SharePoint kot okvir poslovne aplikacije

Uvod

Mi je opisano prej, da bi si lahko ogledujete SharePoint kot "okvir poslovnih aplikacij ', ne le del programske opreme, da" obravnava vaše dokumente "ali, kot sem nekoč slišal, da ti" it's just intranet application'!

Dejansko zagotavlja osnovno razvoj aplikacij in "gostovanje", okolje, v katerem je potrebno zagotoviti skladišče za shranjevanje podatkov organizacijam. Kot prikazuje slika nasprotno, prihodnji najnovejšo različico platforme (SharePoint 2010) je veliko več kot dokument skladišču; To je močan okvir za izgradnjo in gostovanje močne poslovne aplikacije, oblikovanje skupnosti in zagotavlja bogato skladišča za vaše organizacije informacij.

Zato predvideva možnost, da se vloge kupil, konfiguriran ali razvijajo v SharePoint na način rešili mnoge vaše poslovne izzive, izboljšati učinkovitost z načinom svojega osebja, skupinsko delo skupaj in potencialno zmanjšanje stroškov, povezanih z vašim IT proračunov.

Notranjih SharePoint's "moč, da lahko zagotovi podatkov v repozitoriju (v baze podatkov vsebini obrazca shranjena v notranjosti Microsoft SQL Server) za veliko vaših poslovnih aplikacij, (obstoječe in nove, ki se šteje), zmanjšati potrebo po naložbah v ločenih strojne opreme, licenciranje in da podpirajo.

SharePoint aplikacije

Na splošno skupaj z običajnimi aplikacije SharePoint se uporablja za, kot so intranet, ekstranet in internet spletnih strani s katerimi se sooča, lahko šteje tudi za naslednje, če jih naštejemo le nekaj vertikalno in horizontalno poslovne aplikacije:

• Projektov in program za upravljanje aplikacij
• Marketing akcije aplikacije
• Product Katalogi
• Forumi
• Raziskave aplikacije
• Poročanje delovni prostori
• Dokument slikanje uporabe (z uporabo skenerji)
• Usposabljanje in self-help portali
• * Seznam aplikacija (odjemalec stike in aplikacij za upravljanje znanja, na primer)
• * Workflow aplikacij
• * Obrazci na vnos podatkov aplikacij.

* Vsaka vloga, ki lahko privede do ustvarjanja ali posodabljanje "več" ali enotna sezname "podatkov lahko tudi potrebo po iskanju ali filtriranju mehanizem uporabljajo. Veliko obstoječih Lotus Notes ali druge, tako imenovane zahtevne aplikacije temeljijo na teh treh vrst, v takšni ali drugačni obliki, in je zato treba šteti za prehode med v SharePoint.

Vloge, ki so jih obstoječi ad hoc "odjemalec strežnik 'arhitekture lahko gostila v svojem okolju SharePoint. Podeljenih, nekatere ravni je pogosto potreben kompromis, vendar je vsaj vredno preiskuje z vašim zainteresiranimi stranmi o tem, ali bi bilo bolje se selijo v teh aplikacij in postanejo bolj dostopni in verjetno zmanjšanje splošne stroške na dolgi rok, ki ga uporablja za "skupne storitve", ki jih SharePoint.

Katera je zato pri iskanju po meri ali posebne vloge za izpolnitev določene niz poslovnih zahtev, je vredno videti, da svoje obstoječe naložbe v SharePoint, da vidim, če je to mogoče razširiti na zagotovitev funkcionalnosti ki jih potrebujete. Ali res razmislite o uporabi SharePoint kot vaš osnovni enotno platformo za uvedbo več aplikacij, ki ste lahko razmišljajo o izvajanju neodvisno drug od drugega.

Real svetu primeri

Primer 1:

Primer tega lahko vidimo z združevanjem obstoječih rešitev dokumenta slikanje v vašem okviru SharePoint. Vaše obstoječe print & equipment skener se lahko uporabljajo za zajemanje, shranjevanje njihove vsebine (običajno tiff ali pdf datotek) v vašem okolju SharePoint. Ti pa lahko avtomatično označena z metapodatki, indeksirane in rezervacije prek iskanja ali filtrirane vmesnik, ki je na voljo za širše občinstvo, z uporabo dela, itd Tak primer realnem svetu, pri vključevanju tehnologij, bi bilo pregledovanje stranke korespondenčna, dohodne pošte ali drugih ad-hoc skeniranje zahteve. Ta ponovna uporaba vaše naložbe v tako skeniranje in SharePoint je dober primer povezovanja dopolnilnih tehnologij "

Primer 2:

Drug primer bi bil, da za prenos vašega Lotus Notes aplikacij v vaš intranet SharePoint. Veliko tako imenovanih 'Notes aplikacije "so pravzaprav le sezname podatkov, shranjenih v Notes. Ti se lahko izselili in sedi zelo dobro, v primerljivih nabor funkcij v SharePoint. To je dejal, da ne podcenjujejo izzivi, ko gre za "dokument migracije" iz ugotavlja, kot je notoričen težko, še posebej pogosto zapletenih potekov dela za selitev. Obstajajo 3. stranka proizvodi na voljo za pomoč tukaj, kot AvePoint, Mainsoft in Quest.

Idealno bi bilo izvirno SharePoint arhitektura obravnavala potrebo po zagotavljanju dodatnih aplikacij in je zgrajen zato, da s takimi spremembami. Če ni, potem morate opraviti popolni pregled in arhitekturni načrt sprememb, potrebnih za delo z njimi - ne na podlagi ocene vprašanj tukaj in raziskav na tem področju temeljito, saj bi lahko privedlo do dodatnega širše arhitekturne spremembe, strojne opreme in ali so nakupi programske opreme.

