Archive for the ‘SharePoint FIS’ Category

Cleaning Out the SharePoint Site Recycle Bin

July 16th, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Terry Engelstad
MCP, MCSE, CCNA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCITP
AIS Network Operations Manager

Recently, a SharePoint hosting customer asked us to perform routine maintenance on his SharePoint site.  As part of that, he asked us to clean out the Recycle Bin and have the automatic deletion mechanism disabled for the Recycle Bin.  He said that his company hadn’t cleaned its SharePoint Recycle Bin in over one year.

There are some things you might find interesting about the Recycle Bin, which is the first line of defense in recovering data. As you probably know, SharePoint uses a two-tier Recycle Bin. The first tier is at the User level where an item deleted from a List or Library will drop into the User Recycle Bin. This way, the Users can recover deleted items themselves. Then after a period of time, items will be moved from the User Recycle Bin to a Site Collection Recycle Bin. The duration for which an item sits in the User Recycle Bin is determined by a parameter in SharePoint Central and is specific to an entire Web Application.  The duration for which items will sit in the Site Collection Recycle Bin is determined by the amount of space available to hold these items and is also configurable via a parameter in SharePoint Central.

Currently, our customer’s User Recycle Bin is configured to never delete items.  There are quite a few items in various User Recycle Bins. There are two ways to clean them out.  First, somebody can go to each of the User Recycle Bins and remove items manually.  Or, second, the retention configuration parameter could be changed to a very low value, and after a period of time, the items will flush out on their own.

The difference between these two techniques is that the first one requires human intervention to find all the Recycle Bins and to make decisions about which items should be deleted or not. The second option is global and will affect all items in all Recycle Bins.

Naturally, if our client wants us to clean out the User Recycle Bins individually, they would also need to define the rules for deletion of those items (i.e., delete everything older than 30 days, for example).

On the other hand, if the customer wants us to change the configuration parameters, we’d be happy to do so.  That’s easy.

More questions about your hosted SharePoint?  Leave your comments below.

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Slow SharePoint Server? If your SharePoint Loads Slowly, This May Be Why.

July 9th, 2012
Posted by: admin

 

By Terry Engelstad
MCP, MCSE, CCNA, MCDBA, MCTS, MCITP
AIS Network Operations Manager

Is your SharePoint Server running slow?

Recently, a client emailed to say that he was noticing large slowdowns in connecting to their SharePoint server at AISN.  It seems to be happening nightly and intermittently throughout the day, he said.  Specifically, his issues were:

  1. SharePoint content loads slowly
  2. Uploading/ downloading from SharePoint is impossible (speeds come to a crawl at less than 5KBps)
  3. Remoting in to the SharePoint server is very slow

He asked what could be causing a slow SharePoint Server and SharePoint SQL Server.  Here’s the problem in his case.

The servers, in general, are starving for memory.  The hypervisor on which they reside (XYZ1) has only 74 MB of free memory.  Microsoft recommends not dropping below 2 GB of free memory on a hypervisor.

See the image below for XYZ1 (real names changed to protect client).

Slow SharePoint

As I explained to our client, the server “SharePoint” has 0 free memory and is warning that it needs more.  It looks like the vast majority of the memory on SharePoint is being consumed by w3wp.exe – IIS Application Pools. This would certainly contribute to slow web page rendering.  And with 0 free memory, anybody who remotes into it will take more memory away from the Application Pools, thereby making it slower.

In our client’s case, the server “SharePointSQL” is grossly overtaxed.  I count 68 databases defined and live.  This is way, way too much for a SQL Server with only 8 GB of memory.  The Microsoft recommendation is 8 GB of memory for a lightly used SharePoint Foundation Farm and 16 GB for a lightly used SharePoint Server Farm.

This level of memory, combined with the number of databases, will create very small page caching (perhaps not even caching at all).  This will seriously degrade the speed of uploading documents.

As you may or may not know, SharePoint stores all documents as Binary Large Objects (BLOBs).  In order to properly convert, for example, a Word document to a BLOB, it must cache the entire uploaded document somewhere before it can go through the conversion to a BLOB. So again, small or non-existent cache, means real slow upload and download times, among other slownesses.

In this case, adding more memory is the solution to a slow SharePoint Server.   However, a SharePoint private cloud would be an ideal approach – one that allows for the flexibility and scalability this client needs to accommodate growth smoothly.

