SharePoint Placemat
June 28, 2008
Microsoft SharePoint got to know one another several years ago. Via referral, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner wanted my team and me to run some tests on a SharePoint application. We got everything running, wrote our report, and the Gold Certified Partner was a quick pay.
After the project, one of my colleagues remarked, “SharePoint is really complex.” We put the idea aside until someone emailed us a SharePoint placement. A copy of this remarkable diagram is available if you want to look at it. You can find it in SharePointSearch.com here.
Here is a thumbnail of the full diagram, but I strongly urge you to download the diagram. Do you think it is a joke of some type? My colleagues and I saw something similar from a Microsoft partner in New Zealand a year ago, but this placemat is a triumph of sorts. The company preparing the diagram is Impac Systems Engineering.
The complexity of search in general and SharePoint in particular is an interesting topic. Search can be quite a challenge. One recent example is the inability of Internet Explorer to open a SharePoint document. You can read more here and download a fix here. Embedding search into a content and collaboration system with data management features may push the boundaries of software to their limits.
CleverWorkArounds.com has an essay called “Why Do SharePoint Projects Fail”. You can look at Part 5 here. I was unable to locate the other portions of this discussion, however. (Part 3 is here.) For me, there are three main points that address the issue of the almost-funny placemat diagram:
- The skills required to implement SharePoint include “IIS, Windows Server, TCP/IP & networks, SQL Server 2005 Advanced Administration, Firewalls, Proxies, Active Directory, Authentication, Security, IT Infrastructure Design, Hardware, Performance Monitoring, Capacity Planning, Workflow, IE, Firefox, Office Client tools, ASP.NET, HTML, JavaScript, AJAX, XSL, XSLT, Exchange/SMTP, Clustering, NLB, SANs, Backup Solutions, Single Sign on, Monitoring & Troubleshooting, Global Deployments, Dev, Test, Staging, Production – Staged deployments, ITIL, Vitalization.”
- “SharePoint is complex and the products it relies on are also complex. In the wrong infrastructure/architect hands, this can cause costly problems.”
- “… if there is not a certain degree of discipline around change management, configuration management, procedures, standards and guidelines to administrators, users, site owners and developers, bad things will happen.”
These points underscore the problem with “boil the ocean” systems. The fire needed to get water sufficiently hot to cook eggs can consume the pot, leading to a big mess.
Observations
I took another look at the placemat diagram and re read Part 3 and Part 5 of the essay “Why Do SharePoint Projects Fail?” Let me offer several observations from my dirt floor cabin in the hills of rural Kentucky:
First, SharePoint is a beast. Enterprise search is a monster. What will the progeny of these two behemoths be like? My opinion is that it will be tough to see through the red ink flooding some SharePoint projects. Toss in a hugely complex system such as Fast Search & Transfer’s Enterprise Search Platform, and you have a very interesting challenge to resolve.
Second, complexity is a Miracle Grow for consultants. SharePoint is complex, and it will probably only get more complicated. In my experience, Microsoft software becomes efflorescent quickly.
Finally, SharePoint attempts to deliver what may be a system that will be out of step with cloud-based services. SharePoint as a hosted or cloud-based service is generating some buzz. However, will the latency present in most on-premises installations be an issue when delivered as a service? My view is that latency, more than issues of security or data confidentiality, will bog down the SaaS implementation of SharePoint.
SharePoint is hugely successful. I heard that there are more than 65,000 licenses in North America alone. The SharePoint market is a tempting one for companies like Google to consider as one ripe for an alternative.
Stephen Arnold, June 27, 2008
Hosted SharePoint
June 25, 2008
Tired of trying to figure out where SharePoint put a file? Relief is available from an outfit called SharePoint 360, company offering cloud-based SharePoint. You can read about the company here. SharePoint 360 is Microsoft Gold Certified partner. If this service takes off, Microsoft will move forward with more software as a service offerings. Details about the hosted SharePoint service are here.
The company says:
Our approach allows for even the most non-technical users to quickly get started and feel as comfortable working with Microsoft SharePoint as they do with Word or Excel.
The service warrants a test drive.