Zaključek

Tako na kratko, SharePoint je veliko več kot skladišče dokument, to je močan okvir za izgradnjo in gostovanje močne poslovne aplikacije, ki bodo pomagali vaši zaposleni upravljati svoje informacije bolje in bolj učinkovito, pomaga vašemu podjetju, da doseže svoje strateške cilje. Torej, ali je leta 2003, 2007 ali celo prej, da bo začela 2010 različica SharePoint, načrt uvajanja ali spremembe dobro napredovalo, tako da podpira vaše poslovne potrebe v prihodnosti.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Direktor, WorkShares

Imej SharePoint in IT strategija usklajeni

SharePoint je dozorela v zadnjih letih postala zelo dobro pri čemer "vse stvari na platformo vsem ljudem", ali kot bi raje sklicujejo na to kot "okvir poslovnih aplikacij".

SharePoint uvedbe leta 2003 "Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), licenco kot del operacijskega sistema Windows Server 2003 operacijski sistem kot" zastonj "prenos, je tudi jasno kap mojster licenc, ki jih Microsoft.

WSS določa nedvomno dober, trden in bogat nabor vseh storitev, se to enostavno upravljanje z dokumenti, ki bi služila številnih malih, srednjih in do neke mere velika podjetja ter podjetja sama. Dejansko je to, kjer veliko podjetij pričela v uporabo starejše različice programske opreme, ne da bi zares vedeli, kaj so dobili sami ukvarjajo z.

»SharePoint 2010 bo še naprej zagotavljala nujni" ena velikost ustreza vsem "pristop, s svojo privlačno nabor funkcij, ki segajo na obe intranet, ekstranet in internet meja"

Ta "vse stvari na temo vse ljudi", se bo nadaljevala z naslednjo izdajo, SharePoint 2010. Rezerviran za sprostitev čas spomladi, bo še naprej zagotavlja storitve in funkcionalnosti, ki se bo sestajal po mojem mnenju velik del organizacije generično rešitev zahtevka potrebuje zelo dobro, čeprav so druge bolj specifične zahteve, očitno ni tako.

Tako kot njegov predhodnik SharePoint leta 2007, naslednje različice (imenovano SharePoint 2010) bo zagotovil nujni "ena velikost ustreza vsem" pristop, s svojo privlačno nabor funkcij, ki segajo na obe intranet, ekstranet in meje interneta. Ne smemo pozabiti s to izpust je prepričljiv, če je nezrel, oblaki Microsoft Online "temelji", ki ponujajo storitve, ki se posodablja na hrbtni strani svoje začetni v letu 2009.

Vendar pa je "vse stvari na izjavo vse ljudi", se je od časa do časa svoje "Ahilova peta", ker ne naredi eno funkcijo, kot tudi kupci pričakujejo, ali morebiti potrebujejo, na primer za upravljanje z dokumenti, records management, wiki's, blogs, potek dela in upravljanje spletnih vsebin, itd Verjetno ti in SharePoint na drugih osnovnih lastnosti imajo splav konkurenčnih proizvodov, če se uporablja samostojno, so veliko boljše.

Ampak to je pomembno vedeti, da SharePoint ni bila in ne bodo mogli zmagati na tak drug ob drugem primerjave. Prav tako ni namenjen tekmovati v zvezi s "vertikalne" na poslovne aplikacije ali drug strokovnjak "line of business" programske aplikacije. Point pogosto izgubljen v razpravah in izbirnega postopka, ki pri izbiri IT rešitev za vaše potrebe.

»SharePoint je, če ni že, del teh gradnikov"

Da bi se izognili te scenarije in zagotovi SharePoint se šteje v pravi kontekst, je pomembno, svojo strategijo za njeno uvedbo, sprejemanje in upravljanje dogovorjenih in razumljivo ne le tisti, odgovorni za izvajanje in podporo, ampak tudi vseh zainteresiranih strani, odgovornih za višji IT storitev .

Poleg tega bi jaz to zavzema za ohranjanje in splošno strategijo IT v sinhronizacijo. Zakaj? Ker je bolj pogosto kot ne bo vaša organizacija lahko z uporabo raste mešanica IT aplikacij, strojne in programske opreme, in nakopičene paleto znanja in izkušenj, da vaše jedro zaposlenih obdržati in vzdrževati kot del njihove vloge.

Zato vaš IT funkcije osebnih interesov pri upravljanju z njimi povezani stroški s tem heterogeno okolje. Poleg tega pa je, ali ne bi bilo treba vedno želja za poenostavitev, bo bolj odziven in uvesti operativno in strateško "temelji", ki lahko pomoč, poslovne njegovo dosego strateških ciljev. SharePoint je, če ni že del teh gradnikov. Tudi če se uporablja kot taktično sedaj "točka rešitev" za določene funkcije, kot so intranet, širine SharePoint o zmogljivosti nedvomno zahteva za to, da je treba obravnavati v širšem okviru svojega strateškega gradnikov.

V mojem naslednjem članku bom pisal več, zakaj je uvajanje tehnologij SharePoint v vaš IT strategije je pomembno, in kako se lahko dodatno podaljša naložb ste jih naredili v SharePoint 2007 ali pa, da bi morda v SharePoint 2010 letos.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Generalni direktor

Vas zanima SharePoint 2010?

Sem imel privilegij (in obdržati več brazgotin!) Of delala s SharePoint, saj je prva začela leta 2001 in videli zaporednih posodobitve platformo v preteklih letih, kot tudi priča vedno sprejeto s strani podjetij kot eno izmed ključnih " gradnikov "tehnologije, ki se izvajajo za zagotavljanje strateških in operativnih ciljev IT.

Kot naslednji blog posts prikazujejo (po 1 in 1 delovno mesto), je bilo to po mojem mnenju večinoma "razvoj" skozi leta v smislu funkcionalnosti proizvoda platforme in arhitekture.

Poleg tega je sodišče videli velike obresti in investicije iz leta v leto, vsaj z najnovejšimi načrtovano sprostitev proizvoda, imenovanega SharePoint 2010. Več podrobnosti o tem tukaj o načrtovanih posodobitev: SharePoint Sneak Peak

Kaj je presenetilo me je do neke mere, je raven zanimanja in razpoložljivosti tečajev, prireditev in drugih podobnih materialov na "kako umestiti", "ključne odločitve obravnavati", itd In to je, še preden izdelek je bil za javnost beta v širši javnosti! To zagotovo ni bil na voljo za prejšnje različice za vse velike globine.