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SharePoint Users: Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Solves Common Business Challenges

June 29th, 2012
Posted by: admin

 

By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is here now.  How much do you know about it?

If you’re using Microsoft SharePoint 2010 or Microsoft SharePoint 2010 for Internet Sites or if you manage big data, then it’s likely that you are familiar with SQL Server.  This newest version of Microsoft’s premier enterprise database management system has numerous new (and quite powerful) features over the previous release, 2008 R2.

In fact, there are so many noteworthy improvements over 2008 R2 that it would take quite a long time to blog about them all.  Rather, let’s just examine how this new version helps you solve some basic business challenges effectively.

Why use SQL Server 2012?  As the foundation to the cloud-ready information platform, SQL Server 2012 will help businesses of all sizes unlock breakthrough insights across the organization as well as build solutions quickly and extend data from server to private or public cloud — all backed by advanced capabilities for mission critical confidence.

Not only does SQL Server 2012 help improve customer management, but it also may help you face a number of common challenges.  Let’s look at five:

SQL Server 2012

But how do you know if you need SQL 2012?  Many organizations are 24×7 operations.  They may have a global presence too.  But they all have one very important quality in common:  they cannot afford downtime.  Does this describe you?  If so, ask yourself some of these questions:

  • How is your current database supporting your needs?
  • Is the performance of your current database where you need it to be?
  • Are you planning a move to the cloud?
  • Do you see yourself introducing new mission critical applications or planning migrations within three months to a year?
  • How are you viewing business insights for your organization?
  • Are you planning any major projects within the next three months to a year?

These are all good discussion points that we’d be happy to help you work through in your effort to discover whether or not SQL Server 2012 would benefit your organization.

Finally, I’d suggest three brief points for consideration:

1)  Mission Critical Confidence. SQL Server 2012 enables mission critical performance and availability at low TCO.  Consider that it offers:

  • A new integrated high availability and disaster recovery solution
  • Advanced performance speeds
  • Built-in encryption capabilities help protect confidential information without changes to the application

2)  Breakthrough Insight. Use SQL Server 2012 to unlock new insights with pervasive data discovery across the organization.  With SQL Server 2012, you can:

  • Empower business users to create visually rich dashboards or reports across heterogeneous data sources
  • Activate managed self-service BI, which easily balances an employee’s need for rich information and collaboration with IT’s need to manage the safety and confidentiality of information

3)  Cloud on Your Terms. SQL Server 2012 is useful in enabling you to create business solutions quickly – on your terms – across servers to private or public clouds. You’ll like that you can:

  • Easily move applications across on-premises and cloud with unlimited virtualization (available through SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition) and license mobility
  • Extend data across on-premises and the cloud

Are you aware of the significant improvement Microsoft has made to the licensing model for SQL Server 2012?  We’ll cover that topic in a future blog.

In the meantime, to learn more about how Microsoft SQL Server 2012 can help you stay productive and reduce costs, please just contact our office.  We’re happy to help.

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SharePoint 2010 Security: Adding an SSL Certificate to Your Hosted SharePoint Site

June 11th, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

SSL certificates create secure (HTTPS) connectivity between your Web server and your visitors’ browsers.  If you are transmitting sensitive information via a Web site, such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other personal information, you should secure it with SSL encryption to safeguard against others seeing your data.  If you do not use an SSL certificate, then you are vulnerable.

SharePoint Security

SSL certificates aid in ensuring data security for your hosted SharePoint site.

In a SharePoint environment, SSL certificates can easily be added to a hosted site in order to secure it.  There are different kinds of SSL certificates but I won’t address that in this blog.  Rather, this is about SharePoint 2010 security and the recent request by one client that we add an SSL certificate to his existing hosted SharePoint site with us.

In preparation, I asked him what domain name he wanted on the SSL certificate.   Unsure of my question, he responded, “Doesn’t the domain name have to match the domain of the (AISN) network?”

Here’s how I explained it to him.   In his case, the server hosting his SharePoint is a member server in the Active Directory domain called aisn.local.  Web sites which serve Web pages from this server (SharePoint included) can be addressed by either an IP address or a domain name.  This Web site domain is not the same type of domain as the Active Directory domain in which the server resides.  And actually, Active Directory domains such as aisn.local cannot be present on the Internet.  The ‘.local’ indicates to the Internet that it is a private, not a public, domain name.

That said, it is possible to have an SSL Certificate for either type of domain.  The real question is what are you going to use it for?  That was for my client to decide.

