Give SharePoint a Solid Foundation with Mindbreeze
March 16, 2012
In “SharePoint Performance Troubleshooting,” Jason Himmelstein addresses the broad issue of improving performance issues in SharePoint. He points out that this can be a hard issue to confront as many end users may not adequately articulate the problem, such as ‘SharePoint feels slow’ or ‘uploads take a while.’ From an IT perspective, fixing such a problem isn’t easy without specific details.
But with user education a topic for another day, Himmelstein speaks to more general areas that IT can look at to “ensure that any bottlenecks users experience are not SharePoint-related.”
Himmelstein explains his approach:
When I initially sat down to start this article, I quickly realized that you can’t begin to troubleshoot performance issues until you have a sound baseline to start with. Otherwise, the likelihood of you figuring out what is going wrong in the environment is extremely low. With this in mind, I decided to tackle this topic from a bit of a different perspective, examining what forms the base of a solid and well-performing Microsoft SharePoint 2010 farm and working backward from there.
The author outlines some main areas. First on the list, Himmelstein says you’ll want to look at your Windows server hardware sizing and make sure the platform that supports SharePoint is sound. In terms of the SQL Server tier, Himmelstein suggests that is the one in which you’ll want to make your hardware investment. Web server load testing and other performance issue causes are also discussed in the lengthy article.
Himmelstein searches for that solid base in SharePoint. We agree a solid base is needed for optimum performance, but you may not find that with an out of the box SharePoint installation. A comprehensive third party solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, can give your SharePoint system a solid foundation and extended capabilities.
Daniel Fallman points out:
. . . in Microsoft SharePoint only one facet of a company’s knowledge can be presented. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise 2012 Winter Release puts an end to this shortcoming. It enables all information that is connected to Mindbreeze to be displayed in Microsoft SharePoint. This takes place smoothly via Web Parts.
Read more at www.mindbreeze.com.
Philip West, March 16, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: AvePoint Takes SharePoint to Japan
March 16, 2012
Protected: Get the Metadata You Need for Office 365
March 15, 2012
CIMdata Offers Training in PLM Management and Use
March 15, 2012
As Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) soars in popularity in various industries across the globe the need for proper training increases. Leaders within the industry have tapped into the growing need for well-trained administrators and have answered with specialized programs much like CIMdata’s PLM Certificate Program. Not only does such training programs provide much needed education and training to department heads outside of IT, it is an excellent way to get one’s product deeply embedded within a company or organization.
The article, CIMdata Brings PLM Certificate Program to Norway, on MCAD Café, announced CIMdata’s recent announcement of yet another certificate program being offered in Oslo, Norway.
“The CIMdata PLM Certificate Program prepares PLM professionals at several levels to successfully address the challenges inherent in PLM implementations. This assessment-based certificate program includes a personalized classroom experience, individual and team-based exercises, and individual evaluations of achievement. Additionally, the program provides intensive and extensive exposure to a team of CIMdata experts.”
While this type of training is impressive and CIMdata definitely is on the right track in pushing education of PLM software there are many lesser known companies excelling in PLM software and platforms without the budgets for such immense marketing campaigns. One such company is Inforbix who specializes in open source PLM solutions that enable employees throughout companies to find, share and reuse data with ease.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 15, 2012
Musings: If Apple Designed SharePoint
March 15, 2012
As an avid Apple user, I can appreciate the simplicity of design and ease of use that is the center of their product line. However, Apple designs products for consumers and Microsoft designs products for the corporate world, for producers. This makes Chris Poteet’s article, “What if Apple Designed SharePoint?” quite interesting, musing about the potential to combine the two perspectives.
Poteet outlines his objective:
This post contrasts the design philosophies and approaches that underpin both Apple and Microsoft. It is meant to be a conversation starter and not a way to flame either side. If it weren’t for SharePoint, I couldn’t afford all my (admittedly) over-priced Apple products. Let’s now consider the question of what SharePoint might look like if Apple designed the product.
Poteet’s article leaves the reader with the impression that SharePoint’s current focus on functionality could do with a bit of tempering toward the end of usability. But until SharePoint starts making those adjustments, the addition of a third-party solution to an existing infrastructure can improve the usability and efficiency of the SharePoint beast. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is one highly competitive solution worth a second look.
