Digital Reef Makes Microsoft Fast Work
May 25, 2009
I puzzled over “Digital Reef Partners with FAST, Helps Manage SharePoint Content” in CMSWire here. The article covers a number of content functions that I try to keep separate; for example, unstructured data, “out of the box support for eDiscovery, compliance, Office SharePoint Server management, data security, and storage initiatives”, and analytic tools. Oh, I almost omitted manipulation of structured data. Who provides this happy family of services? Digital Reef. You can read more about this company here. The company asserts that it handles these different functions. My view is that the company knows how to tame SharePoint and implement Fast Search’s ESP “out of the box”. In my experience, prior to the acquisition of Fast Search & Transfer, implementing Fast ESP as an “out of the box” solution was time consuming, difficult, and required a Fast engineer with email and phone access to senior Fast Search wizards in Boston and Oslo. Dark days ahead for third party vendors of alternatives to Microsoft SharePoint services.
Stephen Arnold, May 25, 2009
Search Server: You Have Six Months to Live
May 24, 2009
Channel Web reported that an error in SharePoint Service Pack 2 shuts down Search Server 2008 and Search Server 2008 Express. You can read the story “Microsoft Warns Of SharePoint 2007 SP2 Glitch” here. With search a mission-critical service, the glitch could disrupt some organizations. The fix involves a manual reentry of the product identification number. No software fix is available but Microsoft is working on one. Nice Labor Day weekend news for the SharePoint admins. When a billion dollar revenue stream hiccups, the social embarrassment may be considerable. Enterprise search is not yet a no brainer.
Stephen Arnold, May 23, 2009
SharePoint Search to Get Facets
May 18, 2009
The facetization of SharePoint may become a reality. I found the article “New Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Details Start to Emerge” here interesting. The eye candy means nothing to me. For me, this comment caught my attention:
There’s a new feature, known as “faceted search” coming in the 2010 SharePoint release. No details available yet.
The next item I found suggestive was:
A new version of FAST Search for SharePoint will be made available at a lower cost. Meanwhile, according to contractor and SharePoint blogger Lars Fastrup (whose blog entry is the source of a lot of this post), “the SharePoint team have scrapped their efforts to make the SharePoint search engine scale beyond 50 million documents in a single index. The argument will be to move to the FAST search engine instead.”
My hunch is that whatever Fast Search & Transfer becomes, Microsoft wants to create a Google and Endeca killer at one go. Will search be bundled? Odds are tough to call, but I think the predators will be out and about when pricing is discussed. Will this revamped system work? Does Fast Search ESP work now? UX or user experience is the big deal according to the Microsoft collateral I have reviewed. So what’s “work” mean? Clearly SharePoint’s existing search solution doesn’t work when the collection numbers more than 50 million documents. Surprised?
Stephen Arnold, May 18, 2009
Guidance for SharePoint Updates, April 2009
May 10, 2009
A happy quack to the reader who sent me a link to an FAQ in the Office Sustained Engineering Web log here. The FAQ is long and contains numerous links to other blog pots and Microsoft knowledgebase articles. What’s in the FAQ range from where to download items to recommended sequencing of the software. The implication that occurred to me was that if the order is incorrect, the installation may not work. Perhaps the most useful link in the 13 item FAQ is the pointer to the complete list of fixes in Service Pack 2.
Stephen Arnold, May 10, 2009
SharePoint as Interstellar Metaphor
May 10, 2009
I was surprised to read the April 27, 2009, article in SharePoint Magazine here called “SharePoint – Black Hole or Star of Your Business Universe?” I don’t think about composite software as a universe. I think about composite software as a potential barrel of rattlesnakes. Julian Warne grabbed the “black hole” metaphor and rocketed into the stratosphere with it.
His argument pivoted on making a case for SharePoint as a “star”, not a life ending singularity. I have met a couple of former CIOs who expressed some regret at their decision to build on SharePoint.
For me, the most useful part of the write up was the rundown of components in SharePoint. For example, Mr. Warne identifies these items:
- Management issues such as cost
- Development paths (see diagram below)
- Metadata “intelligence”
A SharePoint production environment. Mr. Warne said, “SharePoint solutions do not always travel well when deployed.” Not such good news when an acquisition occurs or a joint venture needs SharePoint goodness from two or more partners to the deal in my opinion.
He concludes with a review of the good and bad aspects of SharePoint. He is quite balanced in his assessment. But in my opinion he tap-dances around the core problem of SharePoint; that is, it is not a single application nor can it run or “exist” without a boatload of other Microsoft “server products”. There are more than three dozen of these, and the SharePoint installation might need a baker’s dozen other Microsoft servers to chug forward.
If you are a SharePoint customer, you will find his write up useful. I reminded myself that SharePoint is not a product and it is a work in progress.