As I explained to him, if you intend to use the SSL Certificate for Server Identification, then we can get a certificate for you for “yournamehere.aisn.local”.  You would use this type of certificate when, for example, you remote desktop to the server.  It would guarantee that you are connecting to the right server.

If, however, you want to use the SSL Certificate for identification of your SharePoint Site, then you can pick any public name you want.  In this case, the domain must be registered publicly in order to get a public SSL Certificate.

So, for example, if you chose to address your SharePoint Site by the name “sp.yournamehere.com”, you would need to make sure that the domain name “yournamehere.com” is registered to you.  Then, you can define “sp.yournamehere.com” in IIS on your SharePoint server. You would also need to configure the public DNS for yournamehere.com such that the “host” known as “sp” points to the IP address on the server.

That explanation seemed clarify things for him.  I told him that I thought he was looking for the latter, but we do not know what his host and domain names are.  It appeared to me that he was addressing his SP site by IP address currently.  In order to assign an SSL certificate, it needs to have a full name.  We cannot register it to an IP.

Have more questions about hosted SharePoint 2010 and hosted SharePoint security?  Send me an email and I’d be happy to help.

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Private SharePoint Cloud: For Large Enterprises, It’s the Way to Go

March 21st, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

Just last week, we made a bold statement that has captured quite a bit of attention within the SharePoint community.

We revealed that we are now deploying SharePoint Server 2010 in a single private cloud for less than our competitors are charging for a public or hybrid cloud implementation.  And, we expressed our strong view that enterprise-class Microsoft SharePoint 2010 customers should look only to private cloud environments.  In short, it’s the only way to go based on sheer practicality and bang-for-the buck.

private cloud

Enterprise-class SharePoint Server 2010 is hosted most cost-effectively in a private cloud.

Plain and simple, you want the most control over your SharePoint 2010 environment with the least hit to your organization’s bottom line, and you get every bit of that and more by moving from a traditional deployment to a hosted private cloud architecture.

Currently, hosting providers are steering enterprise-class SharePoint 2010 customers toward public cloud and hybrid cloud hosting models.  Our cost analysis research shows that those deployment approaches are needlessly costing more than they should and the customer sacrifices control at multiple levels.

A private SharePoint cloud is simply more economical and easier to manage for a large organization with security and compliance concerns.  An enterprise SharePoint Server 2010 platform implemented wholly in a private cloud, including the online storage components, exceeds core compliance requirements and surpasses the benefits of a public cloud or hybrid cloud.

With SharePoint 2010 deployed entirely in a private cloud, the customer gets:

  • a hosted environment that is exclusively internal to the organization,
  • complete control of its servers, security, permissions, policies and customization,
  • seamless federation between line-of-business systems and various data sources,
  • quick scalability for system resources, and
  • the ability to move other core applications and platforms to the same private cloud.

Public cloud services like Microsoft Office 365’s SharePoint Online and deployments of SharePoint Server 2010 in a public or hybrid cloud are okay for small to mid-size businesses, but they’re very impractical when it comes to serving the best interests of a large business.

The private SharePoint cloud model is an ideal outsourcing alternative.  Sooner or later, global and large enterprises evaluating SharePoint 2010 deployment platforms are going to realize that an enterprise SharePoint Server 2010 platform implemented solely in a private cloud is, indeed, the only way to go.

Have a different opinion?  I’d love to hear your thoughts below.  Need a free quote on a Private SharePoint Cloud?  Naturally, we’d be happy to help you with that.

 

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SharePoint FIS and SharePoint FIS Licensing: Usage Scenarios (Part 2 of 2)

February 19th, 2012
Posted by: admin

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

In my January 24 blog, I provided some responses to frequently asked questions about Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites and licensing SharePoint FIS.

In this second part, we’ll look at SharePoint FIS licensing in a little more depth and also look at some various usage scenarios.*  For the purposes of this blog, “internal users” refers to employees, affiliates’ employees, on-site contractors and/or agents.  “External users” refers to all others.

What do I need for intranet and extranet sites?

For intranet and extranet networks used to support internal content, SharePoint Server 2010 is required.  If only internal users can access the content being stored, it must be hosted on a server licensed with SharePoint Server 2010.  It’s important to remember that content is only accessible by users or devices with a Client Access License (CAL) for SharePoint Server 2010.  SharePoint Server can still be used to support external content, although each user or device requires a CAL, whether they are internal or external.

What do I need for Internet sites?

