a little experience with Inktomi. For the original FirstGov.gov system, the US government used Inktomi for the public facing index of US government unclassified information. (FirstGov.gov is now www.usa.gov)
Inktomi had in 2000 a “ready to go” index of content from Dot Gov Web sites. The firm’s business model matched the needs of the US government. There were the normal contracting and technical hurdles for a modestly sized US government project with a fairly tight timeline. No big deal. Job done. Inktomi worked.
When I read “A Relevant Tale: How Google Killed Inktomi,” I thought the write up had some useful information. However, I don’t think Google killed Inktomi or any other search system. Google did not kill Fast Search & Transfer, Excite, HotBot, or any other search system in its rise to its alleged 65 percent share of the search market. (Google share is actually much higher, based on my analyses.)
Excite’s early 1997 attempt at portalization. Can you spot the search box? Does this look like the current version of Google? Say, “No.” Now log into Google and run a query for rental car. Now do you see the similarity between the early portal craziness and the modern Google? I do.
What killed off these outfits was their business models. Let me explain using Inktomi and Fast Search as examples. I could cite other cases, but these two are okay for a free blog post for the two or three readers I have.
Inktomi, for whatever reason, concluded that people wanted to offer search, not do the heavy lifting. In the portal fever that was raging from 1998 to 2001, Web sites wanted to be the “front page” of the Internet. The result was that America Online, Excite, Lycos, and Yahoo among others jammed links on the splash page. At one time, I counted more than 60 links on the Excite home page. Once I hit 50 links, I quit counting. My eyes and patience can cope with three to five things. More than that, and I move on.
Inktomi’s analysts did the spreadsheet fever thing, making assumptions about how many Web sites would license Inktomi results, pay Inktomi’s fees, and generate revenue from the front page of the Internet craziness. The reality was that Inktomi did not have enough customers to support the cost of the spidering, bandwidth, investment in performance, research and development for precision and recall, and the other costs that are underestimated or just ignored. The result was the collapse of the company.
Free DataStax Open Source Search Profile Now Available
May 8, 2012
OpenSearchNews.com has posted another open source search engine profile. Like the two previous profiles—Basho Riak and Doculibre Constellio—the discussion of the search system is available for one week. Navigate to the OpenSearchNews.com profile page and click the link for the DataStax report.
OpenSearchNews.com is a service of ArnoldIT, which provides information and analysis of selected open source search solutions. Many proprietary vendors of search are reluctant to admit that open source search is becoming an increasingly disruptive force in the enterprise market.
According to Stephen E Arnold, “This series of profiles is designed to make it easy for an individual to get basic information about open source search. We want to provide these profiles at no cost because access to the information is more important than monetary considerations. Self appointed experts have not stepped forward to cover this important market sector. The team at Beyond Search has taken an important step forward.”
For more information about ArnoldIT, the publisher of these profiles, navigate to www.arnoldit.com and www.augmentext.com.
Don C. Anderson, May 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT
Managing Change and User Adoption during a SharePoint Deployment
May 8, 2012
Symon Garfield discusses transition in the 16th installment of his Art of SharePoint Success series at the CMSWire.com Blog. In the article, “The Art of SharePoint Success: Transition – There’s No Such Thing as a SharePoint Project,” Garfield uses Transition as an umbrella term to include change management and user adoption. He also looks at Transition as the fourth element, behind Governance, Strategy, and Architecture, in a four point framework for ensuring long term return on a SharePoint investment.
SharePoint’s potential as a catalyst for a big change in an organization means you need a plan. Garfield explains:
A structured approach means that we have a plan. Transitioning from the current state means that you understand the current situation and know where you are starting from. A desired future state means you know what you are trying to achieve and will recognize when we have done it. A controlled manner means that you have some means of measuring your progress. If you don’t have all of these elements in place then you’re not ready to start.
Because SharePoint can facilitate change in business processes, organizational structures, power shifts, individual behavior, and business relationships, Garfield stresses understanding the different types of change and how to plan for them. For example, an incremental or gradual change, versus a radical or fundamental change, is often the secret to success with SharePoint, according to Garfield. Other types of changes, including organizational versus sub-system and remedial versus developmental, are also covered. Managing change and user adoption is no doubt a challenge for organizations. Garfield brings up some valid points that may be worth the read if you’re implementing a SharePoint system.
To help manage the change, consider a quality third party solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, that gets your users the right information and the right time. Mindbreeze can really get you the most out of your enterprise search investments and extend the capabilities of your SharePoint system. For a deep solution that connects your business information with the Cloud and gives your users the search and navigation experience they need, check out Mindbreeze.
Philip West, May 8, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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