Microsoft Fast Pricing Strategy Hint
March 8, 2009
A news release issued in South Africa with the title “3fifteen Gets Inside Track on Microsoft Enterprise Search Expertise” here is a ho hum Certified Partner bag of buzz words except for one statement. The comment in the news release that caught my attention was:
“Given the price tag, and strong focus on the technology sets, Microsoft is clearly investing heavily in information access and representation as the next technology wave that businesses will need to increase business productivity and profitability in many instances.”
The conjunction of “price tag” and “clearly investing” was interpreted by my addled goose brain as “low cost” and “buying market share”.
One of the threats Microsoft poses to established vendors such as Autonomy and Endeca is making Fast search technology an item included with larger Microsoft SharePoint and server buys. With this one action, no money conscious company will turn up their nose at Microsoft’s assurances that Fast ESP (enterprise search platform) is the greatest thing since SharePoint.
A low price deal for Fast ESP would put significant pressure on the more expensive solutions. Most organizations are deeply dissatisfied with their search solutions, so giving a low cost product a spin makes perfect sense.
If the 3fifteen wording is just breezy writing, that’s one thing. If the 3fifteen statement is meaty, I think a price skirmish probe may be likely. Many search and content processing companies are working overtime to hit their revenue targets, a bargain in enterprise search could affect a number of companies in the present financial thunder storm.
Not too much stability in the SharePoint search sector in my opinion.
Stephen Arnold, March 8, 2009
Good SharePoint in the Cloud Forecast
March 7, 2009
I try to look at what’s new from the Microsoft SharePoint, Fast Search, and related content processing units once a week. Since the Fast Forward 2009 road map, there’s been not too much to grab my attention. I am fascinated with road maps. These are easier to create and deploy than software. I did come across a very useful set of PowerPoint slides here. The focus is SharePoint from the cloud. My hunch is that Microsoft will be packing SharePoint with search technology when the road map converts to shipping code. If this url doesn’t work for you, navigate here and click the faint Download link at http://cid-0ddc65de8785e94e.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/mpdc-bpos%20-%20DIWUG20090217.pdf. Note that this information is on a Microsoft Sky Drive in Adobe PDF format, a fact I find amusing. The presentation is by Serge van den Oever of Macaw. Parts of the talk are in Dutch, but the meaty stuff is in the diagrams. Here’s an example of the type of information available. Note: this is a portion of a single slide; there’s more on the original:
Another useful slide shows the pricing in US dollars. Navigate to the original for this information. I don’t know how touchy the Microsoft legal eagles are about folks reproducing non a Dutch presentation with US SharePoint costs. There’s a screen shot of an application from Metavistech which looks interesting as well. There’s even a “pimp my SharePoint” slide for those with a yen to customize SharePoint and a sense of the California car culture. Instead of a hot tub, the slide suggests adding a wiki to SharePoint. Sounds cool.
Stephen Arnold, March 7, 2009
SharePoint in 2010
March 3, 2009
I have been gathering information about the hook up of SharePoint and Fast Search technology. My take on the announcements at the Fast Forward 2009 conference was that a road map was the underlying message. I wanted to keep track of this item “SharePoint 14 Delayed until 2010” here. Wictor Wilén wrote:
I’m not surprised since the lid has been on for so long and for such a significant server product such as SharePoint it really needs time for a beta phase. The adoption of WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 has really boosted and having a to short period for extensive testing and upgrade preparation would not be appreciated. Now we all can wait for the beta period to start, and hope for a universal change in the number of hours per day, I sure need some more…
My view is that the SharePoint – Fast work will require more time than Microsoft’s target indicates. With the Fast Forward hoo hah, Microsoft was offering some reassurance, a hint about what it will do with its $1.2 billion dollar baby, and dash of the fear – uncertainty – doubt tactics that worked for IBM before it began its shift from hardware to softer lines of business.
Stephen Arnold, March 3, 2009
GUIDs and Handcrafting Values
February 17, 2009
First, refresh your memory about SharePoint GUIDs. This is the Microsoft explanation available on MSDN here:
GUIDs are the Microsoft implementation of the distributed computing environment (DCE) universally unique identifier ( UUID). The RPC run-time libraries use UUIDs to check for compatibility between clients and servers and to select among multiple implementations of an interface. The Windows access-control functions use GUIDs to identify the type of object that an object-specific ACE in an access-control list (ACL) protects.
Yep, access control lists. Security. Unique. One of a kind.
Now read this article by Finer Recliner here. For me the most interesting comment was:
I’ve come across an interesting detail concerning the List Template GUIDs used in Microsoft SharePoint 2007. It seems that every List Template has its name hidden inside its GUID!