For servers used to provide external content (typically) over the Internet, SharePoint FIS is required.  If the content being stored and accessed is available to external users, it can be hosted on a server licensed with SharePoint FIS, and users accessing that content will not require a CAL.  It’s important to remember that while SharePoint FIS is restricted to external content, it is not restricted to external users.  For example, an internal user (e.g., employee) would not require a CAL to access external content on an instance of SharePoint FIS.  As you can see, the choice between SharePoint Server and SharePoint FIS for external content is a financial one, unless the external users have anonymous access—in which case, SharePoint FIS is the only feasible option.

Can you show me some usage scenarios?

The following common deployment scenarios are excerpted from a very useful and detailed document entitled, “Microsoft Volume Licensing Brief:  Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites” (October 2010), which helps in explaining the licensing requirements of SharePoint FIS.  Although covered for user-based CALs, these scenarios can also be used for device-based CALs.  For a copy of the full document, just email me at the address below.

First, have a look at the color code for the diagrams:

SharePoint 2010

Color code for diagrams. Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

SCENARIO A:  Intranet

Description: Internal users access information through LAN or the Internet. No other users (internal or external) have access to information or applications.

Example: A professional sports team sets up an intranet site accessed by managers, the coach, and players.  It is also used for support staff such as the physiotherapist who is an on-site contractor rather than an employee.  But the therapist still qualifies as an internal user.  A news reporter trying to access the SharePoint site is denied access.

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPS/Running Instance (RI)
  • Internal User — 1 CAL/User

Figure 1 – Scenario:  Intranet

SharePoint 2010 Sports Team Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaway:

  • Licensing requirements for server and CAL remain the same for internal users based on the location of access (through LAN or the Internet).

 

SCENARIO B:  Intranet Plus Extranet

Description: An organization with information accessible only by internal users (i.e., internal content) chooses to extend access to a limited number of identifiable external users.  In this case, the identifiable external users have access to all information, previously accessible by internal users only.   The organization may choose to license those external users either via SPS/CAL or SPSFIS for authenticated external users.  This decision is typically made based on cost.

Example:  The Elm University publishes research papers, which are made available to specific educators from other universities (external users).  This situation is assumed to be an intranet plus extranet scenario, even though the Elm University does not have a public-facing Web site.

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI
  • Internal User — 1 CAL/User
  • External User — 1 CAL/User

-or-

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI (for internal use), 1 SPSFIS/RI* (for external use)
  • Internal User — 1 CAL/User
  • External User:  No additional licenses required.

SPS/CAL Only

Figure 2A – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Extranet Without SPSFIS

SharePoint 2010 Elm University Scenario A

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

SPS/CAL Plus SPSFIS

Figure 2B – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Extranet with FIS

SharePoint 2010 Elm University Scenario B

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • You can choose between SPS/CAL or SPSFIS based on what is more economical to them given the number of external users.
  • The licensing requirement for internal user varies depending on the server license chosen and use (publishing or internal use of information/applications).
  • The university chooses to make external content available to selective external users.  With SPSFIS licensing, no restriction is made on how many external users access that information.

SCENARIO C:   Internet

Description: Internal users are publishing information for external users.  It is not possible to identify some or all of external users, so you must license external users via SPSFIS.  Because internal users access the same information as external users, all users can be licensed via SPSFIS, and no additional CALs are required.

In another example, a team of internal users is customizing the look and feel of the Web site and testing it before the changes go live in production; CALs are not required if the internal users have MSDN licenses.

Example: News Web site, knowledge forums, and social networking sites

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPSFIS/RI
  • Internal User — Need no CAL
  • External User — Need No CAL
  • Test/Dev: If users are covered via MSDN, no additional server licenses/CALs are required.

Figure 3 – Scenario:  Internet

SharePoint 2010 Newspaper Publishing Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • SPSFIS/RI is the only license required if internal users are accessing the same sites as external users.
  • Each staging server that is posting content requires its own SPSFIS/RI (same licensing requirement as production server).  This requirement excludes test staging servers because testing technical changes are covered under MSDN.

SCENARIO D:  Intranet Plus Internet

Description: You make some content available only to internal users, while other content is made available to anonymous external users.

You need one SPS/RI for the internal content, one CAL/user for all internal users accessing that internal content, and one SPSFIS/RI for the external content accessed by anonymous external users.  SPSFIS negates the need for CALs for internal users only publishing information and all external users.