Stephen Arnold, June 25, 2008
SharePoint Search: The Answers May Be Here and the Check Is in the Mail
May 1, 2008
A Microsoft wizard named Dan Blood, a senior tester working in the product group that is responsible for search within MOSS and MSS, says that he will use the Microsoft Enterprise Search Blog “to provide details on the lessons that we [his Microsoft unit] have learned.” The topics Mr. Blood, a senior tester working in the search product group, include (and I paraphrase):
- His actions to optimize MOSS and MSS
- Information about optimizing index refreshes; that is, make sure the 28 million documents in his test set are “freshly indexed”
- Configuration of the SQL machine that underpins MOSS and MSS
- Monitoring actions to make sure the search system is healthy.
MOSS and MSS
My hunch is that you may not know what MOSS and MSS mean. I’m no expert on things Microsoft, but let me provide my take on these search systems. MSS is an acronym for Microsoft Search Server. MOSS is an acronym for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. MSS originated as the search subsystem from within the more comprehensive MOSS system, given a smattering of improvements, then packaged as a separate service. Microsoft plans to eventually roll these improvements back into the MOSS line.
This image comes from http://sharepointsearch.com/images/searcharchitecture.gif. You can read another take on this product here.
Microsoft Gives Users Better Features in Update
October 2, 2013
Microsoft decided it was time to give its SharePoint Cloud users more features, says ZDNet in “Microsoft Raises SharePoint Online Upload Limits To 2 GB, Allows .Exe Uploads.” What is exciting users the most is the upload size has been changed from the miniscule 250 MB to 2 GB. In a world where users are producing more video and image driven content the measly 250 MB could not handle user content. Other updates include an extended period for files in the recycling bin, more file types are supported, and raised limits on site collection and list lookup thresholds.
The update is a big jump for SharePoint Cloud users, who have been working with the equivalent of a basic package for years. While users are happy about the update, there are security concerns will the new file additions:
“Addressing security concerns that could arise from allowing users to upload .exe and .dll files, Microsoft notes that SharePoint will “not execute any arbitrary EXEs or DLLs” uploaded by users from a team site or SkyDrive Pro account. It points out that SharePoint only accepts uploads from authenticated users and has Microsoft’s inbuilt AV engine amongst other layers of defense.”
It is all taken care of nice and neat. Microsoft is looking to improve SharePoint user experience and they are on the right track. Stephen Arnold of Arnold IT, a renowned search expert, wonders how search will be handled with the upgrade. They may need to beef it up just like the other features.
Whitney Grace, October 02, 2013
Amazon AWS PR: A Signal from a Weakening Heart?
June 26, 2023
![Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[1]](http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t1-31.gif "Vea4_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_thumb_t[1]")
Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.
I read “Amazon’s vision: An AI Model for Everything.” Readers of these essays know that I am uncomfortable with categorical affirmatives like “all”, “every”, and “everything.” The article in Semafor (does the word remind you of a traffic light in Lima, Peru?) is an interview with a vice president of Amazon Web Services. AWS is part of the online bookstore and digital flea market available at Amazon.com. The write up asserts that AWS will offer an “AI model for everything.” Everything? That’s a modest claim for a fast moving and rapidly changing suite of technologies.
Amazon executives — unlike some high-technology firms’ professionals — are usually less visible. But here is Matt Wood, the VP of AWS, explaining the digital flea market’s approach to smart software manifested in AWS cloud technology. I thought AWS was numero uno in the cloud computing club. Big dogs don’t do much PR but this is 2023, so adaptation is necessary I assume. AWS is shadowed by Microsoft, allegedly was number two, in the Cloud Club. Make no mistake, the Softies and their good enough software are gunning for the top spot in a small but elite strata of the techno world. The Google, poor Google, is lumbering through a cloud bedecked market with its user first, super duper promises for the future and panting quantum, AI, Office 365 with each painful step.
In a gym, high above the clouds in a sky scraper in the Pacific northwest, a high powered denizen of the exclusive Cloud Club, experiences a chest pain in the rarified air. After saying, “Hey, I am a-okay.” The sleek and successful member of an exclusive club, yelps and grabs his chest. Those in the club express shock and dismay. But one person seems to smile. Is that a Microsoftie or a Googler looking just a little bit happy at the fellow member’s obvious distress? MidJourney cooked up a this tasty illustration. Thanks, you plagiarism free bot you.