The screenshots are easy to understand even if you don’t sight read hex.
The thought from Harrod’s Creek: Security. What security?
Stephen Arnold, February 17, 2009
SharePoint Performance: Start Prepping for SharePoint Fast ESP
February 14, 2009
If your SharePoint installation is a bit of a slow poke, you will want to start gathering tips and tricks for improving SharePoint’s performance. The addled goose wants to pass along a use article by Robert Bogue called “Fundamentals of SharePoint Performance – Disk, SQL, and Network.” You can access the write up here. There’s no easy way to summarize dot points and tips. For me, the article was a useful checklist. Based on the Beyond Search goslings’ experience with our pal SharePoint, you will need a zippy system when you plop the Fast technology into your SharePoint environment. Start now with Mr. Bogue’s write up.
Stephen Arnold, February 14, 2009
Microsoft Fast: An Integration Roadmap without Google Maps
February 11, 2009
Fast Forward 09’s “big” announcement is history. I have had a couple of calls and a few emails about the bundling of Fast Search & Transfer’s Enterprise Search Platform with SharePoint. You can read Todd Bishop’s review of some of the history or deal and some azure chip consultant market projections here. His article has attracted some comments. I flicked through these and found two of interest.
The first is the article in All about Microsoft here. Mary-Jo Foley’s “Microsoft Updates Its Enterprise Search Roadmap” is well named. The “big” news is not a product that one can use right now. The “big” news is a roadmap. For me the most interesting part of her column was this comment:
Fast’s technology soups up the enterprise search capabilities that are part of SharePoint Server. Fast adds more sophisticated user-interface elements, like thumbnail and preview views; cluster support and more compute-intensive tasks like entity abstraction and the creation of relationships between concepts
In my experience, anyone who asserts that Fast ESP “soups up” enterprise search has not performed two hands on Fast ESP tasks. [1] Installing, tuning, and updating the system with Fast ESP hot fixes. And [2] building out an infrastructure to give Fast ESP sufficient room to breathe. Ms. Foley does a good job of tracking Microsoft, but I am not convinced that her inclusion of the “soups up” reference matches reality. Fast ESP is a collection of components. Some of those identified in the comment above come from third parties and will stretch the expertise of the average SharePoint wizard. The article does not point to several of the well known issues associated with Fast ESP, and those issues help explain how the company ended up in a bit of a financial jam which evolved into the police action on October 16, 2009.
The second is Search Engine Watch’s article “Microsoft Integrates Fast Search with Existing Enterprise Search Offerings” here. The write up is based on this comment from a Microsoft professional:
FAST Search for SharePoint will combine high-end search with the broad portal, collaboration, content management and business intelligence capabilities of SharePoint. And FAST Search for Internet Business will deliver search capabilities tuned to drive more revenue through Web sites.
I don’t know what this statement means. I find myself reluctant to believe that the Fast ESP system will “drive more revenue through Web sites.” Maybe this is a reference to the Fast Search publishing technology. Again I think the writer is feeding back marketing lingo without providing any detail.
Let me come at this announcement in a different way:
First, Fast Search was designed a year or two before the Google stomped into the picture. The Fast Search plumbing was Linux and the system did a very good job of indexing Web content quickly. Even after the sale of Fast Search’s Web index (AllTheWeb.com), Fast Search’s indexing of news was more efficient and timely than Google’s news service. (Google has now bypassed Fast Search in news in my opinion.)
Coming to a SharePoint installation if I understand the news announcement at Fast Forward 09 on February 10, 2009. © Fast Search & Transfer 2007. From Enterprise Search Report, 3rd Edition. Used in that study with the permission of Fast Search & Transfer.
Hooking the Fast ESP into SharePoint with or without Dot Net is going to be a bit of an effort.
My take on this “big” announcement. The competitors who offer alternatives to SharePoint search will have many opportunities to make new sales. My hunch is that Google is greatly encouraged by this “big” announcement.
Stephen Arnold, February 11, 2009
Some Possible Insight into Microsoft SharePoint Pricing
February 1, 2009
You have to respect a Web log writer who uses this disclaimer on her splash page:
Emma Explains Microsoft Licensing in Depth! Microsoft Licensing&SAM Blog, share information, DO NOT COPY CONTENT WITHOUT MY EXPRESS PERMISSION, Feedback & Qs welcome, Do not put up offensive, inciting or legally challenging info,Posting provided “AS IS” with no warranties ,confers no rights. You will want to check this out for yourself here.
The addled goose won’t quote because I don’t have the juice to send an email to ask permission to quote something on what sure looks like a public Web page. Here’s a link to a write up by “Emma” who allegedly sets forth the real dope on Microsoft SharePoint licensing. Here write up about MOSS FIS and CALS is here. Her write up about SharePoint server is here. There are some figures that seem interesting, but without the assumptions underlying these, it is difficult for the addled goose to determine if the data will match your Microsoft invoice. In my experience, Microsoft’s prices are fluid.