Example: Woodgrove Bank offers loan information and the option to submit a loan application on its public-facing site, on which only internal users are allowed to view/work.

Licensing

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI for servers for internal information, 1 SPSFIS/RI* for servers for external information
  • Internal User (if only publishing) — needs no CAL
  • Internal User (otherwise) — 1 CAL/User
  • External User — needs no CAL

Figure 4 – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Internet

SharePoint 2010 Bank Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • If internal users are only publishing information and SPSFIS/RI is being used for the servers, CALs are not required for them.
  • If the contents/information/applications accessed by internal users are different from those accessed by external users, SPS/CAL licenses are required for internal users.

SCENARIO E:   Intranet Plus Internet Plus Extranet

Description: In this scenario, one subset of information is available only to internal users, another subset of information is available to both internal users and authenticated external users, and a third subset of  information is available to anonymous external users.

Example: Contoso Pharmaceutials maintains a public Web site accessible by all, offers collaboration with authenticated external users on specific research and development  projects, and hosts company’s internal intranet for its internal users.

Licensing:

  • Server — 1 SPS/RI for servers for internal information, 1 SPSFIS/RI for servers for external information*
  • Internal User (publishing) — needs no CAL
  • Internal User (otherwise) — 1 CAL/User, External User à needs no CAL
  • External User —  needs no CAL

*In the case of dedicated server for extranet, users would have a choice of SPSFIS to cover all authenticated external users or extending CALs to them, as discussed in Scenario 2.

Figure 5 – Scenario:  Intranet Plus Internet Plus Extranet

SharePoint 2010 Pharmaceutical Company Scenario

Source: Microsoft Volume Licensing

Key Takeaways:

  • This scenario shows that the Internet plus intranet plus extranet scenario is no different than the sum of the individual scenarios.
  • An organization can choose to make external information available to selective external users. However, with SPSFIS licensing, no licensing restriction is made on how many external users can access external information.

This is so confusing.  Isn’t there someone who can help me figure this out?

Yes, as I mentioned in January, if you think SharePoint FIS licensing is confusing, you are not alone.  I’m happy to walk you through it and help you assess your organization’s needs.

Call me at 1-888-401-AISN, or email me at:  bill.peters@aisn.net.  Or, simply leave a comment below.  Best of luck!

 

 

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Demand for Cloud, Partner Program Is Driving Growth at AIS Network

February 8th, 2012
Posted by: admin

Kurt Baumann

In the data center, Kurt Baumann doubled our cloud earlier this month.

By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

More companies are shifting from on-premise computing to cloud-based services, and that means cloud providers are attaining sales goals earlier than expected.  It’s plain to see why Forrester Research analysts are predicting that the private cloud market will double to more than $15 billion in 2020.

At AIS Network, we’re experiencing a good deal of that momentum too.  Yesterday, we announced that we have doubled the size of our public cloud several months earlier than anticipated.  Last year, we brought on more new customers in one year than in any single year of the company’s 19-year history.  Notably, at AISN, new cloud customers are outpacing more traditional managed hosting customers by three to one.

In large part, I attribute this growth to the great success of the AISN partner program, which we launched last March.  Through the support of our wonderful partners, we’ve added numerous new enterprise-class customers, particularly those needing customized, cloud-based SharePoint, SharePoint for Internet Sites (SharePoint FIS) and high-end SaaS applications.

Thanks to those who refer us and to those who partner with us.  Most especially, thanks to our terrific clients.  We are looking forward to another great year!

 

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SharePoint FIS and SharePoint FIS Licensing: FAQs (Part 1 of 2)

January 24th, 2012
Posted by: admin

SharePoint for Internet Sites

Ferrari's Web site is designed using SharePoint for Internet Sites. For more examples, go to our SharePoint FIS hosting page.

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

Offering cloud hosting for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites (SharePoint FIS) was a no-brainer for us.  After all, digital content creators’ interest in the cloud, and the mobile access it affords, is surging.

Including SharePoint FIS hosting among our product offerings represents the first of several steps that AIS Network will take to expand its cloud hosting services for professionals working in digital content creation fields such as Web development, design, publishing, film, architecture, advertising, marketing and public relations.

Here are some “Frequently Asked Questions” focused on what SharePoint FIS is and how to make some sense of SharePoint FIS licensing.  My next entry, Part 2 of this two-part blog, will include specific usage scenarios and how to handle licensing in those cases.

What is SharePoint FIS?

