Posts Tagged ‘SharePoint’

How License Mobility Removes Barriers to Going to the Cloud

July 19th, 2011
Posted by: Michael Emrich

Cloud Computing Man, AIS Network

AIS Network takes SharePoint to the Cloud.

By Bill Peters
AIS Network Director of Sales

Thinking of moving to the cloud, but don’t want to see your Microsoft software with Software Assurance become shelfware?

We can help.  AIS Network is the first SharePoint 2010-focused hosting company in the world to become a Microsoft Authorized License Mobility Partner.

There are many reasons why a company may be hesitant about moving their on-premise SharePoint environment to the cloud. A big reason has been that companies do not want to abandon their capital investment in software bought through their Enterprise Agreement or other Microsoft volume licensing programs.

Client Access Licenses, purchased through Enterprise Agreements, are perpetual Microsoft licenses that a company may place “on premise,” or on its own servers.  Up until recently, the catch with CALs was the part about “on premise.”  In general, this software could only be placed on servers owned by the company who owned the software, and not on the servers of another provider, such as a managed hosting company.

This could be a real impediment to a company that had already invested in CALs if they wanted to move their applications to the cloud, because they would be unable to do so without getting new licenses from their hosting provider.   Microsoft has a different licensing model for hosted server applications, called SALs (Subscriber Access Licenses).  Unlike CALs, you do not own SALs – you pay a monthly fee to rent them.  Rather than buy and own software (CALs), companies get subscriptions (SALs) to the software from their hosting company.

This is a more predictable investment in that you have a monthly fee to access the software with no significant capex. Server software bought using the CAL system requires an expensive initial investment, but it guarantees the software for life if Software Assurance is included, which, over time, may have a lower cost of ownership.

That all changed on July 1st.  Microsoft is now offering a service called License Mobility through Software Assurance. What “License Mobility” means is that customers with active Software Assurance coverage on their CAL-licensed products can use their CAL-licensed software with a hosting company, rather than only on their own servers. Instead of paying a monthly subscription fee in addition to software you already own, you can just use the software that is already yours — in the cloud.  Depending on the actual environment, there may be a small monthly fee (a fraction of the full SAL fee) for this privilege. In addition to SharePoint Server, other software eligible for License Mobility includes Exchange Server, Lync, SQL Server, Dynamics CRM software, and System Center servers.

License Mobility removes another barrier that companies face while going to the cloud. No longer will previously purchased software need to become shelfware. If that has been a major factor in keeping you from going to the cloud, then you now have a compelling business case to consider moving to the cloud.

Are you looking for license mobility?  We can help.  Contact me directly at bill(dot)peters(@)aisn(dot)net.

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Need SharePoint, but Do Not Need a High Level of Flexibility? Microsoft Now Has You Covered.

June 28th, 2011
Posted by: Michael Emrich

By Michael Emrich – Associate, Marketing & Sales

Today, Microsoft is rolling out its latest service package, Office 365. In what is essentially Microsoft’s follow-up to its Business Productivity Online Services lineup, Microsoft is now offering, in the cloud, its lineup of desktop applications and server products in one virtual box. One of the more prominent offerings in this package is SharePoint 2010. With Office 365, businesses now have the opportunity to purchase an out-of-the-box version of SharePoint, ready to go – without having to shoulder the capital expenditures of hosting SharePoint themselves.

This is great news for lower-level SharePoint users – the ones who just need a basic version of it for their needs. Not much customization or personalization, just the basic meat and potatoes of SharePoint. Office 365’s SharePoint-powered web apps allow you to collaborate on the creation of documents in real-time over the Internet, access SharePoint on your mobile device, and ensures a consistent format that guarantees documents will be readable on any computer and any edition of Microsoft Office. Those abilities will improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of content creation.