To je dober znak zdravega podporo skupnosti in Microsoft, ki so jim zagotavljajo veliko bolj na način obveščanja in do pred navodila o svoji prihodnosti premislekih načrt za to in druge tehnologije.

Lets upanje zagon za naprej, če ne začne naslednje leto. Tako živahen skupnosti ter pomoč s mikroskop, pomaga nam vse "prišli do hitrosti", z novo tehnologijo in nam omogoča, da bodo bolje pripravljeni na izzive, ki jih bo brez dvoma zagotovila. To koristi vsem, saj omogoča tudi Microsoftovi partnerji, kot so WorkShares, zagotavljanje pravočasnega svetovanja in usmerjanja okoli strateških odločitev podjetja, ki imajo, da bi v prihodnje naložbe v letu 2010 in po njem.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew

Generalni direktor

Michael Deller pridruži WorkShares

Z veseljem sporočamo, da Michael Deller je pridružil WorkShares. On je pridružil kot naši Tehnični direktor in bo še naprej v vlogi svetovalca dozorel SharePoint in arhitekt, med drugim njegove vloge za WorkShares.

Z več kot 6 let delovnih izkušenj s tehnologijami SharePoint z nekaterimi od vodilnih partnerjev Združenega kraljestva Microsoft v tem prostoru, Michael prinaša s seboj veliko izkušenj in znanja neprimerljiva na tem področju.

Michael je delal z nekaterimi najbolj visoko profil SharePoint projektov in ima panožne izkušenj, vključno z javnim sektorjem, ki niso za dobiček, javne službe in izobraževanje.

Background Michael je pred SharePoint in informacijske delavce prizorišču sledi nekaj let v odjemalec Microsoft / strežnik infrastrukture polje z močno ozadje v infrastrukturo, pošiljanje sporočil in odpravljanje težav.

Imenovanje Michael se bo okrepila našo ekipo višjega vodstva in celotne dobave sposobnosti. Njegova nedavna udeležbo na začetek najnovejše posodobitve za Microsoft platformo (SharePoint 2010) na konferenci v Vegasu, bo prineslo prepotrebno "vzglavje ki gre gor" o posledicah, izzivov in priložnosti za obstoječe in nove uporabnike tehnologije SharePoint.

Ob delal z Michaelom za več let na številnih projektih SharePoint, zelo sem zadovoljen, da zagotovi svoje storitve in se veselimo, da svoje dragocene prispevke za WorkShares z našimi obstoječimi in prihodnjimi strankam.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew

Managing Director, WorkShares.

Potek migracije na SharePoint: Premisleki

Ozadje

Sem omenil v moj zadnji post z naslovom "Potek migracije v SharePoint - Vaše možnosti", da obstajata 4 glavne možnosti so vam na voljo pri odločanju za selitev vsebine iz datoteke delnic in drugih zbirkah. Če povzamemo:

• Seliti v celoti v SharePoint
• * Delna selitev podskupino vsebin v SharePoint
• ** Pustite, kjer je, in še naprej ohranjati obeh odlagališč neodvisno
• *** Pusti, kjer je, in še naprej ohranjati obeh odlagališč, vendar uporabljajo za SharePoint indeks staro vsebino, zato zagotavljajo sposobnost za iskanje to.

Eden ali več teh možnosti je lahko pot boste na koncu izbrali glede na svoje potrebe in zahteve.

* Starejši vsebino lahko pa se arhivirajo ali samo črta.

** Razmislite stroške in tveganje tukaj vzdrževanje staranja opreme

*** To ima omejene možnosti, temeljito preučiti in preskusiti zlasti z rezultati iskanja, zato uporabite previdno.

Naslednji koraki in premislekih

Da bi vam pomagali skozi ta proces odločitev določiti, katera pot je najboljša za vaše okoliščine, sem spodaj napisal nekaj napotke za vas, da preuči in razpravo znotraj vašega jedro projektne skupine in interesne skupine enako. Te pripombe se nanašajo na več let obvladovanja različnih projektov SharePoint, tako da upamo, boste izognili nekaj bolečih izkušenj, ki smo našim strankam in je šel skozi! Verjetno ni vse, kar morate misliti, toda dober začetek z nekaj misli, ki vam pomaga skupaj svojo pot.

"Migracije lahko drago še posebej, če menite, da je obseg informacij, ki jih namerava seliti, dejanske stroške poslovanja in tehničnih sredstev (notranje in zunanje) nameravate v načrtu za pomoč pri migraciji napora"

Vprašanje vaše interesne skupine in višje uporabnike glede na to, ali so res treba premakniti v vseh teh dokumentov in intranet strani, slike, video, itd Based do neke mere na nezanesljivih in empiričnih, moje izkušnje kažejo, znova in znova, 80 -- 90% vsebine je redko, če je dostop do vseh po 12-18 mesecih, ko je bila ustvarjena. Torej bi lahko ustvarili gora dela, za zelo malo vračanja v vrednosti.

Zato predlagam, da poskuša najti dokaze za potrditev, da je (ali ni), dostop do pogosto ali druge izjave, ki podpirajo ali drugače migracije zahteve. Ugotovite, zakaj je dejansko "je treba seliti se", skoraj kot polaganje skupaj poslovnih mini odločanja. Pogosto poslovnih enot bo šele reči je, da bi se izognili tem delu preiskave ali migracije v prvi vrsti zato, ker imajo drugi (seveda so) prednostne naloge. Resnica je dobra stara jasno navedeno, je pogosto dobrodošel in dobra priložnost, da osvežimo vsebine gor, ni več arhiv starejših elementov potrebnih vsebin.

Prav tako sem močno priporočamo, da si opravi pregled vsebine, ki je bila nabrale v zadnjih letih. Morda boste presenečeni, če želite izvedeti, koliko od tega res ni več potrebno, ustrezno ali primerno in ali dejansko opredelijo vsebino, ki mora biti nekako osvežiti.

Ne pozabite tudi, da je subtilna, vendar pomembno razliko med pri čemer je "na voljo" za poslovanje in da bi bilo migrira in na voljo v SharePoint. Na primer, lahko to vodi stran od SharePoint na voljo manj, vendar še vedno dostopnih offline medijev ali drugih morda cenejši oblike shranjevanja.