Stephen Arnold, May 10, 2009
SharePoint Overview
May 6, 2009
Barb Mosher wrote “SharePoint Online (SaaS) Review – What It Is and Isn’t.” You can find the full write up published by CMS Wire here. Ms. Mosher has done a very good job of explaining the Software as a Service implementation of SharePoint. She walks through the basics and provides some screenshots. She has done what she could to make these screenshots easy to follow, but I find the steps for some basic tasks convoluted. Addled geese are not good candidates for SharePoint wisdom, I suspect. The most useful part of the article is her description and lists of what is included and what is not included. With regards to search, it seemed that only the bare bones of queries within a site are supported. I have questions about the stability of SharePoint from the cloud, which she did not address. Latency also triggers questions in my mind. Useful information to download and keep close at hand.
Stephen Arnold, May 6, 2009
Microsoft and Spain: Open Source Challenge
May 6, 2009
I saw an interesting write up in Open … called “The Shame in Spain” here. I don’t know much about Spain, so you may have a different view of how software sales work in that country. According to the Open … article, Microsoft has made significant progress in halting the use of open source software in that country. The Web log reported:
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government is finalizing a plan that would supply all children who attend state schools with personal computers with touch-screens so to “promote awareness within families of the usefulness of information and communication technologies and encourage their use.” Specifically, we’re talking about Microsoft technologies.
The Web log asserted:
This is really scandalous on so many levels. It’s clearly born of ignorance about what is really being offered – lock-in to Microsoft’s systems – in the naive belief that touch-screens are somehow the future, probably just because the iPhone has one. It is born of arrogance that the government knows better, and therefore needn’t consult with others that might have a view or – heaven forfend [sic] – knowledge on the subject. And it’s born of sheer stupidity, throwing away the huge lead that Spain had in this area, forcing local governments that had saved money by opting for GNU/Linux to waste money on an unnecessary and doubtless insecure solution from Microsoft, and as a result making the country dependent on a foreign supplier when it could have nurtured its own domestic software industry.
Assume this has some truth in these statements. When one thinks about enterprise search, Microsoft has a number of options to exercise as it works to build the uptake for the Fast Search ESP system:
First, Microsoft can offer a Windows 7 type of one year free to use trial. This could have the effect of putting other vendors on ice until users decide to license Fast ESP or seek a third party solution.
Second, Microsoft can bundle Fast ESP with SharePoint. I have heard there are 199 million licenses at this time with more coming on line each week. This tactic would have a significant impact on the big vendors like Google as well as the smaller Certified Partners who thrive because Microsoft allows SharePoint customers to use approved solutions.
Third, Microsoft can cut the cost of an enterprise system like Fast ESP. This tactic could spark an old fashioned price war. Only competitors with deep pockets and appetite for this type of marketing battle would be likely to survive. Today’s economic climate may make it difficult for smaller firms to get much-needed financing to stay alive.
I think the Spain case is an interesting one. As it unfolds, there may be some hints about Microsoft’s broader enterprise search strategy.
Stephen Arnold, May 6, 2009
Microsoft and Two Rip Tides
May 4, 2009
Jason Hiner’s “The Two Trends That Are Conspiring against Microsoft” here is a so-so title for a pretty good analysis of the rip tides sucking at Microsoft’s revenue. The two points are browser-based applications which blur the distinction between the desktop and the cloud, and mobile devices, which make the traditional desktop computer a boat anchor. The essay is hard hitting, and I think it makes some excellent points.
Stephen Arnold, May 4, 2009
SharePoint Joel Is Revved Up
April 30, 2009
My newsreader delivered “Five No Brainer Reasons to Install SP2 (When you are ready!!!)” The three exclamation points were in the original post. The author of this article was Joel Oleson. It is clear that he put considerable work into the lists that make up this Web log post. You can read his five reasons to install Service Pack 2 for SharePoint here. If you skip over the five reasons and navigate to the list of links, you will find a number of useful pointers. The cumulative effect of these lists are positive and negative. The positive side is that the lists of SharePoint resources will save hours if not days of hunting and pecking for information. The negative side is that the lists are a mute reminder of the crazy engineering that created the need for Mr. Oleson’s post in the first place.
Stephen Arnold, April 30, 2009
Microsoft Search Center and Search Center Lite
April 28, 2009
I read a remarkable article by Robert Bogue of Thor Projects. The piece was “Search Center vs. Search Center Lite” here. I am quite tired after a day of meetings, and I thought “lite” was one of those marketing buzzwords reserved for beer and dietary foods. Wrong. In SharePoint there are two search centers: regular and light. I either did not know or did not remember there were two functions with almost the same name. Mr. Bogue set me straight:
One search center, Search Center Lite — which shows up in the user interface as Search Center, is created by default for you if create a Collaboration Portal. (It’s on /search.) The other search center, Search Center with Tabs, only shows up if you activate the Office SharePoint Server Standard Site Collection features.
I thought about this comment and the plunged deeper into the article. I arrived at the moment of truth:
Who cares? Well if you have a set of complex customizations and want people to be able to search in different ways — then you care. Search Center with Tabs uses the publishing features (WCM) in SharePoint to allow you to create your own pages with different search configurations on them.
I think I understand. Depending on choices, one sees different options with the distinction identified as Search Center or Search Center Light. I wonder if there were other user interface options considered? Nifty, eh?
Stephen Arnold, April 28, 2009
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