SharePoint FIS empowers creative teams to publish beautiful, interactive external Internet and extranet sites, while dramatically simplifying Web content management and administration.

Who uses SharePoint FIS?

Hosted SharePoint for Internet Sites (SharePoint FIS) is ideal for compliance-focused corporate enterprises, associations and institutions that need to interact with a large number of users via a public-facing Web site.  Digital marketers and design agencies, who need to launch multiple Internet/extranet sites quickly and easily, are also making great use of SharePoint FIS.   You’ll find some examples on our SharePoint FIS hosting page.

What are my SharePoint FIS licensing options?

SharePoint FIS comes in two flavors, Standard and Enterprise.  SharePoint FIS Standard is scoped for a single domain only and has standard SharePoint features for unlimited users (anonymous or authenticated).  SharePoint FIS Enterprise, on the other hand, is scoped for multiple domains and has enterprise SharePoint features for unlimited users (anonymous or authenticated).  According to Microsoft…

SharePoint Server FIS Standard:

  • Helps small and mid-size organizations create public-facing Internet sites or basic extranets.
  • Provides licensing for the same features as the Standard CAL for SharePoint Server.
  • Designed only to be used for creating and hosting a single site resolved from a single domain name (such as aisn.com) and its subdomains (such as support.aisn.com).
  • When combined with active Microsoft Software Assurance, it’s eligible to be stepped up to SharePoint Server for Internet Sites Enterprise for an additional fee.

SharePoint Server FIS Enterprise:

  • Designed for enterprises to create externally-facing public Internet sites and secure private extranets using the full capabilities of SharePoint Server.
  • Provides licensing for all SharePoint Server features (the same as SharePoint Server Enterprise CAL).
  • Offers the rights to host an unlimited number of sites and/or domains.

So, SharePoint FIS Standard is for just one domain?

Yes, SharePoint FIS Standard can only be used to support a single site and its related subdomains on a single domain.  Because the licensing of SharePoint FIS is per running instance, you can run more than one site/domain using the Standard edition only if separate running instances are used for each site/domain and a unique license of SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites Standard is allocated for each running instance.

Does SharePoint FIS Enterprise have FAST Search?

Yes.  For use in Internet/extranet scenarios, the on-premise server license also includes the rights to FAST Search. You can deploy a single server license of SharePoint FIS Enterprise as a SharePoint server OR a FAST Search server—but not both concurrently.  Keep in mind that FAST Search server licensing does not apply to SPLA licensing.

How is SharePoint FIS licensed?

SharePoint Server for Internet Sites is licensed per running instance.  No Client Access Licenses (CALs) are required, even for authors creating content.  When using SharePoint FIS for licensing external-facing scenarios, you must have a server license for all servers that are used to deliver content to external users – regardless of the farm configuration or whether or not users are directly accessing that server (staging, application, front-end, or index).

Servers in a development/test environment are exempt from this rule assuming they are covered by MSDN® developer program licensing. According to Microsoft, the underlying logic in this is that all servers supporting a specific solution (internal vs. external and production vs. development test) must be licensed similarly (i.e., in the CAL/Server model, the per-server “For Internet Sites” model, or the MSDN developer program). This is independent of the order in which information moves through servers.

What if I only need an intranet built on SharePoint?

Intranet sites are licensed using a Server/CAL (Client Access License) model.  SharePoint Server 2010 is required for each running instance of the software, and CALs are required for each person or device accessing a SharePoint Server.

This is so confusing.  Isn’t there someone who can help me figure this out?

Yes, you’re not alone in thinking that SharePoint FIS licensing is confusing.  I am happy to walk you through it and help you assess your organization’s needs.

Call me at 1-888-401-AISN, or email me at:  bill.peters@aisn.net.  Or, simply leave a comment below.  Good luck!

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Web Design and Development: Best Practices in Production, Staging and Development for Web-Based Companies

December 12th, 2011
Posted by: admin

GUEST BLOG

By Gaige B. Paulsen
Board of Advisors, AIS Network

For companies that primarily do business through their public-facing Internet site, best practices for production, staging and development are imperative.  For any Web-based business, whether e-commerce or presence-based, it is essential that content and systems be updated to remain competitive, which means change and that means risk.

Web-based businesses wrestle with complexity on a daily basis.  Typically, there are multiple developers involved, different development timelines, and numerous components being built simultaneously, tiered systems to synchronize for updates, etc.  One misstep in the development and deployment cycle has the potential to cost the business millions of dollars.