Če ugotovijo, da boste imeli veliko vsebine za migracijo, resnično ne vzpostavi "načrt" za migracije ekipo (e), ki ga sprostiti, se prepričajte, vsakdo se zaveda svoje vloge, svoje naloge in če so naj bi jih delaš in zakaj. Prav na kratko je treba v celoti na krovu, s tem, kar je bilo storjenega.

Prav tako je treba "dokazati proces dela pred dokazujejo pretočenega bencina" za migracije vaše ekipe. To velja za ročno, avtomatsko ali kombinacija obeh pristopov. Bodite velikodušni v vaše ocene za migracijo temeljijo na rezultatih vašega ugotovitev. To bo vaše zaupanje zainteresiranih strani v vašem projektnih skupin, sposobnost za izpolnjevanje rokov migracij.

"Vpliv na splošno arhitekturo SharePoint je treba načrtovati v celoten design"

Upam, da bo nekaj, ki imate ali večji del tega v svoje prvotne arhitekture SharePoint načrtovanje ... Razmislite o povečanju obremenitve na vašem strežniku fizičnega okolja, vprašanja, načrtovanje kapacitet, vpliv na rezultate iskanja, splošno plovbo in uporabnost vsebine, če naštejemo samo redkih področij, ki potrebujejo misel in vrednotenje pri obravnavanju selijo obstoječih vsebin v SharePoint.

Na primer, če boste do prostega gibanja in ali indeks koli zunanje vsebine, shranjene v svojem okolju SharePoint, menijo, vpliva na povečanje skladiščenja, ki jo nameravate dati na vaše okolje. Ne zato, ker povečanje velikosti, ne samo za surove shranjevanje podatkov, vsebin, ki se doda v vašem SQL baz podatkov, temveč tudi nove skladiščne so potrebni za obravnavo poveča indeks datoteko velikosti.

Nato preuči dodatne obremenitve ste pravkar postavljena na vašo varnostno kopijo in obnovitev procesov! Morda bi potencialne pritisk na vašo sposobnost, da izpolnjuje vaše SLA za vročanje na voljo v primeru izpada. Na primer še vedno lahko obnovite vaše novo povečana vsebnost baz podatkov v roku, v SLA?

"Ocenite 3rd stranka orodja, ki vam bodo pomagali s količino podatkov"

Mnogi 3. stranka izdelkov ne veliko delo v razsutem stanju, ki vam pomaga selijo / upload vsebine v vaše okolje SharePoint. Vendar pa se mnogi ne bodo izpolnili vaše zahteve v celoti, zato jih skrbno pregledati načrt in njihovo uspešnost (ali pomanjkanje), z migracijami in stroški v vaši načrti in proračuni. Pomembno je, da poznajo svoje omejitve, kot tudi svoje prednosti. Lahko se zgodi, se selijo veliko, vendar ne vseh vaših vrst dokumentov. Prav tako pogosto boste izgubili nekaj pomembnih lastnosti dokumenta ali druge meta podatke, povezane z dokumenta ali strani, ki jih poskušate preseliti.

Poleg tega lahko izgubite celovitost podatkov, na primer timestamp informacije. To je običajno nekaj, kar so lahko pomembni z vidika vodenja evidenc, saj ni mogoče opraviti preko na novo okolje.

"Zagotavljanje dobiš poslovne da prevzame vodilno vlogo v migracije"

Z vsemi sredstvi zagotoviti načrt (pristop), orodij in metod, ki zagotavljajo vsebino lahko izselili. Na koncu pa je za poslovne uporabnike "lastna" dejanske migracije in v celoti vključen v ta del projekta od začetka. Ti so v najboljšem položaju, da vedo, kaj je vsebina, ali se ne zahteva, kako bi bilo videti, je dostopna, itd Prav tako se zgodi, da se eden od najboljših načinov za izobraževanje vašega končnim uporabnikom pri uporabi zmogljivosti SharePoint ste zagotavljajo, da jih na splošno.

"Razmislite o regulativnih obveznosti za hrambo podatkov"

Več poslovnim sektorjem, zlasti vlada / javnega sektorja, financ, zdravja in dobrodelne organizacije so zlasti regulativnih pravil, ki jim morajo slediti za shranjevanje podatkov, razpoložljivost in dostopnost (vprašanjih varstva podatkov kot celote). Ti bodo morali biti vključeno v vaše načrte.

"Disinvest in / ali ponovno uporabo stare strojne opreme"

Priseljevanja iz starih intraneta, file delnic ali drugih aplikacij potencialno vam omogoča, da disinvest strojne opreme (ali vsaj nekaj od tega). Načrt za to prizadevanje, tudi če samo želite izvedeti, kako se boste reciklirati kompleta ali so jo odstranijo iz strežnika sob. Ali menijo, dobrodelne organizacije ali šole, ki bi lahko koristi od stare opreme in ne stopnja v odlagališče.

"Ne pozabite, da ne bi vsi podatki, ali se lahko shranijo v SharePoint"

Res je, SharePoint lahko kazalo vsebine različnih virov. Toda boleča resničnost je to redko dosega želenih rezultatov prvotno, deloma tudi ne zaradi okvar izdelka sama po sebi, ampak zato, ker splošnim vzdrževanjem SharePoint temelji iskanj se veliko stalnih prizadevanj, da se pogosto pozablja ali izpusti v oblikovanju ali na tekoče vzdrževanje.

Dokaj pogosto je enostavno pot do vaših indeks staranja in izbokline datoteke delnic, vendar bi res rad rezultati iskanja, da vsebuje podatke iz virov, ki je tako star in zastarel? Brez skrbno načrtovanje na začetku, fina uravnavanja in redno vzdrževanje potrebno pogosto boste na koncu z slabe izkušnje z vidika uporabnikov.

