SharePoint 2010, Windows Azure, and the Issue of Scalability
January 27, 2012
SharePoint has not seen the same explosive growth in small or medium sized business as it has in larger organizations. One reason is simply the time and monetary investment that is required in running such an overwhelming infrastructure. Andrew Connell addresses this issue and its possible remedy with Windows Azure in his piece, “SharePoint 2010 + Windows Azure – Why You Should Care & the Development Story.”
Connell states:
Historically SharePoint has been very popular with large organizations because they can shoulder the financial and resource requirements required to deploy SharePoint. However one place where SharePoint hasn’t grown as fast is in the small and medium side business (SMB) area. The reason for this is most likely the cost and resource requirements (not just hardware, but people as well) necessary to deploy and maintain it. With Office 365, many of these barriers have been removed and therefore it represents a new era and opportunity to grow the SharePoint customer base. Therefore this is an area you should be very aware of and should learn how you can best leverage and exploit this new and untapped market of possible SharePoint customers!
Connell goes on to give specifics regarding the solutions in Office 365, and the ways that small or medium sized business might find SharePoint more amenable to their size and financial viability. Even as SharePoint becomes more accessible to smaller organizations, some third-party solutions are already customizing options to fit a variety of business needs.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze is one excellent third-party option for an organization of any size looking for an enterprise solution. Their scalable offerings are customized based on the needs of the customer, and expansion is an easy option whenever needed. Read more about “Three Configurations for Dynamic Scalability and Deployment.”
The blog entry begins,
In enterprise search, quality, usability and style are as important as relevancy of results and performance to engage your users right from the start. Let’s take a look at typical scale-out scenarios that become relevant when implementing enterprise environments with Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
The article then goes on to describe the different levels of deployment and how an organization might choose where to begin their installation. Keep in mind that moving from one level up to the next is effortless. Additionally, Fabasoft Mindbreeze is currently expanding onto the Cloud, where an organization’s storage needs are never limited.
So for SharePoint devotees looking for a way to make SharePoint more viable for smaller organizations, consult Connell’s findings above, but also explore the solutions presented by Fabasoft Mindbreeze and find a scalable solution that works for your organization.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Synaptica Independent Taxonomy Resource
January 27, 2012
Synaptica started out as Synapse Corporation under founders Trish Yancey and Dave Clarke. The company offered taxonomies, software solutions, and professional lexicography and indexing services for businesses and organizations based on its Synaptica product, a knowledge management and indexing software application, which enables enterprises in managing taxonomies, thesauri, classification schemes, authority control files, and indexes. In 2005, the company, renamed Synaptica, was acquired by Dow Jones and placed in its Factiva unit. Clarke has subsequently regained control of Synaptica.
The company has also has revamped its informational website, Taxonomy Warehouse – a free online resource that has answers enquiries about taxonomies. Named as one of KM World magazine’s “Trend-Setting Products of 2011,” Synaptica is an editorial tool designed for use by professional taxonomists. In 2011, the company added a complementary suite of front-end publication tools that make it easy for any taxonomy or ontology to be presented to end-users. The Ontology Publishing Suite gives administrators better control over which parts of a master ontology are exposed to end-users, as well as how they are laid out on-screen. Other parts of the Synaptica product suite include Synaptica Enterprise, the behind-the-firewall solution for larger organizations; Synaptica Express, a cloud-computing solution for individuals or small-business users; Synaptica IMS, a complementary suite of tools designed to support the human indexing of content using taxonomies stored in Synaptica; and Synaptica SharePoint Integration, an add-on module enabling taxonomies being managed within Synaptica to be applied as meta-tags to content being stored in SharePoint document libraries, as well as allowing for those same taxonomies to be used for search.
The technology has found a home in corporate, pharmaceutical, government, and e-commerce markets. Clients include Verizon, ProQuest, the BBC, and Harvard Business Publishing. Competitors LexisNexis, Dun & Bradstreet, and InsideView. (I would not include Concept Searching or Ontoprise in this short list due to exogenous complexity factors.)
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Nestoria Abandons Google Maps
January 27, 2012
With Google Maps dominating the online map market since its creation last decade the unthinkable (that Google should be replaced) is in the process of happening. Nestoria, an online real estate listings company with growing ranks in Europe, Australia and India, recently announced their departure from Google Maps for OpenStreetMap in a blog post titled, Why (and How) We Switched Away from Google Maps.
Nestoria listed four primary reasons for their switch each with equal merit. First, OpenStreetMap provides maps at the same quality as Google Maps. That was not always the case. For a long time (up until very recently) Google Maps dominated because they were the best.
Next, the tools necessary to switch away from Google Maps were not available making the process difficult at best. That is not the case anymore. A good chunk of the blog post is devoted to explaining how the transition was technically done.
Third in the reasons, and perhaps the key motivator, is that Google has begun charging for the use of Google Maps. As the blog post points out the price to use the maps would bankrupt Nestoria making OpenStreetMap even more appealing.
Lastly, Nestoria lists a dedication to all things open source as a motivating factor in the switch:
Our service does nothing more (and nothing less!) than aggregate data from many different sources and present it in an easy to use format. We benefit greatly from open data, and as such we want to do our part (within the limited resources of a start-up) to help the open data movement.