In my various capacities, I have spent years refining best practices for production, staging and development environments.  Normal best practices these days are for the following:

  • A serious version control system (VCS) or distributed version control system (DVCS).  Depending on the architecture, I’m still using   Perforce, which is expensive, but über-reliable.  Many folks like GIT, Subversion, and Mercurial.
  • Serious issue management to track platform development and bug fixes/handle actionable team communication, etc. I recommend   JIRA.
  • Development environments that run on developers’ personal machines in a sandbox or VM, or if substantially small in terms of the number of processes, just in the OS (if they’re running desktop/laptop Linux).   Development environments should be a little version of production.
  • New development that is branched in the VCS and not let into the mainline branch until complete.   Branches can be team-centered or developer-centered depending on how many developers are working on the particular piece of code.   But a modern VCS makes it easy to branch early and merge back in only when development is complete.
  • Staging is essential and should be gate-kept.  Development should be promoted to staging through the VCS.   This way, the act of promotion provides a dry-run for the move from stage to production.
  • Scripted tests for Web-based platforms.   I suggest looking at   Sauce Labs for this, or roll-your-own using   Selenium.
  1. Staging is generally used as a dry run for a move to production and final testing.   Nothing should go to production that doesn’t succeed in stage.
  2. Stage should have a lazy copy of the entire environment if possible (full user base, etc.), but shouldn’t directly touch anything that could cause user confusion (sending email to users, etc.).   It can be quite difficult to get a reliable stage environment set up, especially if you need multiple servers to do it (DB, File, GUI, etc.).   But, the more complex the real environment, the more complex the stage environment and the more important it is to get staging working correctly.
  3. Stage is also where you perform human testing on things that can’t be scripted.   There shouldn’t be need for a lot of this on a Web app, but there are some things that are hard to do in an automated fashion (i.e., does the site look “bad”?).
  • Unit tests for internal functionality need to be baked into the development process.   High-volume organizations tend to make automated running of the 3 major test types (integration, unit, and scripted GUI). As a safeguard, a trigger in the check-in process is important so that code that violates testing cannot be checked into the code base at all and instead remains on the developer’s machine.
  • If you can do it, Continuous Integration is a boon to keep things from getting too far afield.  Code compilations, environment synchronization, and spawning automated testing when checks occur are all great tools and can be done very inexpensively with   Jenkins.
  • Work on production is considered to be a complete fail.   The only reason to do it is catastrophic failure of something that does not happen in the stage and development environments and is a sign that the stage is an inadequate representation of production.   Usually, this would only be to change configuration parameters.
  1. If production breaks roll back to the previous version of the site.   If that fails, then you have no choice but to work on production.
  2. Note that even for catastrophic situations, changing code directly on the production servers is just as likely to make things worse if they haven’t passed the rest of the testing in stage.
  • You can do a lot of debugging on the production site, where debugging is gathering information about something that isn’t working correctly.   You shouldn’t, however, use the production site as a test bed or development environment.
  • If your tests don’t do things that you wouldn’t want done in the production environment (adding and removing users and files, changing parameters, simulating failures, etc.), then you don’t have sufficiently detailed tests.

This is the tip of the iceberg, but before anybody tells you that these methods are too overbearing for a small team, I would suggest that’s a short-sighted view.

At my company, we practice this in a team of small developers for mobile, desktop, and Web apps.   The result is that, in over two years, we have not suffered data loss or corruption in the Web site, which handles our registration, e-commerce, etc. Additionally, we have caught many things that would have been problematic for users if they’d been released.  Similarly, regression testing in mobile and desktop apps had kept us from releasing versions of the software that don’t work on all of the supported platforms and has saved us a lot of customer difficulties.

I hope this is helpful, and I invite you to comment.  Good luck.

Gaige B. Paulsen is a technologist and entrepreneur.  He is currently founder and president of ClueTrust, makers of Cartographica and CartoMobile, Geospatial products for MacOS X and iOS.

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Why SharePoint 2010 Is Ideal for Associations and Nonprofits

December 7th, 2011
Posted by: admin

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President

ASAE’s Technology Conference and Expo is here in Washington, DC, from December 6-8, 2011.  It sparked an idea for this week’s blog: why SharePoint 2010 fits the needs of associations and nonprofits so well.

Increasingly, nonprofits and associations are turning to hosting companies like ours for help in developing a hosting solution for their SharePoint 2010 platform.  Of course, being a successful supplier takes much more than having technical expertise.  We know that in order to deliver the solutions that these organizations need, we must understand the special challenges they face.