Torej z vsemi sredstvi preuči indeksiranje vaše vire, ampak res ne razumem posledic zaradi zasnove, načrtovanja in tekoče vzdrževanje vidika, nenazadnje uporabnikom izkušnje z rezultati iskanja. Na ta opomba, upoštevati vse iz polja možnosti, ki ste jih z iskalnimi in uvaja tudi za filtriranje rezultatov iskanja vsebin (po meri ali 3. pot stranko).

"Razmislite o odhodu vsebin, kjer je to"

Poskušajte razumeti tako materialnih in nematerialnih koristi zapušča vsebin na kraju samem, in morda bi vsebina "se glasi le" za časovno obdobje, medtem ko se vam zdijo vaše možnosti in / ali izvajajo svoje migracij, tako da ne bi povečala, ali spreminjanje vsebine, shranjene na tem področju.

Zaključek

Obstaja veliko stvari, obravnavati kot del svoje razprave za odločanje pristop k migracijam in zgoraj, so le nekatere od tem, boste morda morali razmisliti.

To je pogosto politično "pot najmanjšega odpora", da bodo vsi samo vsebino, ne glede na tehnična in včasih finančna racionalno za početje nekaj drugega. Če še niste, razmislite o uvedbi arhiviranje, kvot in ohranitev politik za upravljanje brez dvoma povečanega obsega podatkov v vaših okoljih.

Ali sodelovanje z zainteresiranimi stranmi in vašo dobiti svoje buy-in za lastništvo migracije kos. Pogosto strategijo potrebno zagotoviti, poslovno opravlja teh migracij bo mislijo drugače, ko gre za sredstva, ki so normalno vzletelo svoje vloge, da to storite.

Končno, po mojih izkušnjah se selijo in osvežujoča majhno podmnožico izvirnih vsebin v SharePoint, ter arhiviranje ostalo je ustrezen pristop za večino okoliščin. Vklop indeksiranje zmogljivosti SharePoint za vaše datoteke delnic, vendar le v majhni meri in okoliščine, je tudi nekaj, kar je treba upoštevati.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Direktor, WorkShares

Potek migracije na SharePoint: Vaše možnosti

Pregled

Kot sem že omenil v moji zadnji post obstajajo številne vgrajene orodij in druge možnosti, da vam pomaga selijo vsebine v in okoli vašega okolij SharePoint.


»SharePoint je naravni nadomestek za vašo staranje delnice datotek in druge zbirke podatkov"

Zelo resnično in pomembno vprašanje, kaj storiti s svojimi zgodovinskimi podatki, shranjeni v teh zbirkah, kot so datoteke in deleži omrežja, intranet in druge silosov. To zagotovo ne bo skupno nadomestilo za vašo datoteko / omrežje delnic.

To je dejal, ta in naslednji člen nameravam pisati namerava vam glavnih možnosti odprte za vas, kot tudi nekatere koristne nasvete iz izkušenj, ki smo jih pridobili v zadnjih letih z dela s strankami velika in mala dostaviti intranet, internet, extranets in druge rešitve, ki temeljijo na točko tehnologijah Microsoft SharePoint.

Možnosti

Ti so v glavnem naslednje možnosti, da natančno preuči, bo vsak izmed so posledice, ki jih bodo različni, odvisno od vaših potreb in okoliščin:

• Seliti v celoti v SharePoint
• Delna selitev podskupino vsebin v SharePoint
• Pusti, kjer je, in še naprej ohranjati obeh odlagališč
• Pusti, kjer je, in še naprej ohranjati tako skladišča in uporabo SharePoint na indeks staro vsebino, zato zagotavljajo sposobnost za iskanje to.

Vsak ima pro in con, za katere bodo morate pokonci, da bi odločitev, ki je pravi za vas. Na koncu eno ali več od zgoraj, se lahko primerna za vaše potrebe, vendar pa je na prejšnjem blogu, da vam proračun in načrt, zato bom kot jamstvo, da bo vaš dlje, da vi mislite!

Bom napisati nekaj več napotke za vas, da v teh razpravah s svojimi interesnimi skupinami in odjemalcev v naslednji post.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

Direktor, WorkShares.

Seliti se ali se giblje znotraj vsebin SharePoint

Uvod

Migracija je vedno sporno temo, ki pride gor na projekt na začetku v smislu določanja obsega projekta, proti koncu leta v fazah zagona ali sprejem, ali ko je zaprt projekt in uporabniki so prepuščeni sami. Dejavnost selijo ali premikanje podatkov v in med skupino lokacij, mysites, ali od omrežnih pogonov in sistemov, kot ugotavlja, so lahko precejšnji.

Ni pa žal nihče odgovor na potrebe vseh vrst scenarijev in jih Povečaj priporočam podjetij meni, močno potrebo, da se selijo v prvi vrsti z vidika migracij v razsutem stanju. Premislite, če je to praktično mogoče in pustite, kjer je in ali ga uporabljajo kot vajo iz "čiščenje" svojih podatkov, preden se selijo, ali celo, da se gibljejo v SharePoint ali morda cenejši za shranjevanje medijev. Več o tej temi v prihodnje članku.

V tem članku želim dati nekaj napotkov za končne uporabnike in njihove možnosti. Pogosto sem prišel čez končnih uporabnikov iz obeh bivših ali trenutnih strank me sprašuje o tem, kako najbolje pristop, ki se gibljejo vsebino iz enega mesta v drugo, ali kako se premakniti celotno spletno stran ekipe (sub strani vključen) z ene lokacije na drugo ali celo vsebine iz omrežja vozi med migracijo ali fazo sprejetja. There are a whole range of scenarios and methods/tools here, but hopefully I will be able to provide you with some options to help educate and set you on the right path.

Firstly, to set your expectations right from the start… any migration into or around SharePoint is not easily achieved , especially using out of the box methods and requires quite a few manual steps. This is mainly because of how we typically store our team site content (in lots of what are called site collections – top level sites typically), which are in turn stored inside SQL databases. But also as a result of lack of support in general in the user interface within SharePoint to provide the necessary control and mechanisms to allow the copying or moving of content. This is probably why there are lots of 3rd party tools out there to help you.

In any case, make sure you plan carefully your site design and naming conventions to avoid such a need to move your content later!