The Semafor interview offers some statements about its goals. No information about AWS and its Byzantine cloud pricing policies, nor is much PR light shed on the yard sale approach to third party sourced products.
Here are three snippets which caught my attention. (I call these labored statements because each seems as if a committee of lawyers, blue chip consultants, and interns crafted them, but that’s just my opinion. You may find these gems worthy of writing on a note card and saving for those occasions when you need a snappy quotation.)
Labored statement one
But there’s an old Amazon adage that these things are usually an “and” and not an “or.” So we’re doing both.
Got that? Boolean, isn’t it? Even though Amazon AWS explained its smart software years ago, a fact I documented in an invited lecture I gave in 2019, the company has not delivered on its promise of “off the shelf, ready to run” models, packaged data sets, and easy-to-use methods so AWS customers could deploy smart software easily. Like Amazon’s efforts in blockchain, some ideational confections were in the AWS jungle. A suite of usable and problem solving services were not. Has AWS pioneered in more than complicated cloud pricing?
Labored statement two
The ability to take that data and then take a foundational model and just contribute additional knowledge and information to it very quickly and very easily, and then put it into production very quickly and very easily, then iterate on it in production very quickly and very easily. That’s kind of the model that we’re seeing.
Ah, ha. I loved the “just.” Easy stuff. Digital Lego blocks. I once stayed in the Lego hotel. On arrival, I watched a team of Lego professionals trying to reassemble one of the Lego sculptures some careless child had knocked over. Little rectangles littered the hotel lobby. Two days later when I checked out, the Lego Star Wars’ figure was still being reassembled. I thought Lego toys were easy to use. Oh, well. My perception of AWS is that there are many, many components. Licensees can just assemble them as long as they have the time, expertise, and money. Is that the kind of model AWS will deliver or is delivering?
Labored statement three
ChatGPT may be the most successful technology demo since the original iPhone introduction. It puts a dent in the universe.
My immediate reaction: “What about fire, the wheel, printing, the Internet?” And I liked the fact that ChatGPT is a demonstration. Let me describe how Amazon handles its core functions. The anecdote dates from early 2022. I wrote about ordering an AMD Ryzen 5950 and receiving from Amazon a pair of red female-centric underwear.
This red female undergarment arrived after I ordered an AMD Ryzen 5950 CPU. My wife estimated the value of the giant sized personal item at about $4.00US. The 5950 cost me about $550.00US. I am not sure how a warehouse fulfillment professional or a poorly maintained robot picker could screw up my order. But Amazon pulled it off and then for almost a month insisted the panties were the CPU.
This picture is the product sent to me by Amazon instead of an AMD Ryzen 5950 CPU. For the full story see, “Amazon: Is the Company Losing Control of Essentials?” After three weeks of going back and forth with Amazon’s stellar customer service department, my money was refunded. I was told to keep the underwear which now hang on the corner of the computer with the chip. I was able to buy the chip for a lower price from B+H Photo Video. When I opened the package, I saw the AMD box, not a pair of cheap, made-heaven-knows-where panties.
What did that say about Amazon’s ability to drive the Bezos bulldozer now that the founder rides his yacht, lifts weights, and ponders how Elon Musk and SpaceX have become the go-to space outfit? Can Amazon deliver something the customer wants?
Several observations:
First, this PR effort is a signal that Amazon is aware that it is losing ground in the AI battle.
Second, the Amazon approach is unlikely to slow Microsoft’s body slam of commercial customers. Microsoft’s software may be “good enough” to keep Word and SharePoint lovers on the digital ranch.
Third, Amazon’s Bezos bulldozer drivers seem to have lost its GPS signal. May I suggest ordering a functioning GPS from Wal-Mart?
Basics, Amazon, basics, not words. Especially words like “everything.” Do one thing and do it well, please.
Stephen E Arnold, June 26, 2023
Microsoft: Excellence in Action
July 25, 2022
I wanted to print one page of text. I thought a copy of the cute story about the antics of Elon and Sergey might be nice to keep. My hunch is that some of the content might be disappeared or be tough to see through the cloud of legal eagles responding to the interesting story. Sorry.
