Solve Your SharePoint Storage Problems Before They Start
April 6, 2012
SharePoint is the most highly adopted and used collaborative content platform in the US and it is beginning to see a rise in the world market. With this comes a higher demand on SharePoint storage and, of course, the start of problems. IT Business Edge caught wind of this trend and wrote about “Five SharePoint Storage Performance Killers and How to Fix Them” with the help of Quest Software.
“Rapid user adoption is positive for any organization leveraging SharePoint for content collaboration and version control. As user adoption increases, however, so does the amount of data that must be stored in SharePoint. Content overload can wreak havoc on SharePoint infrastructure, and can become a leading cause of poor performance – not to mention the corresponding management headaches. For example, as the amount of content steadily increases, so does the need to scale database capacity and SQL Server processing power to ensure that performance matches user demand. When this happens, organizations face a dilemma: cope with poor SharePoint performance, or bite the bullet and buy additional SQL storage space and computing power to catch up with demand.”
The article format is very interesting, you scroll through a slideshow of pictures with a description of the problems and how to resolve them. Or so you would think. The pictures are from free-image farms and hardly inspirational. While the problems are identified, only a couple offer tips on how to fix them. The majority of the information simply explains the problem; after reading it you get a “duh” feeling from already knowing the content.
Despite the poor presentation, data storage problems are an issue and I’ll see what I can find that addresses them better. In the meantime, while you have all that content to search through, you will be able to find your information quicker with solidly engineeded methods. Search Technologies offers engineering and consulting services which support search and general purpose SharePoint use cases. To learn more, navigate to www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, April 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint Extranet Collaboration Manager 2010
April 6, 2012
SharePoint Extranet Collaboration Manager 2010 now has an online extranet sandbox to allow users to test drive the product before purchase. PR Web gives the full report as posted in Virtual Strategy Magazine, “SharePoint Solutions Creates Online Evaluation Sandbox for SharePoint Extranet Collaboration Manager 2010.”
“Developed by SharePoint Solutions, SharePoint Extranet Collaboration Manager for SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 (ExCM) provides the easy SharePoint extranet collaboration and simplified SharePoint extranet administration that SharePoint 2010 is missing in the out-of-the-box product. From its award-winning 2007 release, ExCM has established itself as the industry leader in powerful, effective SharePoint extranet deployment and management. This latest version adds substantially greater functionality and is simple and intuitive to use. Because EXCM integrates right into SharePoint 2010, all of its features are accessible from within SharePoint itself, so there is no proprietary interface or separate program to learn.”
Third party solutions that interface with SharePoint are a necessity for organizations that need to increase the functionality of their SharePoint deployment without committing huge resources to a customization project. However, a cutting edge solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze may be a smarter long-term solution for organizations seeking an intuitive, scalable, and mobile enterprise search interface. Functioning stand-alone or as a compliment to an existing SharePoint installation, Mindbreeze is ahead of the competition in mobile searching and the Cloud.
“Smartphones and tablets allow you to act quickly in business matters – an invaluable competitive advantage. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company knowledge available on all mobile devices. You can act freely, independently and yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: Search results are displayed homogenously to the web client with regards to clear design and intuitive navigation.”
SharePoint needs a little help in realizing its full potential, and while many add-on solutions are on the market, Fabasoft Mindbreeze is worth a second look.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint Increases Efficiency and Leads to Restructuring
April 5, 2012
Christian Buckley often covers SharePoint and enterprise from the perspective of a business analyst. In, “Increased Productivity Means Focusing on Adoption,” on AIIM, Buckley draws an analogy between the increased productivity in the manufacturing sector, and subsequent failure to increase demand, and the same scenario unfolding in the IT world.
Buckley sums up the argument:
“Just as our economy moved from an agricultural to an industrial market, and from industrial to an information-based marketing, within the world of the Information Worker this increase in productivity is allowing organizations to move from a hardware-centric view (where IT pulls cables, stands up servers, maintains those servers) to a business intelligence and decision support view. Where are the business opportunities today? And where does SharePoint fit? There is a gap between productivity increases and resource utilization decreases, and here are three business impacts that I believe will become more visible: 1) Repurposed roles 2) Increased reliance on services 3) Focus on user adoption.”