Glossary of Terms

A few pointers firstly on terminology before we continue:

• Site Collection – Top most repository and security boundary for the storage and management of content. SharePoint can contain many hundreds or even thousands of these in a deployment. Top level team sites are often site collections.

• Team mesto - na vrh strani raven, ki je ustanovljena na samem začetku ali za shranjevanje in izmenjavo vsebine. Typically a site collection can contain many tens of thousands of team sites and or sub-team sites in one site collection each containing many hundreds of thousands of documents or greater if structure properly.

• Sub-site – Are basically team sites that sit under the top level site in a site collection and have been created by users to store further content away from the top level site. They have more or less the same functionality, but are/can be considered 'children' of the top site and will likely but may not necessarily inherit permissions and can link between each other, etc

• Content – Any Office documents, PDFs, images, discussion lists, calendars, contact lists, or text that you have stored in your site.

• List – Calendars, contacts lists, document libraries, discussion boards are all examples of 'SharePoint lists' and can contain a mixture of content items.

Methods & Tools

The following are some real world end user driven methods and tools in which to consider for your content migration into and of team sites in the main, but also will work for mysites, and publishing content.

1. Creation of site 'templates'

For any team site that you have content in, there is an ability to save the entire site, its document libraries, meta data and content (up to a size of 1O megabyte only) as a re-usable template. This now becomes a portable site template to re-use on other sites. With this you can now create repeatable sites that contain the same structure and or content.

To do this, under the Site Setting you will find a feature called 'Save Site as Template'. This will allow you to save just the structure AND OR the content as well – Though because its limited to a maximum of 10 megabytes in size. It's not ideal and will depend on the size of your content as to its relevance or not as a tool for you to use.

Once you have saved the site as a template, (give it a familiar name) you can go under Site Settings to your 'Site template gallery'. Your newly saved site template will be there. Now, this can be downloaded to your desktop, (“site templatename. stp”) and basically uploaded in to your new site into the destination 'site template gallery'.

What happens now is that when you go to your new site and attempt to create a new site,  the template will appear an 'Custom' tab option on the 'select a template page. Hence its important to call it something familiar on the previous steps! Once this is chosen, your new sub-site (and content if you ticked this option) will be there in the new site!

Pro's

• Quick and easy method to get small sub-sites migrate from one location to another
• Useful for creating different site templates for different audiences/needs
• Maintains branding/look and feel
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly.

Con's

• Cannot be used for creating top level sites (unless uploaded to centrally 'master gallery'.
• Loses security permissions
• Loses item level security
• Limited to 10M in size
• Does not save sub-sites as part of the site, only that one site

2. Creation of list 'templates'

Basically for each list or library you have created on your site (this means any calendar, document library, contacts list, or other generic list) you can actually save each individual list including any additional columns you have created inside AND documents/content inside them, as a reusable 'list template'. As with 'Save as a site template' mentioned previously, this now becomes a portable list template to re-use on other sites.

To do this, under the list or document library settings, you will find a feature called 'Save as template'. This will allow you to save just the structure AND OR the content as well – Though again it's limited I to a maximum of 10 megabytes in size, so not ideal and will depend on the size of your content as to its relevance or not as a tool for you to use. At the very least you can get the list structure, then maybe use Option 3 below to bulk move your content.

Once you have saved the list/content as a template, (give it a familiar name) you can go under Site Settings to your 'List template gallery'. Your newly saved list template will be there. Now, this can be downloaded to your desktop, (“ listtemplatename. stp”) and basically uploaded in to your new site into the destination 'list template gallery'.

When you go to your new site and attempt to create a new list or library,  the template will appear an option in which to create from – hence as before, call it something familiar. Once this is done, your new structure (and or content if you ticked this option) will be there in the new site!

Basically repeat this process for all your other libraries or lists until you have copied your content across to your new site.

Pro's

• Quick and easy way to move/copy list based content and structure including meta data
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly

Con’s

• Resource intensive
• Loses security permissions
• Lose item level security
• Omejeno na 10M velikosti

3. Explorer view 'quick and dirty -  copy, cut and paste'

This method only works for document libraries or picture libraries. Basically if you open up your picture or document library using 'explorer view', (Choose Actions, Open in Windows Explorer) then do the same in your destination library, you end up with two explorer windows. Make sure you can see these side by side. You can manually select all your documents, copy/paste from one location to another or drag and drop in the same manner.

This is particularly useful for moving data from network drives (but is very very slow!) or other areas that support a protocol called Webdav.

Note: Any meta data won't be copied and you lose time stamp and other original owner details. DO NOT move or copy the 'Forms' folder! This is a systems folder needed by SharePoint.

Pro's

• Quick and easy way to move/copy content between libraries
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly

Con's

• Resource intensive
• Slow moving lots of content
• Need to setup security permissions again on destination library
• Ignores any metadata you have setup!

4. Export to Excel

As you might expect, this is only useful for lists (not document libraries).

On any given list you have the option to 'export to excel' or 'export and link to excel'. This can be used to provide an export into excel, then save/re-import back into another list.

Note: This can be quite painful as your origin/destination lists need to have the EXACT columns and metadata setup. Otherwise it will through up lots, (read huge!) amounts of data integrity errors that you will need to work through. Not recommended for the faint hearted, but does work, with limitations.

Pro's

• Quick and easy way to move/copy content between lists
• Good for limited offline working
• Good for large lists (Better use Access for lists with thousands of entries)
• No admin or code deployment required
• End user friendly

Con's

• Limited to one list at a time
• Not very robust
• Potentially resource intensive when uploading new data
• Need to setup security permissions again on destination library

5. Third party tools and server side tools

There are a mass of third party tools out there and too many to mention specifically on here. Ultimately many do however require a level of access (read server level permissions or server side code updates) you might not be allowed to have, so be aware of this 'show stopper' before you go out and buy something from Bamboo, Quest, Metalogix, Kwizcom or some other freeware on the internet! And before you go ahead and install a 3rd party product, read this article I wrote a while back.

For large migrations of data, the above methods 1-4 are simply not scalable and hence such products will be needed to make migration that much easier to manage.