Nope.
Why?
Microsoft seems to be unable to update Windows without rendering a simple function. Was I alone in experiencing this demonstration of excellence? Nope. “Microsoft Warns That New Windows Updates May Break Printing.” The article states:
Microsoft said that the temporary fix has now been disabled by this week’s optional preview updates on Windows Server 2019 systems. This change will lead to printing and scanning failures in Windows environments with non-compliant devices.
There you go. Non compliant.
But wait, there’s more.
But wait there’s more!
“New Windows 11 Update Breaks the Start Menu Because Microsoft Hates Us All” explains:
It looks like Microsoft has once again shipped dodgy Windows 11 updates, with reports suggesting that the two latest cumulative updates have been causing serious issues with the Start menu. The updates in question are KB5015882 and KB5015814, and it looks like they’ve introduced a bug which causes to Start menu to disappear when you click to open it.
What do these examples suggest to me?
- A breakdown in basic quality control. Perhaps the company is involved in addressing layoffs, knock on effects from SolarWinds, and giving speeches about employee issues
- Alleged monopolies lack the management tools to deliver products and services which function like the marketing collateral asserts
- Employees follow misguided rules; for example, the Wall Street Journal’s assertion that employees should “ditch office chores that don’t help you get ahead.” See Page A 11, July 25, 2022. (If an employee is not as informed as a project lead or manager, how can the uninformed make a judgment about what is and what is not significant? This line of wacko reasoning allows companies with IBM type thinking to provide quantum safe algorithms BEFORE there are quantum computers which can break known encryption keys. Yep, the US government buys into this type of “logic” as well. Hello, NIST? Are you there.
Plus, Microsoft Teams, which is not exactly the most stable software on my Mac Mini, is going to get more exciting features. “Microsoft Is Launching a Facebook Rip-Off Inside Teams.” This article reports:
Microsoft is now launching Viva Engage today, a new Facebook-like app inside Teams that encourages social networking at work. Viva Engage builds on some of the strengths of Yammer, promoting digital communities, conversations, and self-expression in the workplace. While Yammer often feels like an extension of SharePoint and Office, Viva Engage looks like a Facebook replica. It includes a storylines section, which is effectively your Facebook news feed, featuring conversational posts, videos, images, and more. It looks and feels just like Facebook, and it’s clearly designed to feel similar so employees will use it to share news or even personal interests.
That’s exactly what I don’t want when “working.” The idea for me is to get a project, finish it, and move on to another project. Sound like kindergarten? Well, I listened to Mrs. Fenton. Perhaps some did not heed basic tips about generating useful outputs. Yeah, Teams with features added when the service does not do the job on some Macs. Great work from the Windows Phone and Surface units’ employer.
Net net: Problems? Yes. Fixable? I have yet to see proof that Microsoft can remediate its numerous technical potholes. Remember that Microsoft asserted that Russia organized 1,000 programmers to make Microsoft’s security issues more severe. In my view, Russia has demonstrated its inability to organize tanks, let alone complex coordinated software exploits. Come on, Microsoft.
Printers!
Stephen E Arnold, July 25, 2022
Microsoft Teams: More Search, Better Search? Sure
June 23, 2021
How about the way Word handles images in a text document? Don’t you love the numbering in a Word list? And what about those templates?
Microsoft loves features. It is no surprise that Teams is collecting features the way my French bulldog pulls in ticks on a warm morning in the woods in June.
Here is an interesting development in search. We learn from a very brief write-up at MS Power User that “Microsoft Search Will Soon Be Able to Find Teams Meeting Recordings Based on What Was Said.” It occurs as the company moves MS Teams recordings to OneDrive and SharePoint. (We note Zoom offers similar functionality if one enables audio transcription and hits “record” before the meeting.) Writer Surur reports:
“Previously, Teams meeting recordings were only searchable based on the Title of the meetings. You will now be easily able to find Teams meeting recordings based on not just the Title of the meeting, but also based on what was said in the meeting, via the transcript, as long as Live Transcription was enabled. Note however that only the attendees of the Teams meeting will have the permission to view these recordings in the search results and playback the recordings. These meetings will now be discoverable in eDiscovery as well, via the transcript. If you don’t want these meetings to be discoverable in Microsoft Search or eDiscovery via transcripts, you can turn off Teams transcription.”