However, for the high-end SharePoint users who need SharePoint tailored to them like a fine Italian suit, Office 365’s offering is just too constricted to meet their highly-dynamic and fluid needs. That’s where SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server add significant value and flexibility, whether you choose to host it yourself or contract with a SharePoint hosting services provider.  While self-hosting may seem attractive initially, the high capital expenditures associated with it make the use of third party companies an extremely appealing option.

Ultimately, SharePoint hosting depends on the need of the business. Office 365 is very convenient if just a basic level SharePoint platform is needed and you don’t mind writing a monthly check to Microsoft.  Self-hosting may be ideal if you’re set up for “build-it-yourself” — which is to say you’ve already invested in an IT infrastructure, training and staff, and have limited scalability requirements. In between, however, is SharePoint hosting outsourced to a third party, which preserves your capital dollars and keeps your infrastructure costs variable.  It also allows you to customize to the hilt, scale rapidly, and sleep well knowing that your servers are in a secure data center with 24x7x365 oversight.  Plus, you get access to significant resources, namely a talented staff of SharePoint hosting experts.

So, with self-hosting and Microsoft Office 365 available, you’ll find a good fit if your flexibility needs are at either of the extremes on the flexibility spectrum. However, for those who find themselves in between two extremes, hosted SharePoint Foundation and SharePoint Server are still the perfect match.

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Microsoft SharePoint For Small Businesses

May 3rd, 2011
Posted by: admin

Guest Blog

By Steven Nichols, Mission Critical Systems

Many small businesses have found huge gains in using SharePoint to address specific business problems with measurable results. In many cases, the free version of the software (WSS) is sufficient to deliver huge value, and the cost is consequently very reasonable for the tightest of budgets.

The key, of course, is to take an iterative approach and ensure that each version addresses a specific and pressing business problem. Here are 5 typical small business SharePoint solutions.

Information Distribution
Many small businesses have documents and information that is common to all employees or to groups of employees. Make this content “Self-service” by posting it to the intranet site.

  • Human Resources documents – employee manuals, vacation request forms, employee contact lists, emergency contact lists etc.
  • Client files – current contracts, contact information, meeting notes, expense forms etc.
  • Operations files – reports, accounting files, procedures, vendor contact lists etc.

Document Management
Some document management systems can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and require hours of training to understand. SharePoint is a great solution for small businesses that need document management, but don’t care to spend and arm and a leg.

  • Versioning controls – Keep straight who made what changes and when. Roll back to previous versions and undo changes.
  • Document Security – Limit access to certain documents (for instance HR Documents) and monitor who has opened or changed a document.
  • Document Collaboration – Organize the process of multiple people contributing to the same document.
  • Document approval – Send documents for review or approval from other users.

Project Management
Most project management programs are designed for large projects with lots of interworking parts. Small businesses usually have the opposite, many small projects and no way to organize diverse work. If 10 people are working on 20 projects, then who is doing what and when are they doing it?

Though Microsoft SharePoint isn’t a good fit to manage a large project for a large business, it does very well with small projects. The program can generate simple Gant charts, create collaborative virtual workspaces, organize calendars (which integrate with Microsoft Outlook), and in general, keep track of all of the balls in the air.

Collaboration
Microsoft SharePoint is probably best known as collaboration software. Users can share ideas on meetings, documents, events, contacts, and really any content that fits in the site.

In a small business, each individual employee is proportionally much more important to the company, and typically fills multiple rolls. If that employee leaves for any reason, the loss of their knowledge can be devastating. Microsoft SharePoint is a way for those individuals to share their experience with the rest of the company.

Wikis, bulletined boards, and discussion pages keep employees sharing ideas, collaborating, and working together.

Client Portals
The value of a SharePoint site can easily be extended to a key vendor, supplier, or client. Collaborate, manage projects, manage documents, and distribute reports and other information through a Microsoft SharePoint site.

If the site allows access to users outside of your network, certain compliancy, security, and policy considerations have to be made, but in limited application, this can be a very effective way to work with the other companies and individuals that are most important to the business finding success.