Be aware however that some products may sound cheap, easy to install but can wreak havoc on your precious data and platform. I have come across many 3rd party web parts (free and chargeable) that have caused the project more problems, so caution should be taken. Areas such as not respecting origin and destination metadata, preserving file time/author stamp details and in general just overall robustness and performance issues are the main areas I have found to be areas in most need of improvement.

There are in addition some server side tools (basically command line tools) which are available to copy/move content between site collections (and different databases which the site collections are often stored within if need be). These are only for use by your system admins however, but can/should be consulted if you have a particularly large amount of content that you need to move from one site to another.

Zaključek

If your site has relatively very little content, its often quicker/easier to manually re-create the data or site you need to move, rather than actually move it using the above methods

For individual migrations its worth try the above options to gain an understanding of what you can do without purchasing 3rd party products or deploying server side code. Though the above examples are not 'bullet' proof or without limitations so do experiment and try before you settle on the one that will work for you.

There are a lot of 3rd party tools out there that can and do help. But as with any software purchase don't load it on our production environment without first demonstrating it is fit for purpose. I'll write some more soon on the topic of migration in general, so watch this space!

Regards,

Andrew Walmsley

Did you achieve your SharePoint ROI (Return on Investment)?

The 'solid' business case for SharePoint

When was the last time you read a business case which contained tangible (specifically financial) cost savings for recommending Microsoft SharePoint to be deployed into your organisation?

If you're one of the few that I have come across, I often wonder just how well the numbers 'stack up' both when they were written in terms of the criteria used and how they have fared since it was deployed?

I am sure many were 'successful', even if the financial statistics were not available to support this statement, as often its not just about the financials and can be more about introducing a change a way of working, ie collaboratively as opposed to in 'working in silos'.

Even so, over the last couple of years of working with the latest version of SharePoint with our existing (and new) customers, whereby we have returned to carry out additional work or for new consultancy pieces of some kind, I often enquire how the original business case was first of all agreed and secondly, (if one was produced!) how the deployment has lived up to it's original goals.

Predictably, it's a mixed response but overall business cases are increasingly being used, (which is a good thing) but rarely do they in my opinion, consider the long term financial savings nor are they revisited to confirm expected financial savings were achieved.

How well did the deployment go?

So did the deployment meet or exceed original financial savings?

Are the executive, steering group or IT dept. who signed off on the project happy with the financial cost savings or delivery in general? I suspect quite a few responses would be not so positive, decisive or along the lines of 'could have gone better'.

Depending on whom you spoke to in the business the reasons for this would typically fall into the following statements:

• 'No estimate of financial cost savings were produced in the beginning, so I can't say whether it saved us money or not'
• 'Bad advice from our SharePoint partner led us into a 'square peg, round hole' scenario, ie They decided to force (read bespoke code!) the hell out of the platform into something it just wasn't meant or designed to do and hence costs more than we budgeted for'
• 'It was deployed but it did not have stakeholder support, proper governance or adoption plans and hence wasn't really used by the business and so stagnated'
• 'The project was managed poorly by IT, ran over budget, took a lot longer than they said it would. Any identified cost savings has been lost getting it delivered'
• 'The new intranet was deployed, but I was offered no training or support and I can't find anything I need so rarely use it. There was nothing wrong with the previous application…'

Etc, etc…

As I posted a couple of years ago with my “ Microsoft ROI Calculator for Windows SharePoint Services ”, there are some useful resources out there to help, but these tend to be a bit of a 'black art' and should in my view be used with caution. There's one also from HP and others, but my thoughts on these are that it's a bit overkill in its recommendations, (perhaps to sell more hardware…?!) though useful I think for the wider awareness you need when carrying out such capacity and performance planning activity.

Why some SharePoint business cases often miss a trick

Most business cases I have read consider typical issues such as costs of maintaining existing application that are 'not fit for purpose, together with potential replacement application costs for licensing and hardware costs. Fine.

But rarely do they consider the financial savings of delivering additional applications on top of SharePoint beyond what they were originally introduced for (typically your intranet/extranet scenarios).

Not so easy to put down on paper in terms of financial savings, as such applications may not even be known about or requirements scoped in enough detail to make an informed decision. But nevertheless such a statement should be in your business case as a strong 'intangible' business benefit and support your strategic reasons for using SharePoint.

SharePoint 2010 is just around the corner …

The simple fact is SharePoint 2007 is already a good platform for delivering  applications upon. SharePoint 2010 isn't so far away and first signs are that it will build upon its success with the current version and become a great platform in which to host applications upon.

Whilst SharePoint may not be optimised for heavy transactional based applications, very few of your line of business applications (small, medium and large) will be of this kind anyway. Think about your existing applications (or planned) that provide your users with product catalogues, knowledge base applications, record management, document imaging repositories and consider them for inclusion into your SharePoint environment. Such additions will bring yet more value to the original (or new) business case.

Organisations must not miss this opportunity to bolster their business cases for SharePoint 2010 adoption, by looking at their 'line of business applications' they were considering introducing or replacing legacy applications, to see if they can realistically be 'consumed' by the SharePoint environment. I think you will be pleasantly surprised just how many can.

Important Note: Its imperative those doing so now with SharePoint 2007 or in future with SharePoint 2010 factor such things into their high level architecture designs. Most architecture designs I have come across fail to consider such requirements or plan for their inclusion. Introducing such things later will potentially cost you in redesign of your design in particular capacity or performance related areas.

With SharePoint 2007 available now and the soon to be released SharePoint 2010, it's even more critical to  increasingly view the strategic nature of your decisions and how operationally you can derive more value out of your investment in SharePoint platform.

Regards,

Andrew Walmsley

Director, WorkShares

Microsoft BPOS – Business Productivity Online Standard – First Thoughts.

Background

We were experiencing some issues with our hosted email provider through 2008 and were looking to move away from them at some point this year.

Together with our own business strategy of providing hosted solutions we were keen to continue 'consuming our own food' so to speak. Hence we were on the look out for a smaller number of service providers for our core service of email, conferencing, collaboration and instant messenger/presence.