This is a handy feature. It does mean, however, that participants will want to be even more careful what they express in a Teams meeting. Confirmation of any surly utterances will be just a search away. How does the system index an expletive when the dog barks or a Teams’ session hangs?
Cynthia Murrell, June 23, 2021
A Challenge for Federal Records Management
October 6, 2020
Federal agencies are facing a mandate without adequate funding. This is sure to go smoothly. GCN explains why, for these entities, “Records Management Is About to Get Harder.” The White House’s Office of Management and Budget is requiring federal agencies to completely shift to electronic recordkeeping by the end of 2022, after which the National Archives and Records Administration shall accept no new paper records. The directive presents two challenges which overlap: digitizing existing records and providing a process whereby new records are created digitally in the first place. Officials plan to begin at the intersection of those requirements, invoking a Venn diagram. They must be as efficient as they can because, we’re told, Congress is reluctant to loosen purse strings enough to sufficiently fund the project.
The article cites a recent discussion among federal records management specialists regarding the transition. Reporter Troy K. Schneider writes:
“Although agencies’ readiness levels varied widely, most participants said they were on track to meet the M-19-21 deadlines. Yet whether the available tools and resources are sufficient, however, is another matter. ‘There never are enough resources,’ one official said. ‘We’ve got great resources to the extent that we have them,’ referring to the staff and the record schedules that have been developed, but the work will outstrip them — and this year’s telework-driven embrace of collaboration tools has only increased the degree of difficulty….“Complicating that resource challenge in terms of staff and money is the rapidly growing suite of communication tools agencies use. Too often, participants said, the adoption and deployment of those tools is happening before Federal Records Act requirements are accounted for.”
SharePoint and Office 365 are but two examples of software in which agencies have invested much that may not be able to keep pace with current governance needs and a greatly increased cloud-centered user base. One suggestion is to mimic the Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program now used by the Department of Homeland Security and the General Services Administration for their approved product lists, reporting requirements, and cybersecurity funding. Whatever the solution, we’re told:
“Ultimately, the group agreed, fundamentals are more important than specific technologies. ‘What I’ve seen in looking at my compatriots in other agencies is they spent incredible sums of money to deploy a technology,’ one participant said. ‘And those solutions have not been nearly as effective as they have been sold as because some of the fundamentals hadn’t been done — like understanding your record schedule and the organizational and institutional changes around processes and capabilities that really need to be in place to feed the right records.’”
Indeed, rushing to choose a solution before closely examining one’s needs is a recipe for waste and disappointment. Let us hope decision makers think things through and spend the limited funds wisely. If they do not, our nation’s records are bound to become a huge, paperless mess.
Cynthia Murrell, October 6, 2020
Hulbee Is In the Enterprise Search Derby
June 18, 2020
Enterprise search should be an easy out-of-the-box, deployable solution, but more often it is a confusing mess. Companies like Hulbee Enterprise Search develop search programs that delete the guesswork and immediately function:
“Hulbee Enterprise Search not only provides a simple search software, but also consolidates our experience and knowledge, which has been accumulated for over 17 years and combines intelligent search, format diversity, different corporate infrastructures, security, etc. in areas such as document management.
Our goal is to create a timely software technology for you that meets all security requirements. We would be very pleased if you test our software. Request a Proof of Concept.
Our software complements existing software products from other manufacturers such as SharePoint, Exchange, DMS etc. through the innovation of the search. It is thus not a competition, but an addition to and completion of the optimal search in the company.”
The purpose of enterprise search is to quickly locate information, so it can be employed by a business. Information includes structured and unstructured data, so enterprise search needs to be robust and smart enough to filter relevant results. Search must also be compliant with security measures, especially as more businesses host their data on clouds.
Enterprise search solutions like Hulbee must be flexible enough to adjust to changing security measures, but also continue to offer the same and better features for search.
Customization is key to being a contender in the marker for enterprise search.