Be well informed – quickly and accurately. The data often lies distributed across numerous sources. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per through focused finding of data (IDC Studie). An invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.
Explore the features of Fabasoft Mindbreeze and see if it can bridge the gap between usability and functionality for your organization.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 15, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search and Why People Quit
March 14, 2012
I saw two headlines which initially did not ring my chimes. I scanned “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” Pretty tame stuff, particularly when I get the name dropping and the baloney; for example:
It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.
These assertions about the “golden past” were chopped from the same species of corporate pig as the “nothing worthwhile comes easy” from the mid 1970s at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Companies create myths in order to shape the hearts and minds of the new hires. The “culture” is more important than family, free time, vacations, and apple pie. Then the money makes it clear that the outfit is pretty much about money, making lots of it and convincing one another how smart those lucky enough to work at the firm really are.
I found the obligatory “wake up call to the board of directors” indicative of the mind set which gets a person hired in the first place.
The second story was “Why I Left Google.” The write up is oinking from a similar pen. However, there was a nuance which caught my attention. The Google write up, therefore, has more protein on the back ribs. Here’s the passage:
Under Eric Schmidt ads were always in the background. Google was run like an innovation factory, empowering employees to be entrepreneurial through founder’s awards, peer bonuses and 20% time. Our advertising revenue gave us the headroom to think, innovate and create.
I had never thought of Eric Schmidt as a “real” manager. But there was another factoid or assertionoid to be accurate. Here you go:
It turns out that there was one place where the Google innovation machine faltered and that one place mattered a lot: competing with Facebook. Informal efforts produced a couple of antisocial dogs in Wave and Buzz. Orkut never caught on outside Brazil. Like the proverbial hare confident enough in its lead to risk a brief nap, Google awoke from its social dreaming to find its front runner status in ads threatened. Google could still put ads in front of more people than Facebook, but Facebook knows so much more about those people. Advertisers and publishers cherish this kind of personal information, so much so that they are willing to put the Facebook brand before their own. Exhibit A: www.facebook.com/nike, a company with the power and clout of Nike putting their own brand after Facebook’s? No company has ever done that for Google and Google took it personally.
Ah, has, ego in the heart of the numerical machine. In my study and work in and around things Googley, the human element never caught my attention. Now I am going to have to think about how a giant corporation reacts when another commercial firm gets trounced in a real life NCAA play off.
One final thought: why are these folks quitting? My hunch is that neither really knows. At age 67 I know what I do, why I do it, how I do it, and for whom I do it. I hope both of these wizards can look beyond their skirmishes with reality.
I would like to run a query for that concept, but as you know, search is not so good unless sponsored by an outfit with enough dough to put “relevant” results before me. I will query “Faustian bargain.”
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Something Is Missing from The SharePoint Experience
March 14, 2012
Climbing the Complexities of SharePoint
March 14, 2012
Although the fine art of rock climbing is lost of me, a good analogy is a well-known educational tool for taking a complicated concept and making it more readily applicable. Jussi on SharePoint uses the technique in, “Five reasons why SharePoint is like rock climbing.”
The author lays out the analogy:
Rock climbing differs a lot from other traditional sports I did as a teenager in that you need an equal amount of physical strength, technical skills and mental capabilities. If you possess insane core strength and sky-high stamina but lack the mental abilities, it will hinder your evolution as a climber. In more than one ways rock climbing is so similar to doing SharePoint implementations that I decided to list out five of the most evident feats they share.
The author goes on to describe similarities: planning a route is essential, and just as in climbing the quality and currency of your gear is equally valuable for SharePoint installations. The author also highlights the importance of working smarter, not harder. Regarding this last point, working smarter instead of harder, a third-party solution can greatly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of an existing SharePoint installation. We like Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its enterprise offerings.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is the leading solution for fast and comprehensive access to corporate-wide knowledge. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise searches all structured and unstructured data (e-mails, documents, contracts, contacts, notes etc.) within seconds and provides all relevant information structured, prioritized and ready for further use. Staff resources are released to concentrate on their actual task.