Having signed up as a partner of Microsoft Online late last year, we also felt we needed to experience first hand what some of our future clients would go through and decided to move to Microsoft Online service when it became more widely available.

Microsoft Online – http://www.microsoft.com/online/solutions

We moved our organisations email services to the recently launched Online Services offering. There are several services available including:

• Dynamics CRM – Customer relationship management

• Office Live Meeting –Conferencing/live online meetings

• Exchange Hosted Services – Virus software protection, encryption and filtering for Exchange

• Exchange Online – Exchange email, calendars and contacts

• SharePoint Online – Sharepoint (Windows Sharepoint Services v3)

• IM & Presence – Office communication for instant messaging and presence

• Business Productivity Online Standard Suite (BPOS) – encompasses Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, IM & Presence and Office Live Meeting services 'all in one' package.

All of the above have been available predominantly in the US during last year and are now in UK and other parts of the world. There are also dedicated offerings for the larger customers available whom wish to move perhaps their 'on premise' solutions into the cloud.

We opted for the “Business Productivity Online Standard Suite” over a month ago now and though we didn't replace all our services in one go, it nevertheless provided us with a useful insight into the challenges presented to businesses when moving from either 'on premise' or existing hosted service.

At this stage we have only moved our email and live meeting services over – though arguably our most critical application and service, (email) we felt comfortable with doing so based upon research with other beta users, demo's I had seen plus existing experience in general with hosted exchange providers.

In addition to email and live meeting we were was also provided with these additional services as part of the package.

• Exchange Storage of 100gb (for all mailboxes)

• SharePoint – 5GB of Windows SharePoint Services

• Live Meeting Office Communications.

Migration and Setup

So far so good. As you can see from the screenshots below, once you have the service up and running, the administration console is a clean intuitive interface with various options presented in tab like format.

The migrating and setup of the Outlook 2007 client was fairly straight forward, though migration from hosted email provider isn't particularly well catered for in terms of migration tools. This is to be expected I guess as there are so many configuration options here and many would need the server level access, ISP's wouldn't be willing to provide.

Not the same however for your 'on premise' based solutions it has to be noted, as Microsoft has provided several options in this arena for you to consider as part of your migration planning. As you can see from the image below, we have several options to consider and plan for.

Once you're email has been migrated you have access to your email either from your Outlook 2007 client. In addition you can access to your mail via the web browser in 'Outlook Web Access' shown below, which is great way to access your emails on customer or client sites.

Single Sign On

The Single Sign On application provided is a neat piece of software and very easy to use giving the user a single console like interface in which to launch their applications.

User Portal

The single sign on application will take you to your personal user portal. You get a number of different screens within your administration center, but the user portal is specifically personalised for your users and importantly has a lot of help already built into the site.

Live Meeting

We have not done much here other than to see 'it just works' and provides usual features to allow for live meeting to take place.

Office Communicator

Not something we have played around with much either, but again it just seems to work as expected. We've only just loaded this up, but will consider migrating to it once things have bedded down a bit. It's basically an instant messaging application which will evolve into a 'unified comms' platform by 2010 supposedly.

SharePoint Online Features Table

Here is a table with the features provided by the SharePoint Online service, which is part of the BPOS offering. Again, we haven't done much in this arena as we have other providers for this at the moment, but it pretty much does what you would expect. Note: It's based on Windows SharePoint Services not MOSS for those interested.

Support during migration

Responses in general to queries being raised were provided to us in a timely manner, either by way of updates to the support area and or by way of telephone during office hours.

Our planning was thorough having gained experience in upgrades/migrations of Microsoft products with our day jobs, but we still came up with a few issues/challenges around email.

We particularly like the online support area, which is much improved from our old provider and keeps you easily up to date as to progress with your support requests.

Conclusion

The Good

• Setup was ok as we mentioned, though not really for the 'none techie' or individual whom isn't used to migration issues with Microsoft based technology. You do need to plan your migration carefully as there are many permutations to consider, especially for your 'on premise' existing email providers and or SharePoint content migrations – more on this for a later post.

• SharePoint Online support changes made by SharePoint Designer and forms introduced by Infopath

• Mobile access to email via Windows Mobile devices is simple to setup

• Fantastic value for money with email, sharepoint, live meeting and instant messenger applications all neatly tied into one cloud based platform

• Highly resilient platform 99.9% plus secure https (only) traffic for all users

• Support via email and telephone was excellent.

Not so good

• It's basically Windows SharePoint Services functionality, not MOSS

• Migration tools from hosted Exchange providers are none existent. Which we guess is ok, as you have the option to migrate/import your old PST files – but you do need to plan in time for this. For large scale migrations, you need time to do this and plan in appropriate with the user as they may well be without their mail during this time. Though with the migration tools available, you won't lose any email

• Unfriendly URLs with all services – Apparently plans to improve on this area, but expect very long URLs and no way to change them

• Doesn't support bespoke code within SharePoint Online (that requires server side additions or changes) but will allow SharePoint Designer based changes

• Arguably the lack of ability to support custom modifications is a 'Bad' but feel we have a good compromise here. Besides which, the dedicated offering from Microsoft will allow this. This position will probably changed for the better with SharePoint 2010….

Bad, needs improving

It's early days yet, and perhaps we will post back after a month or so of using it in anger! Otherwise, it just works from our experience to date.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

WorkShares Team.

Accessing Office 2007 formatted documents in SharePoint with older versions of Microsoft Office

An ongoing challenge for some of our customers and no doubt many others out there is the inability of older versions Microsoft Office  (Namely Office 2000, 2002 (Known as OfficeXP) & 2003) to open/edit the newer formats created in Office 2007.

The Office 2007 applications by default have document extensions typically found with an 'X' on the end – .DOCX, .XLSX and .PPTX, etc. Though it should be noted that this can be changed to default back to the original formats, if you need too.

In any case, Microsoft have recently release a free download called “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats”.

This downloadable installation will update your existing Office installation and allow it to open/view/edit/save the documents in the newer formats. Great!

Link to software download found here .

With further information found here relating to the knowledge base article.

S spoštovanjem,

Andrew Walmsley

www.workshares.co.uk

Technorati Tags: Office , sharepoint