Whitney Grace, June 18, 2020
AWS Kendra: A Somewhat Elastic Approach to Enterprise Search
May 12, 2020
Elastic, Shay Banon’s Version 2 of Compass, has a hurdle to jump over. Elasticsearch has been a success. The Lucene-centric “system” which some call ELK has become a go-to solution for many developers. Like Lucidworks (It does?) and many other “enterprise search and more” vendors, Elasticsearch delivers information retrieval without the handcuffs of options like good old STAIRS III or Autonomy’s neuro-linguistic black box.
Amazon took notice and has effectively rolled out its own version of enterprise search based on … wait for it … the open source version of Elastic’s Elasticsearch. The service has been around since Amazon hired some of the Lucidworks (It does?) engineers more than five years ago after frustration with the revolving doors at that firm became too much even by Silicon Valley standards. Talk about tension. Yebo!
Amazon has reinvented Elasticsearch. The same process the Bezos bulldozer has used for other open source software has been in process for more than 60 months. Like the system’s Playboy bunny namesake, Kendra has a few beauty lines in her AWS exterior.
A tweak here (access to Amazon’s smart software) and a tweak there (Amazon AWS pricing methods), and the “new” product is ready for prime time, ready for a beauty contest against other contestants in the most beautiful IR system in the digital world.
“Amazon Launches Cognitive Search Service Kendra in General Availability” reports:
Once configured through the AWS Console, Kendra leverages connectors to unify and index previously disparate sources of information (from file systems, websites, SharePoint, OneDrive, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Amazon Simple Storage Service, relational databases, and elsewhere).
Does this sound like federated search or the Palantir Gotham approach to content?
Well, yes.
The reason is that most enterprise search vendors like Coveo, Attivio, X1, IBM Omnifind (also built on Lucene), and dozens of other systems make the same claims.
The reality is that these systems do not have the bits and pieces available within a giant cloud platform with quite a few graduates of an Amazon AWS training program ready to plug in the AWS solution. For example, if a government agency wants the search in Palantir, no problem. Palantir deploys on AWS. But if that government agency wants to use Amazon’s policeware services and include search, there’s Kendra.
You can get a free copy of the DarkCyber Amazon policeware report’s executive summary by requesting the document at this link.
What does Amazon bring to the enterprise search party?
The company has more than 200 services, features, component, and modules on the shelf. Because enterprise search is not a “one size fits all”, the basic utility function has to fit into specific enterprise roles. For most enterprise search vendors, this need for user function customization is a deal breaker. Legal doesn’t want the same search that those clear minded home economics grads require in the marketing department. Microsoft SharePoint offers its version of “enterprise search” but paints over the cost of the Microsoft Certified professionals who have to make the search system work Fast. (Yep, that’s sort of an inside search joke.)
Amazon AWS provides the engine and the Fancy Dan components can be plugged in using the methods taught in the AWS “learn how to have a job for real” at a company your mom uses to shop during the pandemic. Amazon and Microsoft are on a collision course for the enterprise, and the Kendra thing is an important component.
The official roll out is capturing headlines, but the inclusion of Lucene-based search invites several observations:
- Despite AWS’ pricing, an Amazon enterprise search system allows the modern information technology professional to get a good enough service with arguably fewer headaches than other options except maybe the SearchBlox solution
- Enterprise search becomes what it has been for most organizations: A utility. Basic information retrieval is now an AWS component and that component can be enhanced with SageMaker, analytics, and other AWS services.
- Amazon wins even if Kendra does not win the hearts and minds of IBM Omnifind, Inbenta, and Algolia users. Why? Most of the cloud based enterprise search vendors support the AWS platform. What are the choices? The wonky HP cloud? The “maybe we will kill it” Google Cloud? Azure, from the outfit that cannot update Windows 10 without killing user computers who activate game mode? Plus, dumping Kendra for another TV star inspired search system is easy. Chances are that, like Palantir, AWS hosts and supports that competitive system too.
Net net: The fight with Microsoft is escalating. The Bezos bulldozer will run over open source outfits and probably some AWS customers. But Kendra’s turning her gaze on the bountiful revenues of Microsoft in the enterprise. Will Amazon buy a vendor of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel clones?
Exciting times, maybe not just because of enterprise search? Why did those defectors from Lucidworks (It does?) embrace Lucene and not SOLR? Maybe they did that too?
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2020
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