At AISN, because our staff has worked for and with nonprofits, we have a clear grasp on how and why nonprofits use SharePoint differently.  For example, before coming to AISN, I worked in communications for the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA), two not-for-profit trade associations.  I get it.  Experiences such as these enable us all to understand clearly that frugality is everything in a nonprofit environment.  Looking closely at strategy and execution, staying within budget and getting it right the first time is crucial.

AIS Network Nonprofits

SharePoint 2010 benefits organizational outreach efforts led by volunteer organizations, trade associations and other nonprofits.

So,  do I think SharePoint 2010 can be helpful for associations and nonprofits?

Absolutely!   Without a doubt, relationship management is the single-most important function for any trade association, nonprofit, membership society, volunteer organization, charity or “.org”—large or small.  As I learned at NAREIT and BSA, do it well and you increase the loyalty of staff, members, donors, volunteers, vendors, the media and the public at large.  Do it poorly, and you risk losing your stakeholders — essentially, your lifeline.

Therein lies the challenge.  Providing world-class member services is a tall order for an organization that may already be operating with limited staff on a modest budget.  Your world is already buzzing with conferences and meetings, products, dues, chapters, lobbying and government affairs, research, publications, marketing, education, communications, community, online content and e-commerce.  The last thing your staff needs is to be weighed down by redundant administrative and communications tasks that result in administrative waste, lost revenue and member or donor dissatisfaction.

SharePoint 2010 allows you to implement a comprehensive collaborative platform for your nonprofit organization, no matter your role, without feeling overwhelmed by the task.  Wait.  Are we talking about the same SharePoint 2010 used by businesses and government agencies around the world?  Yes.  SharePoint, you’ll find, is ideally suited for nonprofits because it is:

  • Highly configurable and scalable.
  • A source for valuable customer relationship management (CRM) tools.
  • Great for tools that facilitate constituent outreach (social networking, Internet sites, portals, private communities, etc.).
  • Super for document management, collaborative environments, business intelligence, etc.
  • Known for its litany of custom apps.
  • Supported by a strong community of SharePoint experts/bloggers, who routinely provide valuable free help .

What’s the ROI? SharePoint 2010 gives you a return on investment in several ways.  Use it to:

  • Improve effectiveness, saving money and positively impacting your cause.
  • Empower your subject matter experts to share information easily through a single knowledge-management system.
  • Support cross-department collaboration, driving efficiency and breaking down the silos.
  • Mobilize constituents quickly around important issues when they arise.
  • Share data across all chapters, affiliates, partners and other cooperating organizations.
  • Automate procedures and track data efficiently using core workflow, security, governance, document permissions and records retention features.

Dare to break down silos. Each of your departments is driven by specific goals and objectives as established by your organization’s board and leadership. But, how do you make sure that you are maximizing sharing the content among all of your departments, leadership and other stakeholders?

With SharePoint 2010, you get the flexibility of a platform that makes it easy for all of your subject matter experts to share information. Putting into place tools that support cross-department collaboration makes your organization more efficient and breaks down the silos that naturally evolve. Information can be indexed and rendered easily searchable for effective knowledge management and business intelligence.  Plus, SharePoint’s document management capabilities ensure better member service, volunteer coordination and donor participation.

As an experienced public affairs professional, I appreciate SharePoint’s ability to help nonprofits manage constituent relationships.  Through SharePoint, you can communicate effectively and engage your publics:

  • Mobilize them quickly around important issues when they arise.
  • Understand member adoption of key issues, products and services through reporting and analytics.
  • Collaborate with board members, committees and task forces.
  • Share data across all chapters, affiliates, partners and other cooperating organizations.
  • Provide educational opportunities.
  • Build intranets, extranets and public-facing Web sites.

Have a look at our Web page focused on SharePoint for associations and nonprofits and see also our page addressing SharePoint for Internet Sites.  I like the Conservation International case study on that SharePoint FIS page.  Be sure to watch the video.

These pages also respond to the question, “Why Host SharePoint 2010?”  Quite simply, by hosting your SharePoint platform, you’re likely to get a world-class Service Level Agreement that offers the security, availability and accessibility you need to meet all of the IT challenges and changes you face.  100% guaranteed too.

Are you working for a nonprofit that uses SharePoint?  What do you like about it?   Let me know your thoughts.  Feel free to comment below.

 

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