When Disaster Strikes – Loss of a SharePoint Farm
February 10, 2012
Most SharePoint developers and administrators have nightmares about losing their content. Any number of things can go wrong when one deals with fragile electronic data storage and retrieval. Quite frankly, it is a miracle that data disasters do not strike more often. Our blog author, Paul, describes his terrifying account in “Five Things I Learned From Losing My SharePoint Farm.”
He recounts his thoughts and actions immediately after the loss:
I went home and made the first sensible decision of the evening. I went to bed. Partly I thought I should stay up and work on the problem but I was shattered and I wasn’t going to solve anything in the state I was in. When I woke up – at 5:00AM, screaming – I got to work and thankfully by midday I had the farm back in a working state and all the data accessible. During those painful hours I learned 5 valuable lessons that I thought were worth sharing for relative newcomers – like me – to SharePoint.
Paul goes on to suggest some practical solutions so that others do not suffer his same loss. Ideas include regular SQL backups and details documentation that is stored outside of the SharePoint installation itself, outside being the operative word there.
Many organizations are turning to smart third party solutions to help make the backup and restore process much simpler. Add automatic backup to the features of the Cloud and SharePoint administrator nightmares could be greatly reduce in frequency and severity.
One alternative that many organizations are turning to is Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their comprehensive suite of solutions can stand alone or compliment an existing SharePoint infrastructure. Particular attention is given to their backup and restore options here.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Enterprise Search Meets the Cloud in 2012
February 9, 2012
In “2012 – Ready or Not,” Mike Alsup, Senior Vice President at Gimmal Group, lays out a summary of 2011 and speculates on 2012 in the world of SharePoint and content management. Of course, 2011 was another growth year for the ubiquitous SharePoint platform. One estimate puts SharePoint users at 125,000,000 and counting. Although, Alsup says, many of these SharePoint sites are collaboration sites, intranet, and other lightweight knowledge management, meaning lots of room to grow and innovate among the users.
Otherwise, 2011 is noted for lots of infrastructure consolidation and lots of waiting to see what happens with SharePoint Records Management. And for 2012? Alsup gives somewhat lengthy explanations on Records Management 2.0 and content enabled vertical applications. Of course, 2012 speculations are not complete without mention of the Cloud. Here’s what Alsup says,
In the world of SharePoint, the product is different in the cloud and on premise because of limitations on what can be deployed in the cloud and how it needs to be deployed. There are many SharePoint applications that provide great value that can’t be deployed in the Microsoft Clouds (Microsoft private cloud solutions, Windows Azure, Office 365) because of product limitations. If Microsoft enabled these applications to be more easily deployed in their clouds, and their customers could deploy their SharePoint applications similarly in each of the three environments, then the decisions on how and where to host would be based on economics and deployment strategy instead of the limitations of SharePoint in the clouds.
While SharePoint is a powerful and complex system, we know there are limitations when the Cloud is introduced. For a Cloud solution in your SharePoint environment, check out Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Here you can read about the power of information pairing.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze . . .
smoothly integrates itself into your website so that the user doesn’t even realize that Cloud services are working in the background. Furthermore, InSite always knows what a user is interested in. Navigation behavior on the website serves as the basis for recognizing their interests. If the user finds themselves on one of your sub-pages on the topic mobility, for example, even at this level Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite still displays further information such as blogs, news, Wikipedia etc. on the relevant topic.
Check out the full suite of solutions at Mindbreeze to see what works for you.
Philip West, February 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Linguamatics Embraces Informatics
February 9, 2012
Fierce Biotech IT announces, “EU Program Backs Linguamatics and ChemAxon’s Informatics Work.” The European Union’s Eurostars Program grants research and development funding to small and medium companies.
The project being funded is, according to the companies, the first interactive text-mining system specifically for chemistry research. Writer Ryan McBride elaborates:
The companies say that pharma and biotech outfits are expected to be the main customers for the technology. With this tool, ChemAxon and Linguamatics want drug companies or other users to be able to do chemical evaluations, hunt for new chemicals, get structure visualizations in searches and ‘explore image to structure conversion,’ according to the companies’ press release.
More personalized medical research is expected to be one application of the system. That sounds promising.
ChemAxon serves the biotechnology and pharmaceutical fields worldwide, providing chemical software development platforms as well as desktop applications.
Linguamatics bases its data management solutions on natural language processing technology. I2E is the company’s flagship text mining software, also available in the cloud as I2E OnDemand.
Cynthia Murrell, February 9, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
A Developer Takes on SharePoint
February 8, 2012
Wendy Neal recently shared some highlights of the SharePoint experience in her piece, “The Top Ten Reasons Why I Love SharePoint.” Neal, a SharePoint 2010 Developer/Architect for GreatAmerica Leasing Corporation, created the list so to articulate exactly why she loves to work with the ubiquitous collaboration software.