The reasons considered seem to add up to a compelling case against Google Maps. For years Google was untouchable and the idea that a start-up could steal users away from the mighty Google giant was unthinkable. Time for a rethink?
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Personalization Equals Search
January 27, 2012
I am shopping. Who needs privacy? That seems to be the way most internet shoppers feel according to eWeek’s “IBM: Shopping Experience Outweights Privacy Concerns.” The article reports on a recent IBM survey of 28,000 consumers, most of whom were willing to surrender information on their media usage, demographics, identification information, lifestyle; and even location if it would streamline their shopping experience. Furthermore, explains writer Darryl K. Taft:
Consumers are telling IBM they want to receive more communication—not less—but they want it to be delivered through preferred media channels and in a relevant way. IBM’s ongoing research shows that retailers must provide clear compelling reasons to shop, deliver personalized offerings, and reach shoppers when and where they prefer in order to win over their wallets. And, based on the research, consumers appear to be more than willing to give retailers the data to make this experience possible.
The article goes on to note that the internet has empowered customers, who widely share reviews and influence brands. Retailers must target social media with precision, asserts the write up, the precision that only sophisticated social media data analytics tools can bring. And those tools feed on personal data.
I suppose it is just a matter of priorities.
Cynthia Murrell, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Reuters about Google Complexity
January 27, 2012
If a company knows about complicated corporate set ups, it is Thomson Reuters. I found the write up “Analysis: Wall Street Puzzles over Google’s New Direction” interesting because it shows what Thomson Reuters thinks about a company which is less complicated that Thomson Reuters. In fact, both Thomson Reuters and Google may share more characteristics than some imagine. For example, Thomson Reuters is a YouTube partner. And Thomson Reuters’ latest innovation is a print magazine for “consumers” at the World Economic Forum. Google has a magazine as well. It is Think Quarterly. At least Google does not describe the magazine as a consumer product, preferring to tackle themes such as speed, people, innovation, and data. which is a plus. I must admit I never thought of George Soros as a consumer, but I live in rural Kentucky. What do I know?
Thomson Reuters has a very complicated organizational set up and very confusing product and service names. You can check out both of these facets of the shot gun marriage of professional information and “real” journalism at http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/.
So what does Reuters say about Google? Google “has become an increasingly tricky business to grasp.” Here’s the passage which caught my attention:
If Page’s bets pay off, search could represent just one of several large and thriving businesses as Google recasts itself as a full-fledged “media and services” company.
Since replacing Eric Schmidt last April as CEO, the Google co-founder has aggressively tossed out underperforming and non-essential projects and products. The idea is to put “more wood” behind the company’s most important arrows, he has said.
Among those arrows are Google+, the eight-month old social network; Android, the smartphone operating system; and YouTube, the video Website it bought six years ago for $1.65 billion.
Clearly, these have been very successful ventures. Android has become the world’s No. 1 smarpthone operating system, surging past Apple Inc’s iOS, the software that powers the popular iPhone. YouTube is delivering 4 billion video views per day. And 90 million users have signed up for Google+.
What is less clear is how much money Google can eventually generate from these largely free services, such as from advertising sales.
For Google to keep growing, it needs access to a wider range of content on which it can place ads and make money, particularly as the tech landscape shifts and consumers’ Internet habits evolve.
What I find interesting is that this analysis applies directly to Thomson Reuters. One can argue that Elektron, Eikon, and the Thomson Reuters health care business are equally big bets.
Fascinating how one troubled company can write about another troubled company. Which outfit is in better shape: Google or Thomson Reuters? My view: Google. One way to solve that content problem may be for Google to buy an outfit like Thomson Reuters.
Stephen E Arnold, sponsored by Pandia.com
OpenCalais: From the Innovators at Thomson Reuters
January 27, 2012
Thomson Reuters is now testing a new print publication called Reuters at the World Economic Forum. Before the firm, returned to print, Thomson Reuters was probing automated tagging.
Founded in 1998, ClearForest was previously an independent software start-up. It was acquired by Reuters in 2007 and is now part of the Markets division of Thomson Reuters. OpenCalais is a strategic initiative from Thomson Reuters, based on ClearForest technology, to support the interoperability of content across the digital landscape.
OpenCalais is free to use in both commercial and non-commercial settings but can only be used on public content. It can process up to 50,000 documents per day (blog posts, news stories, Web pages, etc.) free of charge. For users needing to process more than that, there is Calais Professional. While it does not keep a copy of the content, it does keep a copy of the metadata it extracts. Offering a de-facto standard for making content interoperable in a fashion that complies with Semantic Web standards ultimately benefits Thomson Reuters, which is then able to track themes, memes and trends on the Web and to potentially do things like link to relevant content that helps provide context to its readers, customers and other constituents.
After releasing a couple of major upgrades – in particular the incorporation of a whole Linked Data ecosystem underneath OpenCalais for companies, geographies, products and a few other things – with little or no adoption and no fundamentally new capabilities being built, the OpenCalais team, headed by Tom Tague, decided to slow down development and let the market for semantic extraction mature. Thomson Reuters believes that there are massive opportunities for OpenCalais in the areas of news, its integration with social media and its utilization as a massive repository of knowledge.