Small Businesses can be more efficient and effective with SharePoint
SharePoint allows a small business to quickly and inexpensively develop a fully functioning intranet site with great functionality, design, and structure. Microsoft SharePoint can be a very valuable application for small businesses.

Mission Critical Systems is an experienced Microsoft SharePoint development and training company that helps small businesses get the most out of the software. We believe SharePoint should be used to solve business problems and make companies more effective and profitable. Please contact us for more information.

http://www.mcstech.net/sharepoint-training-customization.cfm

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

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Happy Birthday, SharePoint! A Decade of Success….

March 30th, 2011
Posted by: admin

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President, Marketing Communications

Happy 10th Birthday this week, Microsoft SharePoint!  We are proud to have hosted Microsoft SharePoint nearly as long.

The first of SharePoint’s four releases debuted in March 2001.  Weeks later, AISN’s SharePoint guru was installing SharePoint Team Services 1.0.

Today, SharePoint is in use by an estimated 100 million people all over the world.  That’s some success!

According to an article by Mary-Jo Foley in ZDNet, Microsoft has been adding SharePoint users at the rate of 20,000 per day – for the last five years.  That works out to 7.3 million new SharePoint users each year.

The next version of SharePoint, SharePoint 15, is scheduled to hit the market around 2013.

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SharePoint 2010: Configuring an Installation

March 15th, 2011
Posted by: admin

By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President, Marketing Communications

So, you know your organization needs hosted Microsoft® SharePoint® 2010.  What are the next steps?

Which version of hosted SharePoint 2010 is best for your organization?  Should it be hosted in a cloud environment?  Is a single server adequate?

These are good questions, and AIS Network’s expert staff can help you make sense of all the considerations involved in determining an optimal SharePoint 2010 architecture.

 

Getting Started With SharePoint 2010

The choice of Foundation vs. Standard vs. Enterprise is not based on the size of your installation or even the number of users.  Rather, it is based on how SharePoint will be used within your organization.  What functionality will the end users require?  Which SharePoint features will solve their business problems?

 

Why isn’t a SharePoint configuration based on the number of users? The number of end users is less meaningful than what they’re doing with the application. For example, if 100 users all log onto SharePoint and don’t do anything except stare at their home page, there is absolutely no burden placed on the server(s).  If the 100 users do only their wiki or blog updates, there is minimal impact on the SharePoint server(s).  If the 100 users click and go from one page to another to look at media files, there is also only minimal impact on the server(s).  If, however, all 100 users are uploading documents, downloading documents, and searching through documents, then the server(s) may be seriously impacted.

 

Why focus on functionality and features? SharePoint 2010 has so many cool features that the temptation to turn on all the features is irresistible.

But, bear in mind that the manner in which those SharePoint features are utilized will significantly impact the architecture of your solution.  It may mean adding one or more servers, so that’s why it’s important to comprehend fully how SharePoint will be utilized by the end users.

For example, want a daily content crawl for 100,000 documents totaling 90GB?  It’s entirely feasible.  However, if you have everything residing on a single server,  it may take up to 12 hours to complete if you are simultaneously running your system and SQL server backups.  An end user attempting to access SharePoint while this crawl/backup process is in progress may find that the system performs poorly, freezing up at times because it cannot readily access its databases.  That’s why if you were planning to give your end users all the features and leave it to them to figure out on their own which are best suited to their needs, you should resist that urge now.  Ask them for their input and simply plan ahead.

 

SharePoint Installations:  Some Due Diligence Questions to Ask

To get started on configuring a SharePoint 2010 installation, take several first steps:

 

1) Estimate your SharePoint user numbers. SharePoint 2010 is a database-driven application; everything is managed and presented via the SQL server database.  Knowing the number of users is going to drive your storage requirements, which also affects performance.  You should also be able to define who they are.  Are the end users casual, daily, concurrent or critical?  Are they employees?  Contractors?  Clients?