So how does SharePoint fit in and how can enterprise solutions in general respond? Smart third-party solutions are one way to increase efficiency all the more. A solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze can provide an organization with an intuitive interface and intelligence search results. Working as a stand-alone solution or as a compliment to SharePoint, Mindbreeze can free information workers from enterprise customization and maintenance leaving them time to focus on business analyst functions.
“Our information pairing technology makes you unbeatable. Information pairing brings enterprise information and information in the Cloud together. This gives you an overall image of a company’s knowledge. This is the basis for your competitive advantage. In this way you can act quickly, reliably, dynamically and profitably in all business matters.”
Buckley argues that business analyst numbers will grow as the maintenance functions of IT workers continue to decline. Organizations can begin to focus on complimenting smart business decisions with smart technology decisions, instead of spinning wheels in an attempt to keep on-site servers and solutions running. Sounds like a good trade-off.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 5, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Approach SharePoint as a Business Analyst
April 4, 2012
The SharePoint Expert Blog features Christian Buckley and his take on how most organizations would benefit from viewing SharePoint through the lens of a business analyst. In, “The Role of a Business Analyst in SharePoint,” Buckley states that organizations rarely approach their SharePoint installation with the same level of intentionality as their other ventures.
“In presentations on migration and planning best practices for SharePoint, I often remark that every new SharePoint project begins as a Business Analyst activity. What is the role of the Business Analyst, and how does it fit into a successful SharePoint strategy? While there are different kinds of Business Analysts . . . the core functions of this role remain fairly consistent . . . Now extend this understanding to how you staff your SharePoint deployment. Experience has shown that few organizations properly staff their administration team, much less provide the SharePoint team with a dedicated — or even a part-time — Business Analyst resource. SharePoint is generally grossly understaffed.”
Buckley goes on to state that many would overestimate SharePoint’s ease of use:
“I would venture that a lack of understanding of key business processes, and the gaps between what SharePoint provides out-of-the-box and what it is capable of doing is at the heart of most end user adoption issues.”
So in order to get more functionality out of SharePoint, more staffing and attention should be devoted. If not, as Buckley said, “what it (SharePoint) is capable of doing” will never be discovered. But perhaps there is a third option, a third-party option like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Intuitive and ready to use out-of-the-box, Fabasoft Mindbreeze can supplement an existing SharePoint installation, or completely replace it. The suite of solutions engineering by Fabasoft address the issues of today, including mobility, efficiency, information pairing, and the Cloud.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint 2010 Apple iPad Capability
April 3, 2012
SharePoint Server 2010 allows users to begin using Apple iPad devices to retrieve business intelligence content. Certain restrictions apply, but the functionality is introduced. The details are provided in, “Extra! Extra! Apple iPad Users Can Now View SharePoint Business Intelligence Content.”
“For SharePoint business intelligence users, CU 2011-12 for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is particularly exciting because it opens the door for people to get business intelligence content on Apple iPad devices. People can now view PerformancePoint reports and scorecards and Excel Services reports on iPad devices running the iOS 5 Safari browser. We just published an article on TechNet that provides more details about which kinds of reports and scorecards will and won’t work on your iPad, how to configure business intelligence content to display with best results, and how to navigate content on your iPad.”
As technology changes, becoming increasingly more mobile, there is no doubt that large infrastructures will have to catch up. However, it seems that SharePoint is a bit late to the mobile game. Third party solutions, like those from Fabasoft Mindbreeze, have entire solutions and connectors devoted to streamlining mobile capability.
Read more about Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile:
“Smartphones and tablets allow you to act quickly in business matters – an invaluable competitive advantage. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company knowledge available on all mobile devices. You can act freely, independently and yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: Search results are displayed homogenously to the web client with regards to clear design and intuitive navigation.”
If your organization is moving more and more toward mobility, and SharePoint is having a hard time keeping up, consider adding a smart third-party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Mindbreeze can compliment an existing infrastructure or stand on its own.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 3, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint Best Practices Resource Center
April 2, 2012
The official SharePoint blog, To The SharePoint, announces the release of the 2010 version of the Best Practices Resource Center. The 2007 version was quite a hit, and Samantha Robertson unveils the newest version in, “Just Released – Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2010.”
