Hardware and Software Requirements for SharePoint 2013 Explained
August 24, 2012
In his post, “SharePoint 2013: A Look at Hardware, Software and Other Requirements,” Wictor Wilen explains some requirements users should expect with the upcoming SharePoint 2013 release. Wilen summarizes:
A few new requirements and increased hardware resources compared to SharePoint 2010. But this is all about planning – you cannot just take the requirement and apply that onto your SharePoint 2013 farm, you need to evaluate your farm design and test it. Over the next few months I expect to see some great design samples including metrics from MSIT and of course gain experience from the 2013 engagements starting now…
As far as operating systems, SharePoint 2013 will support Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2012. Database servers, .NET Framwork, and hardware requirements are also discussed. If you are thinking to migrate or adopt the new release, you may want to check out Wilen’s summary as you make your plans.
And while SharePoint adoption continues to grow and the platform develops, you may want to consider a cost-effective solution available now to boost your farm. A comprehensive third party application worth a second look is the suite of solutions available from Fabasoft Mindbreeze. With clear navigation and a self-explanatory interface, Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise facilitates findability. No install solutions are also available, including Mindbreeze InSite.
Philip West, August 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Linguamatics and the US FDA
August 24, 2012
Linguamatics recently announced that the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and research (CDER) is set to use their I2E platform, which is the company’s interactive data mining and extraction software across CDER’s laboratory research relating to drug safety.
The write-up “Linguamatics’ I2E Text Mining Platform Chosen by FDA” provides more details about why the text mining company was selected by the CDER:
“I2E’s NLP-based querying capabilities, coupled with its scalability and flexibility, mean it is ideally suited to answering many challenging, high value questions in life sciences and healthcare by unlocking knowledge buried in the scientific literature and other textual information. Rather than just retrieving documents, I2E can rapidly identify, extract, synthesize and analyze specific, relevant facts and relationships, such as those between genes and diseases or compounds and side effects. Customers include nine of the top ten global pharmaceutical companies.”
What’s great about the I2E platform is that unlike other text mining systems, I2E provides businesses with full control over what information is to be extracted, what query definitions are, and the kind of output. With it, users can obtain information in a short period of time even from large documents.
Again, another company from the science sector has opted to use Linguamatics’ I2E platform. CDER joins Pfizer, Selventa, AstraZeneca, and others from the company’s roster of prestigious clients. Linguamatics has truly evolved from being a small player to being the industry leader in NLP-based text mining within just a few years. We’re excited to see what the company will become two to three years from now.
Lauren Llamanzares, August 24, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Mindbreeze InSite Delivers Powerful Search for Computerwelt Austria
August 23, 2012
Collaboration and advanced social technology is inevitable as business gets social. To keep up in the game, boost your Web site with a search feature that connects users to the right information efficiently and effectively every time. To tap into the possibilities consider looking into a third party solution with references to back up their product to complete your search system.
We like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. The Mindbreeze solution:
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.
To learn more, check out Computerwelt, Austria’s case study. Here you can read about the task at hand for Computerwelt:A professional internet presence is a quality criterion for a leading IT publication. COMPUTERWELT is published on different websites, such as the company database www.top1001.at/ and the portals www.seitenclicke.at, www.itheads.at and www.it-termine.at. Each week brings more than 300 new articles. The existing search was database-based, static and incapable of displaying semantic connections. With Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite…the user finds relevant information at split-second speed thanks to the program’s semantic capabilities. Moreover, the search is easy to use, intuitive and requires no maintenance effort on the client side.
Check out the full suite of solutions at Mindbreeze to see what works for you.
Philip West, August 23, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Lexalytics and FutureEverything Join Forces to Analyze London Olympics Sentiment
August 23, 2012
To further add to the hype of the London Olympics, text analysis firm Lexalytics has announced that it has partnered with FutureEverything with the goal of analyzing the overall sentiment during the said event. “Lexalytics tracks mood of London Olympics” describes how they’re set on accomplishing this:
“The Amherst-based software business has provided Salience, a multi-lingual text analysis engine that is integrated into systems for media monitoring, analysis and business intelligence, to Emoto, a project by FutureEverything.
… Launched this week, Emoto provides the worldwide mood in response to events that are taking place in London 2012. The project tracks micro-blogging sites such as Twitter for themes that are related to the Olympic Games and then analyzes the messages for content and tone, according to the company.”
The public can then access this information via the Emoto website and through the Android mobile app aptly named Emoto in London.