 

2) Determine how SharePoint will be utilized by the end users. What specific business problems are you trying to solve for end users within – and even outside of – your organization?  What end user expectations are there?

 

3) Decide what features you need. The required features not only determine the architecture of your solution but they also dictate what version of the server software you should use.  For example, if the ability to have (Excel, Access, Visio, etc.) forms and data access displayed directly within a SharePoint Web site is required, then the Enterprise version of the software is required.

 

4) Ask the right questions. To determine sizing, versions, and hosting environment, here are some initial questions that you must first ask yourself:

Access

  • How will users log in?
  • Will you be using Active Directory?
  • Will you require Anonymous user access from the Internet?

Content

  • Is this an Intranet, Extranet or Internet Web site?
  • Documents and files are a big factor in determining storage requirements.  How many do you anticipate?  What types of content exist (surveys, images/graphics, forms, discussion boards, lists, etc.)?
  • What are the average sizes of your documents/files?  Is that static?  How often will it change?  Weekly?  Monthly?  Yearly?
  • Will the content be made available to all users or to controlled groups of users?
  • Will any content require user permission assignments or an approval process before users can see it?
  • Do you require a collaboration workspace for end users to work on documents, projects or meetings?
  • Will you require daily content crawls?

Search

  • Will you be using the Fast Search feature?
  • Are advanced search features needed?  Will users be able to narrow their search results via selecting search topics?
  • Do users need to be able to search for content on a specific site?  Or, on a server?

Services & Support

  • What services do end users require?  Status reports, online payroll, human resource policies, etc.?
  • What level of interaction will end users require?  How often?  Short-term or long-term?
  • What are your setup, support and administrative needs?  Who will fulfill those on an ongoing basis?
  • Have you designated administrative roles (site manager, security manager, etc.)?

Custom Development

  • Do you know if you will be using Web parts?  Any third party Web parts?
  • Will direct access to MS Office applications/ other applications be required?
  • Do you need custom functionality?

 

5) Review AISN’s SharePoint 2010 pricing guide. Download our “Standard Configurations for a Dedicated Server Environment” and review the SharePoint 2010 pricing Web page to determine which additional features and options might be attractive to your organization.   Remember:  Underestimating size requirements for the SharePoint environment can lead to problems down the road.  For multiple reasons, squeezing everything into one server may not be optimal, so planning ahead is critical.

 

6) Contact AISN’s expert staff for a consultation and proposal quote. We’ve been hosting Microsoft products almost as long as we’ve been in business and can answer a litany of questions.  We’ll guide you through the process and help you make smart choices.  Good luck!

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SharePoint Conference.Org in Baltimore a Hit

March 10th, 2011
Posted by: admin

By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

Great time at the SharePoint conference presented by SusQtech this week.  The presentations were varied — from technical to business function to design, which kept it interesting.

Even though there was a tremendous amount of information presented, the environment was friendly and upbeat and conducive to both learning and networking.

Obviously, one of the major themes of the conference was SharePoint 2010.  From highlighting the improved functionality over SP 2007, to the obstacles and opportunities presented by upgrading to 2010, it was very informative.

As one of the first companies to host SharePoint 2010, we at AISN understand the excitement surrounding it.  We believe in it strongly, and it was great to see so much enthusiasm for it in the wider community.

 

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SharePoint 2010 Best Practices for Governance

November 4th, 2010
Posted by: admin

By Jay Atkinson
AIS Network CEO

Governance is an important part of any SharePoint deployment. It covers key topics like roles and responsibilities, processes and policies. To be useful and effective, your SharePoint 2010 implementation should have clear goals, incorporate user input and include clear policies.

Microsoft’s ”SharePoint 2010 Governance White Paper,” authored by leading SharePoint experts Scott Jamison and Susan Hanley, discusses these issues in some depth and offers helpful best practices. You can find it available for download in our SharePoint 2010 FAQ section.

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