“We’re pleased to announce that we now have a 2010 version of the Best Practices Resource Center. Like in 2007, this was a joint effort between the SharePoint Customer Engineering team and Microsoft Consulting Services team for SharePoint. They drew on real customer experiences to help us bring you a set of guidelines that lay out the best practices for success with SharePoint Server 2010. Following these practices will help you avoid some of the common deployment pitfalls and keep your SharePoint environments available and performing well.”
The SharePoint resource center is no doubt a useful tool for organizations managing their SharePoint deployment. However, if an organization cannot financially or organizationally devote a dedicated team to managing and configuring SharePoint, how effective can the infrastructure possibly be? If your organization needs personalized attention for its enterprise capabilities, consider a third party solution with out-of-the-box capability, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or to be more precise, understands what the most important information is for you at any precise moment in time. It is the center of excellence for your knowledge and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud data together.”
Security and compliance are held to the highest standards with Mindbreeze, but the interface is intuitive and the search effective. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is extensible through connectors and scalable. Available for the Cloud or for on-site installation, check into the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if your organization could benefit from its implementation.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: SharePoint A Key Tool in the Collaboration Network
March 30, 2012
Improving Governance Compliance in SharePoint
March 30, 2012
Jeremy Thake addresses the important issue of governance compliance in, “SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Compliance.” Many organizations employ multiple repositories for sensitive content, and an out-of-the-box SharePoint system makes it hard to enforce the guidelines of where content should go. Thake explains,
“The out-of-the-box auditing features in SharePoint 2010 have some key limitations in this space, specifically regarding the storage of this data over a prolonged period of time (most acts seem to be approximately seven years) as well as the ease of producing a report of an individual user’s activity and attached content. The most common format followed by customers with whom I work is Concordance, which is supported by LexisNexis. But more importantly, from a content perspective, the attached content should be exactly what the user viewed, modified, or created at that point in time so versioning here is the key.”
SharePoint 2010 has many added improvements to address some of the out-of-the-box compliance gaps. But compliance is an area that needs a comprehensive solution. To really extend your SharePoint capabilities and get the most out of your enterprise search investments, look to Mindbreeze.
No matter where your sensitive information is stored, on-premise or in the Cloud, Mindbreeze connects users to the right information while maintaining strict security standards. Here you can read about the cost-efficient solution:
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise finds every scrap of information within a very short time, whether document, contract, note, e-mail or calendar entry, in intranet or internet, person- or text-related. The software solution finds all required information, regardless of source, for its users. Get a comprehensive overview of corporate knowledge in seconds without redundancy or loss of data.”
Check out their full suite of solutions to see what will work for you.
Philip West, March 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: To Moderate SharePoint Comments Or Not To Moderate
March 29, 2012
Security and Compliance Guidance with SharePoint
March 29, 2012
Maintaining security standards and governance compliance in the enterprise is not always easy when trying to minimize risks and maximize access. Mike Fleck addresses the issue in, “SharePoint, Security, and Compliance.” Fleck explains:
“One thing I think that the SharePoint community can easily agree on is that adequately securing SharePoint implementations and meeting compliance obligations are good things. The many capabilities and advantages that SharePoint brings to the enterprise are well documented…Security and compliance are closely related topics. Compliance regulations dictate numerous security controls. Having a strong security posture makes meeting compliance requirements (and proving compliance to auditors) far easier.”
Fleck’s article is the first in a series on security and compliance as related to the collaboration platform. SharePoint architects and administrators may benefit from the read. Some guidance might help as you look to prioritize high level concerns and pertinent questions for increased SharePoint security and compliance.
While information creation and SharePoint adoption continue to grow, you may find the platform is not the complete out-of-the-box solution for enterprise security and compliance needs. If you need a bit of help with it you might check into Mindbreeze and their dynamic search technologies that bring together security, mobility, and information pairing.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze exceeds relevant international standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 9001, and SAS 70 Typ II. Here you can read more about Mindbreeze certifications:
“Fabasoft has received ISO 20000 certification for the IT services Folio Cloud and Folio SaaS. This furthers the Austrian company’s strategy of implementing international standards, with it already being ISO 9001 and 27001 certified. Fabasoft is one of just twelve companies in Austria with ISO 20000 certification.”
With strict compliance standards, certified security, and regular external audits, Mindbreeze can maximize your information assets with security reliability.
Philip West, March 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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