While we all used to think that emotions and computers just don’t mix, Lexalytics has done a good job of getting a lifeless, emotionless machine quantify some sentiment and draw out meaning from text. Of course, the company is far from perfecting this technology and is currently refining it. But once it does, I’m really excited what sort of big applications will emerge, particularly in the area of mobile tech. I can imagine our phones summarizing our emails for us complete with the action items. What do you think?
Lauren Llamanzares, August 23, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Tips for Empowering User Search in the Enterprise
August 22, 2012
Susan Hanley shares some SharePoint tips in her NetworkWorld.com post, “10 Essential SharePoint Search Hints.” Hanley points out that rich metadata is necessary for improved findability, but users also need to be taught how to search for better results.
Aside from using metadata and meaningful file names and titles, the author has this to say about search suggestions:
Use best bets. A great way to ensure that people can easily find the common things that you know they need in your organization is to create a directed best bet for them. Even if you are not monitoring search logs to identify candidate best bets (which you should be doing, by the way), I can promise you that you know something about what people need to find on your intranet.
We agree with the search tips. Empowered users can really add efficiency to their search and overall production. But to save time and training resources, consider adding a third party solution that gives your users a friendly interface with intuitiveness for search.
Here you can read about Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise:
Highly efficient enterprise search and specific connectors link together data sources in companies and organizations. 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 Studies). An invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.
Read more about the full suite of solutions available from Mindbreeze at http://www.mindbreeze.com/.
Philip West, August 22, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
ADV Austria Uses Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite to Enrich Web Site Visitor Experience
August 21, 2012
Rapid changes in technology have also brought along changes in Web expectations. Users more and more want informative, aesthetically pleasing sites that are consistently functioning with real-time data, which can be challenging to achieve.
To give your Web site a powerful search feature with a user-friendly experience, consider a third party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite. MindBreeze InSite understands that an attractive Web site is a company’s digital business card; it’s your shop window. InSite “turns your website into a user-friendly knowledge portal for your customers. Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite recognizes correlations and links through semantic and dynamic search processes. This delivers pinpoint accurate and precise “finding experiences.” With no installation or configuration required, InSite can save you valuable resources that would otherwise be spent on development and training.
In addition, Mindbreeze InSite boasts an impressive lineup of satisfied customers.
Here you can read the case study from ADV (Data Processing Work Group), Austria:
After testing the free 14-day test version, ADV opted for Mindbreeze InSite 500. This allows up to 500 pages/documents to be searched and 25,000 search inquiries per year. After registering for the product Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite and entering the web address, ADV received the embed code…Within a matter of minutes the search was available.
Search results are clearly structured using tabs and correlations are visible due to semantic search inquiries. The website visitor gets an overview of new events and publications without needing to click through the site.
Navigate to http://www.mindbreeze.com/ to read more about Web site architect solutions from Mindbreeze.
Philip West, August 21, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
IntelTrax Top Stories August 10 to August 16
August 20, 2012
This week the IntelTrax blog published some excellent articles on data analytics and search technologies.
One of the most notable analytics developers for Web sites is the search giant Google. “eGoogle Analytics Is No Longer the Only Game in Town” discusses some other options for those companies that are not satisfied with what Google is offering.
The article explains:
“If you operate your own website, analytic software can be crucial in order to track exactly how well your site is doing. Without this software, you can do whatever you want with your site, but you will never know if it is getting more visitors, aside from the amount of comments. When you look at the possible options you have for analytic software, the most popular choice is Google Analytics. However, if you’re not a fan of Google or its Analytics package, there’s no need to fear. There are still a handful of options for you to try out.”
Another article of note discusses the recent dramatic increase of unstructured data in almost every industry. “Growth of Text Analytics in Response to Unstructured Data” discusses the fact that there has also been an explosion of data analytics solution to make sense of all this new data.
When discussing some great solutions available, the article states:
“The Text Analytics market is rapidly consolidating with numerous mergers and acquisitions over the past year. Oracle purchased Endeca for its technology to mash up unstructured data from many different data sources. HP acquired similar technology from Autonomy. IBM picked up Vivisimo and Lexmark for their rich search features. Popularity of Big Data is driving huge interest in the area of text analytics, and that interest is causing the technology to evolve quickly. Text analytics techniques, for example, are becoming increasingly richer and more sophisticated in the information and insight which they can provide.”
While there are a lot of amazing data analytics solutions on the market, many companies are also feeling the effects of a downtrodden economy, so choosing an affordable solution is a very important part of their decision making process. “CFOs Demand a Reduction in Costs and Increase in Competitive Edge” argues that companies are utilizing data analytics solutions as a way to cut costs and create new growth opportunities.