A recent example concerns a Fortune 100 company that was looking at SharePoint and a third party search system. The Redmond team pitched a 100 percent Microsoft solution and kicked in the Fast Search & Transfer lego blocks for a song. In this type of bundled deal, I think any “hard” prices become squishy.
Emma, on the other hand, presents concrete. Let’s hope that her concrete endures like the Roman architects’ mixture. My hunch is that modern day concrete won’t last. A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to Emma’s pricing information.
Stephen Arnold, February 1, 2009
SharePoint How to Code That Shows How Not to code
January 26, 2009
I double checked the links to how to information in Microsoft’s official blog post about SharePoint business intelligence on January 25, 2009, at 7 pm Eastern. Still broken. You may have better luck than I do, but this type of carelessness is what makes me increasingly nervous about SharePoint. The article was “Microsoft Business Intelligence Strategy Update and SharePoint” here. The post asserts that the interesting interactions among SharePoint, PerformancePoint, Excel, and SQL Server are ready for prime time, industrial strength business intelligence. There’s a lot of buzzwords in the write up. My attention went to the links in this paragraph:
More information is available on http://www.microsoft.com/bi regarding this announcement; here are some links to specific product capabilities and how-to’s, to help you get started. Now, there is no excuse to start rolling out a complete BI solution, one that you know will be utilized because it uses the technologies you know today, and works with the systems you are already familiar with.
The key link for the Beyond Search goslings was the one that explained to get these often incompatible and mutually unintelligible parts to work. Guess what? The link’s dead. The author Pej Javaheri made one of those all too common Microsoft arabesques: explanations that are not backed in example code. Perhaps the layoffs and financial challenges overrode the need for getting the details in order. If you can locate these how to’s, put the information in the comments section of this Web log.
Stephen Arnold, January 26, 2009
Microsoft, Certified Gold Partners, and SharePoint Search
January 15, 2009
ChannelInsider.com posted a bombshell of a commentary in my opinion here. Pedro Pereira’s “Is Microsoft the Managed Services market’s Biggest Enemy?” makes some interesting assertions. The essay certainly caused this addled goose’s tiny brain to cycle two or three times. The premise of the article is that Microsoft has worked hard to round up “channel partners”. These are the companies who pay to take tests, send engineers to Microsoft classes, and agree to various terms and conditions to achieve the coveted “certified” endorsement. Mr. Pereira wrote:
But as the managed services market matures, you have to wonder how long the world’s largest software company plans to sit on the sidelines. And while you’re at it, you might chew on this: When Microsoft finally gets serious about managed services, will it do so as a partner to the channel, as a competitor or both?
Mr. Pereira identifies a number of high profile channel partners who may generate revenues that Microsoft covets. In effect, will Microsoft take the big, juicy engagements and keep the lion’s share of the revenue. IBM has morphed into a services business with an interesting history. Perhaps Microsoft will follow in IBM’s footsteps in order to keep the company’s revenue growth stable or growing.
Disrupting Microsoft channel partner structure could prove costly. If Microsoft changes the game for “certified” partners, the reconstruction may open the door to plug compatible alternatives that are no longer “certified”. Even more interesting is Google’s opportunity to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of the scenario Channel Insider describes. Image source: http://gees.usc.edu/GEES/RecentEQ/India_Gujarat/photos/photobyrediff/mdf10294.jpg
Mr. Pereira cites survey data new to me. He wrote:
A Channel Insider survey conducted over the summer found that 25 percent of MSPs have switched platforms three times, 21 percent once and 18 percent twice. Seven percent of participants reported that they have switched platforms a staggering 10 times. Yes, there are enough platforms out there to switch that many times.
As I thought about this interesting write up, several ideas occurred to me. I don’t want to lose them; to wit:
Search and Get a Null Result
January 10, 2009
You will want to read, download, and save Stefan Gossner’s article about SharePoint content deployment. He does a much needed, clear write up about the issues of mixing incremental and full deployments. You can find the information here. To make a long and somewhat convoluted Microsoft procedure brief, think in terms of a source and a destination not having the same information objects. The search system returns a hit but the document is gone. Alternatively, a deleted document turns up in a search result list and it is available. What happened? One likely cause is the different behaviors of incremental and full deployment functions in SharePoint. The trick is to use full deployment only one time. Then only use incremental deployments. Need to redo a full deployment. Then deploy only to an empty site collection. A happy quack to Mr. Gossner.
Stephen Arnold, January 10, 2009
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