Check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its suite of smart solutions to see if your organization can begin to work smarter instead of harder.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Going Green with Lifecycle Management
March 14, 2012
It’s March and everything is going green, including many businesses. Sky, a company who makes set top boxes for televisions, is using lifecycle analysis to reduce its environmental footprint. Business Green discusses this initiative in their article, “Sky Believes in Better Environmental Outcomes Through Product Lifecycle Management”.
Sky is analyzing “its reliance on the rare earth or conflict minerals used” in their products. Jo Fox, head of their Bigger Picture program, “revealed she is now keen to address the product’s whole lifecycle impact.”
“We’re doing some lifecycle analysis on our boxes and it’s not just about rare mineral,” she said. “It’s quite all-encompassing about things like conflict minerals. We are not using large quantities in any box, but there will be certain minerals that we rely on, just like any other electronics. We’re looking at all of that as part of our responsible sourcing and lifecycle analysis. I’m very much moving away from just managing energy to lifecycle analysis.”
Sky looks to continue to continue to reduce its “reliance on those materials that have a high environmental impact” once they complete their analysis.
Product lifecycle management is helping numerous companies “go green” while saving time and money. For instance, Inforbix has developed a fresh new approach to data access. They have changed the way manufacturers find, reuse and share product data. This allows companies to focus on environmental issues while still spending less time and making more money.
Jennifer Wensink, March 14, 2012
PR Push for Azaleos and Fast Search
March 14, 2012
My email overflowed this morning with descriptions of Azaleos, its expertise in Microsofty stuff, and Fast Search. I am on the ball with regard to Fast Search, its legal back story, and the issues associated with getting the system to deliver useful results to users on time and on budget. You will find the Azaleos blog quite interesting. I noted no recent postings about Fast Search. For some current information about the search system, you may want to check out this Beyond Search write up. I ran a query using the Azaleos search system and got three hits about Fast Search. The coverage of search suggests that Azaleos may be succumbing to a communications expert’s inputs about how to sell search services.
What was new was the statement in MSPmentor’s “Azaleos Cloud Gets Microsoft Fast Search Server 2010”. How does a Microsoft partner “get” Fast Search? I don’t know. Maybe pay a fee? Here’s the passage I noted:
…the company’s Managed Enterprise Search solution addresses a different need. It gives enterprises the ability to remotely design, configure, monitor and manage FAST Search Server 2010. According to Azaleos, the development is big news for its customers because the Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 can perform searches in “an interactive and visual format,” in addition to the basic search functions that the Microsoft SharePoint Server provides. The FAST Search Server is a high-visibility solution, which brings its own set of complex issues to the table for enterprise IT departments. But Azaleos claims its Managed Enterprise Search solution eliminates the challenges associated with high visibility applications and can keep the FAST Search Server available and running at top speed.
My thoughts after reading this included:
- There is an implicit assumption that Microsoft’s cloud search will be Fast centric. My own view of this is that the assumption may be out of kilter. The reasons include performance, extensibility, and customization. Fast Search can be turned into a capable performer, but the “cloud” angle implies a certain standardization of features. So of Fast Search’s vast capabilities what will the core service do? Keywords, clustering, linguistic analysis, entity extraction, sentiment analysis, relationship mapping, etc. My point is that customers may want all of these functions and that suggests the Fast Search from Azaleos may be very different from the Fast Search marketing collateral’s assertions.
- Can Azaleos maintain an “interactive and visual format” when the content throughput increases. The challenge of keeping indexes fresh equates to resources. Resources, in my experience, cost money. The fix may be to gate how much data are processed in order to keep the fees acceptable to customers. Price spikes are not encouraging to some licensees in my experience.
- The assertion of “available and running at top speed” is an interesting one. My thought was, “Relative to what?” Are we comparing a small corpus with weekly index refreshes or are we talking about 100 million documents refreshed in near real time? I am not sure Fast in an on premises installation with original Fast engineers babysitting the hugely complex system with often unexpected dependencies can be a challenge to keep perking along at optimum performance levels.
I want to watch how this business unfolds. After all, a PR blitz which puts several stories in front of me signals some real enthusiasm on the part of the Azaleos stakeholders.
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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