Neal cites the time and money saved due to Microsoft handling most development processes as just one of the reasons she found SharePoint to be the right system. Organizations can spend more time on configuring the technology, rather than developing and testing it. The SharePoint community, complex technology potential, and Microsoft Office integration are also discussed.
In terms of the SharePoint potential, Neal also explains the ability to easily build up your system with third party products integration.
One of the really great things about SharePoint is that if something can’t be done out-of-the-box, and if you don’t want to build it yourself, chances are that someone else has. Whether it be vendors who specialize in SharePoint add-ons, or something you find on CodePlex or other code sharing sites, there are a ton of great solutions or tools that can integrate with SharePoint. In addition, many other CMS or storage systems have created web parts that will interface with SharePoint, so that you can keep your content where it is yet still access it through the SharePoint interface.
A quality third party solution, like Fabasoft 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, February 8, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Infegy: The Social Radar Company
February 8, 2012
In 2006, founders Justin Graves, who was working for an interactive advertising agency at the time, and Web developer Adam Coomes used $50,000 of their own money to launch Infegy. Its key technology is “Social Radar”, a social media monitoring and Web analytics platform that measures online sentiment to gauge trends, predict consumer needs, and drive corporate strategy. The data is delivered through the cloud in a subscription-based format. A March 2011 upgrade generates faster results and features new spam filtering and a customizable drag-and-drop dashboard.
Social Radar sorts through some 8 billion Internet posts (including Tweets, blog posts, and customer comments), ranking not just the rise and fall of volume on a topic, but also the tone of discussion and the words that resonate. Companies can run in-depth analytics on Web and social media content to see how products and campaigns are received in the marketplace, what customers are saying online, and how and why trends have changed over time. Social Radar’s database allows views within targeted demographics.
In 2009, the company had over $350,000 in revenue and became profitable. In 2010, Graves and Coomes were Bloomberg/Businessweek’s America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs finalists. In 2011, International Data Corporation selected Infegy as an Innovative Business Analytics Company Under $100M to Watch. Following the March 2011 upgrade release, Coomes left the company.
Infegy’s primary clients are mostly advertising agencies and market research firms, such as ORC International, VML, and Mason Zimbler, interested in what consumers are saying about their brands and campaigns in the social media sphere. Think candid focus group minus the two-way mirror. Political campaigns have also shown interest. Brands using Social Radar include Viacom, 3M, Pizza Hut, MTV, and Sony. Competitors include Radian6, Collective Intellect, Crimson Hexagon, and Temetric Research.
Rita Safranek, February 8, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Heat in SharePoint Semantics: January 27 – February 3
February 7, 2012
This week SharePoint Semantics shared a variety of informative reading material that is pertinent to both SharePoint end users and search enthusiasts.
In the article “Avoid the Most Common Mistakes Made by Beginning SharePoint Developers,” Ken Toth shares an article that outlines a list of situations worth avoiding if you are a SharePoint development novice.
Toth points out:
“Sometimes reinventing the wheel means you end up with a bigger wheel, but also you will have to look after and support that wheel for when it breaks, and you may also have wasted a load of time making that bigger wheel.”
Similarly, in “Uncover Business and Staff Needs Before Deploying a Microsoft SharePoint Intranet,” we learn that staff often don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to determining what’s best in a SharePoint intranet.
Toth advises:
“First, conduct an intranet needs analysis to determine staff needs. Then, uncover how SharePoint can allow for new ways of working through scenarios, case studies, stories, and examples. Third, get everyone on the same page by making sure all stakeholders have the same definitions and priorities.”
As SharePoint grows in popularity, many people are starting to wonder what to do with paper information in this increasingly digital world. The post “Looking to Partners to Aid with Managing Paper-Based Information in the SharePoint Environment” offers some solutions.
Writer Jeff Shuey explains the importance of finding partners to manage your paper information.
Toth concludes:
“Bringing paper and digital information together is no doubt a challenge in our information age. It is a discussion worth having so that solutions continue to be made available for handling the ever-increasing variety of formats.”
Sometimes, regardless of the number of needs assessments and situations that you avoid when implementing your SharePoint platform, your site still falls short of its target. In this case, consider turning to The Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform from Smartlogic. It will ensure that your SharePoint content is easily found and re-purposed, saving valuable staff time and money.