OpenCalais’ early adopters include CBS Interactive / CNET, Huffington Post, Slate, Al Jazeera, “The New Republic,” the White House and more. Customers include: Kodak, Dow Chemical, Eastman Chemical, NASD, EDS, Boeing, US Dept. Air Force, Reuters, Dow Jones, Thomson Financial. Competitors include Eqentia and Evri. . (I would not include Concept Searching or Ontoprise in this short list due to exogenous complexity factors.)
Stephen E Arnold, January 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Report Indicates Increase in PLM Usage
January 26, 2012
As PLM cloud solutions grow in popularity across all industries it is not surprising to see reports predicting an increased growth in the months to come. CADD Edge, an engineering industry website, reported in the article, Product Lifecycle Management solutions to experience changes in 2012, of an increase in PLM adoption within the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry for a variety of reasons.
As the article explains,
“The report also predicts PLM will become a universal strategy among CPG companies, which have generally been slow to adopt PLM. Young expects PLM to become an obvious advantage for such enterprises during the next 18 to 24 months, as these businesses are dealing with unstable raw material costs and an increased emphasis on regulatory compliance.”
While in this circumstance PLM is the most logical choice in an effort to reduce expenses it also has many more benefits, foremost being the ability to streamline collaboration between development, manufacturing and administrative departments within companies. Access to files, all files, has traditionally been one of the major issues surrounding IT within the engineering industry. A severe lack of search ability and access has caused money to be lost b/c of duplication and lost man hours.
While PLM will most definitely save companies money as this article suggests there are so many more benefits. Inquiring into new data management solutions is the best starting point for any company wanting to eliminate waste. By utilizing PLM and cloud services companies can begin focusing on innovation again rather than costs.
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 24, 2012
Protected: 2012 SharePoint IVP Products
January 26, 2012
Slaying Data Tigers: The PolySpot Approach
January 26, 2012
A recent study conducted by Mindjet estimated twenty-one minutes a day were wasted searching for data among employees. Although that number seems small upon first glance once the math is done one realizes just how much money that costs companies. The blog post, Employee productivity: 21 critical minutes, on Polyspot’s Web site puts that cost upwards of two weeks’ worth of pay per employee putting a little more bite into that statistic.
So, what is a company to do to eliminate this waste? The answer, according to Polyspot, is quite simple really – utilize a search engine. As the post explains,
Search engines are often seen as a commodity. However, when used properly, they can breathe new life into information distribution within a company, saving employees valuable time that would otherwise be wasted. Now more than ever, with the appearance of so-called “Big Data”, these information asset management technologies provide a strategic gateway to a company’s entire knowledge base, enabling each and every employee to become more flexible, responsive, efficient and productive.
All too often as big data looms over their heads companies throw more and more money into data silos and other data management products thinking the storage of such vast amounts will fix the problem. As the post points out, however, storing data is the least of a company’s problem. As more business applications are being created and added into a company’s system more data is, in turn, being produced. In some instances the applications are meant to manage the data yet in reality only create more.
Without proper search within a larger data management solution companies are doomed. With entire industries existing solely online data will only continue to grow. Complicating the increasing data problem is the ever increasing types of data popping up making traditional search applications irrelevant. To be truly competitive in today’s market companies facing data problems must stop turning to applications to solve their problems and listen closely, rather, to Polyspot’s advice: invest in search.
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 26, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Simplified Database Maintenance in SharePoint
January 26, 2012
Database maintenance tasks are a part of general SharePoint infrastructure upkeep and care. However, as Steve Hord writes, it is not always the easiest task for a SharePoint administrator. In “Find active databases used by SharePoint Server 2010,” Hord writes the following:
One of the best ways to know what databases your SharePoint deployment uses is to keep a record and add database names each time you create a new database. This isn’t always easy as there usually isn’t enough extra time during the day to keep records. Plus, more often than not your SharePoint database maintenance tasks tend to occur either late at night or in the pre-dawn hours when no users are accessing the system, so remembering to add a new database name to an ongoing list is really tough.
Hord then goes on to give a few tried and true methods for finding the active databases in the SharePoint installation as well as their properties. However, some administrators might desire an easier method for database maintenance. We have found that many third-party solutions offer an ease of maintenance that SharePoint simply cannot supply.
Read about one of our favorite offerings, Fabasoft Mindbreeze, and its Fabasoft Mindbreeze Database Connector solution.
The Database Connector enables the connection of databases to Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise. Furthermore, directory services such as Active Directory can be accessed via LDAP and searched very efficiently via Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise. The development of the Database Connector is based on the data integration connector, making it easy to connect databases to Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise.
So while there are tips and tricks for almost any SharePoint issue or gripe, there are more and more quality third-party solutions available that replace of enhance SharePoint’s functionality. Check out the Fabasoft Mindbreeze offerings and see if they can supplement or replace your organization’s current SharePoint infrastructure.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 26, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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