Here are some qualities that companies in New Zealand and Australia are looking for in their products:
“As a discrete process, like CRM, corporate performance management is particularly well suited to a cloud delivery model. It provides organizations greater flexibility, lower capital costs and fast implementations that take weeks rather than six plus months. The end result is customers fast-track uncovering business opportunity. We’re excited about partnering with Host Analytics as it provides our clients a unique value proposition at a time when CFOs and CIOs are telling us that their number one priority is to reduce costs and gain competitive advantage with business analytics.”
The three articles that I have highlighted drive the point home that companies, regardless of their industry, are looking for text analytics solutions that will efficiently make the most of their limited resources and time. Digital Reasoning is a relatively young provider that understand the unique needs of small and midsized companies and offer their Synthesys platform as a solution that provides all the necessary data crunching tools and apps needed for most industries.
Jasmine Ashton, August 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Thake Discusses Business Opportunities with SharePoint 2013 Marketplace
August 20, 2012
In “Why We Need a SharePoint 2013 Marketplace,” Jeremy Thake shares his thoughts on the opportunities that lie in the new SharePoint app home. In looking back at the history of marketplaces, Thake credits Apple iOS marketplace as the best example where Microsoft has a number of marketplaces, but they do not share the same platform.
He adds this about potential Web parts:
There is already an app for World Clock and Weather app. I expect a Stock Ticker app to be close behind this also. The big limitations with making web parts available this way is that there is no API to automatically add a web part to the parent site collection homepage at the moment. The metro tiles on the site home pages can’t be manipulated by the apps to add the web part there.
Thake also comments on the possibilities of community involvement, financial rewards, and the light integration hoped for the Marketplace. The new feature for SharePoint is exciting as it may greatly enhance work processes and collaboration. But we also know there are gaps in an out of the box SharePoint deployment. Thake sees some blockers with the expected Web part functionality.
Here you can read about the smooth integration of Fabasoft Mindbreeze with rich Web part capability:
It enables all information that is connected to Mindbreeze to be displayed in Microsoft SharePoint. This takes place smoothly via Web Parts. In this way not only information contained within Microsoft SharePoint, but also all other information that is available within the respective company, can be consolidated within one ‘platform.’ Mindbreeze therefore delivers real additional value to Microsoft SharePoint in the form of an add-on.
Philip West, August 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Web Content Management in SharePoint 2013
August 17, 2012
John Ross gives us an updated view of web content management (WCM) in light of SharePoint 2013 in his piece, “SharePoint 2013: WCM and Search Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Jelly.” With SharePoint 2013 the FAST search engine has been fully integrated into the platform and will be the primary force behind WCM.
Ross states:
Search will be a far more efficient way to surface content in almost all circumstances. The way we’ll plan and think about WCM in SharePoint will fundamentally change. For example in the past, content needed to be in SharePoint for us to roll it up. With the new model, as long as content is in the search index we can surface it where ever [sic] we need. So the biggest limiting factor we’d have would be whether we’d be able to get SharePoint to crawl a datasource. This has massively huge implications!
While the web content functionality of SharePoint has been improved, there are good third party solutions that integrate search more successfully into the platform without needing additional customization. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is an Austrian vendor worth keeping an eye on. In addition to increasing the intuitiveness of in-house enterprise search with Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise, Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite can also enhance search on public facing Web sites.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 17, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Administrative Options in SharePoint 2013
August 16, 2012
The blog world is buzzing with analysis of the public preview of SharePoint 2013. The Cloudshare Community Blog specifically breaks down the issues of administrative options in their post, “Administration Options in SharePoint 2013 with CloudShare!”
There are many things to show with SharePoint 2013, but I have decided to start with a basic one: how to administer the platform. In this article I will show you the available approaches you have to handle administrative tasks for SharePoint 2013. These approaches are essentially the same as in SharePoint 2010 with one big exception: you are not supposed to use (or even see!) the Stsadm command line tool that is now considered as deprecated.
It seems at this point the SharePoint world would be tired of the concept of customization, but apparently not yet. It seems like for every efficiency issue in SharePoint, the answer is customization. This is of course despite the fact that Microsoft does not want customers customizing SharePoint 2013. But how could a user possibly get around it, as SharePoint is still far from perfect?
The answer lies in smart third party solutions that can be added to an existing SharePoint infrastructure. A product like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise can streamline processes with its intuitive interface, specifically designed to meet users’ needs where SharePoint lags. Additionally, Fabasoft Mindbreeze releases smart and frequent updates, preventing the drama and hassle of huge and infrequent overhauls.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.