Jasmine Ashton, February 7, 2012
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint: Features Breakdown
February 7, 2012
In “Fast Search in SharePoint 2010 – What’s that you don’t get in SharePoint 2010 Search,” the author discusses Microsoft’s acquisition of the enterprise search company, FAST Search & Transfer, and the subsequent Microsoft product development, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. The author notes the very visual change to the user experience and a handful of other capabilities that came with the new search. Two of the more noticeable changes include:
Thumbnails and previews for documents — Word and PowerPoint files in the search result will be displayed with a thumbnail of the cover page. Moreover, PowerPoint files can be previewed in the results list without opening the file, either with a PowerPoint client or with Office Web Applications. These capabilities can help end users visually find the expected content.
View in browser — By using Office Web Applications, Office files can be opened in the browser, without installing the thick client on the computer.
The fully integrated search server engine also lets you build user context from user profiles and define Visual Best Bets. New features and capabilities are exciting. But the learning curve and man hours for developing and customizing the features may not be.
FAST search is an improvement over the SharePoint out-of-the-box functionality; however, Fabasoft Mindbreeze is an even greater improvement. Here you can read about enterprise search with Mindbreeze’s quick, service-oriented, and cost-efficient technology:
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.
Mindbreeze solutions add value to your business information, no matter the data you’re looking for or the system you are working with.
Philip West, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Linguamatics and Chemaxon Hook Up for Text Mining
February 7, 2012
Unlike Web search, Text Mining is the discovery of new, previously unknown information, by automatically extracting high quality information from written documents and texts.
According to a recent news release entitled “Linguamatics and Chemaxon Announce Project to Enhance Text Mining in Chemistry” text mining software creator Linguamatics and software developer ChemAxon have announced that they are partnering for a new and exciting project that is code named “ChiKEl”, or Chemically Informed Knowledge Extraction from Literature.
The release states:
ChiKEL will provide the first interactive text mining system designed for chemistry, integrating advanced chemical search and extraction of relationships between structures and other biological or chemical entities. By combining chemical search and text mining, users will be able to perform chemical structure and biological searches to extract structured information for further analysis from patents, scientific articles, and internal documents.
The scientific processes of finding and extracting information is becoming more and more relevant as structured and unstructured information continues to grow at an increasingly rapid pace. By Integrating name?to?structure and structure search directly within an interactive text mining system, ChiKEl enables structure search to be mixed with linguistic constraints for more precise filtering.
Jasmine Ashton, February 7, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Inteltrax: Top Stories, January 30 to February 3, 2012
February 6, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, how governments are embracing and utilizing big data analytics, especially during this early stage in the 2012 political cycle.
We got a good overall look at the issue from the story, “Government Healthcare and Analytics Make a Good Team,” showed how, as the title implies, this pairing is making some impressive waves in the world.
Another story, “Social Media and Politics Share Big Data Love” showed us how Ron Paul and others have utilized social media to get a better take on the issues.
Finally, the most promising of our stories, “Government Grows Into Big Data Workhorse” shows how governments around the globe could kick start a big data revolution.
Analytics and big data are growing by leaps and bounds. However, it seems as if government can be its best friend and often tries to be so. We’re going to keep chronicling this partnership, because we sense big things on the horizon.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com.
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax, February 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Checklist: Before you Escalate a Ticket to Microsoft Support
February 6, 2012
Joel Oleson of SharePoint Joel blog recently published a list of “7 Things You Should Do Before You Escalate to Microsoft Support” when troubleshooting a system issue. Oleson’s in-depth list goes beyond the obvious troubleshooting that Tier 2, Tier 3, and Engineering should do and includes checklist items such as reading up on your service pack and cumulative update level, rebooting, working with the entire team to isolate the issue, and reviewing code. First on the list:
You know one of the first things Microsoft support will want to know is what version and patch level you are at. If you’re way back, they are going to ask you to upgrade. At a minimum you should be on the latest service pack to address the majority of bugs they will point to. Now understanding that there are different tolerances to patching, this will be something you will need to decide. My recommendation is you don’t install a CU unless you need it. Well, when you’re dealing with what you think is a bug, there’s a chance it’s fixed a CU rollup or more recent CU.
Oleson also suggests reaching out to social solution forums, such as Twitter or the Microsoft Newsgroups.
Steps to help prevent long man hours on the phone with tech support while your system is not functioning properly are, of course, welcome. But this checklist sure sounds like a lot of trouble. Depending on your organization, you may not want to devote the time and effort for extensive troubleshooting prior to calling tech-support. We think it would be easier to go with a simple third-party solution like Mindbreeze, cutting down on the costly man hours.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise provides consistent and comprehensive information access to both corporate and Cloud sources. The seamless Cloud solution makes sure you find the right information you need at any time. Check out the full suite of solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, February 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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