Understanding Microsoft Specifications for Designing a SharePoint Farm
June 1, 2012
In the eighth part of his SharePoint 2010 series, Robert Schifreen explains how he found that reading between the lines is an essential part of understanding Microsoft’s approach to specifications. His full account is relayed in, “Designing a SharePoint Farm: Tiers before Bedtime.” Schifreen decided on the three-tier model as the best architecture for performance in his farm: the first tier for SharePoint server IIS processes, the second tier for three more SharePoint servers doing all non-IIS things, and the third tier for an SQL Server.
Schifreen goes on to explain:
Having decided on a farm architecture, we also needed to think about the storage architecture too. The web, and especially TechNet, is full of warnings that storage can be the major bottleneck, and that it’s best to split the major data paths across separate physical drives. We originally drew up a plan that saw us using around 20 separate drive volumes on the SQL server, to include content databases, non-content databases, search indexes, transaction logs, tempdb, and so on.
But after further research, the team came up with a different method:
A subsequent session with SharePoint 911 convinced us that this was not a wise move because it would be too difficult to manage. Also, our SAN should be able to take care of ironing out any storage bottlenecks anyway. So we decided to start off with a couple of 1.6TB volumes, to put all the databases on those, and then to request further volumes from our SAN people as and when required. Moving a database from one volume to another, within the same SQL server, is relatively painless.
Overall, the post provides some practical insight into the design process. While SharePoint is a powerful and ubiquitous program, Schifreen points out that the data limits are a little deceiving as there are limitations with 1.6 terabytes. To round out your SharePoint system, consider a third party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise.
Here you can read about the cost-efficient solution:
Company knowledge and the information in the Cloud are constantly growing. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze web client is the driving force behind the information pairing. It makes the access to knowledge user-friendly and easy. Correlations and links are semantically recognized and displayed. This provides your employees with a flexible, dynamic, yet still easy to use platform that grows with you. This is the professional implementation of Unified Information Access.
Navigate to http://www.mindbreeze.com/ to learn more.
Philip West, June 1, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Considerations for Virtualizing SharePoint 2010 Database Server
May 31, 2012
As part of continuing coverage of Robert Schifreen’s SharePoint 2010 series, we’re looking at his seventh installment, “To Virtualise or not to Virtualise.” Schifreen explains the practical, detailed decisions about configuration and resources, starting with virtualization.
While virtualization provides for the ability to consolidate multiple virtual guests within a single physical server by sharing the physical resources across the virtual machine, experts have differing opinions on virtualizing the SharePoint database server. But in Schifreen’s experience, the advantages outweighed any potential downfalls. He has this to say about the process:
In addition, some experts suggest that any more than two virtual CPUs is actually a bad move, since the server spends too much time waiting for CPUs to become available. This is something we’ll need to watch. We also took on board a widely held opinion that, on a virtual database server, you should not use auto-growing, thin-provisioned databases because it’s too easy for the hypervisor to lose track of how much free space you actually have. You’ll need to change some of the defaults in SQL Server because they’re not suitable for SharePoint.
Virtualization may be the path you want to take with your farm. It can reduce hardware costs, increase server utilization, lessen environmental impact, improve service levels, and extend the life of legacy systems. Schifreen’s article may be worth the read if you’re considering virtualization. And while you’re looking to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency, consider a powerful search feature to help you get the most return on your SharePoint investments. An IDC Study found that Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per year through focused finding of data, “an invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.”
We also like the feedback from Fabasoft Mindbreeze customers. The Chamber of Commerce, Upper Austria had this to say:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise provides our staff quickly and efficiently with all the information they need. The service center staff is able to respond to requests without delay, as all relevant information is found with only one query. This even further improves the quality of our customer services whilst simultaneously minimizing effort of our staff.
Look for quick results from an out of the box solution at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, May 31, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Lexalytics Uses Text Analytics to Find the Most Popular Superhero
May 31, 2012
The LexaBlog recently posted some interesting information about popular superheroes in the article “The Avengers: Most Popular Superhero?”
According to the article, writer Seth Redmore analyzed 330,000 tweets regarding the new Avengers superhero movie by sending out query topics on the main characters as well as the actors playing them.
Redmore breaks the information down for us with several charts showing the most to least popular characters as well as the most to least popular themes as well as hash-tags.
When discussing his process, Redmore states:
“This actually does a good job of showing why I wanted to create query topics for the superheroes. Many of their names come out looking more like themes than like proper “names”. Many of these themes aren’t particularly useful, so, I excluded a bunch of them when I was doing other sorts of analysis. Next, I decided to see what themes were most commonly associated with each of said superheroes. As I said before, I pulled out things like “watching avengers” when I was doing this analysis, as it adds nothing in terms of what people were associating with this character/actor.”
How will this aid your business? Send us your ideas via the comments section of this blog.
Jasmine Ashton, May 31, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Considerations before SharePoint Migration
May 30, 2012
The world of enterprise is now humming with news of migration – migration to the upcoming SharePoint 2013 release and also the currently available SharePoint Online. Writer Steven Pogrebivsky on CMS Wire gives his take in, “4 Considerations for Migrating to Office 365 and SharePoint Online.”
Pogrebivsky tackles the first, perhaps most important step, deciding what needs to move:
Chances are your content is not organized well, or tagged appropriately, so what’s the point moving it as is and having a big grey cloud? It doesn’t make sense. What makes sense is to carefully plan what content you really need to move, how it’s going to be used and by whom. Once you’ve done that, then work on your SharePoint Information Architecture. Plan your content types, metadata and keywords. If you are going to make the move to the cloud, move only the content you need and migrate it right from the start.
The author goes on to discuss security issues and having a proper backup system in place. These are all valid considerations. However, choosing a smart third party solution could mean that an organization does not have to address these challenges independently. We like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Mindbreeze offers an entire suite of solutions, centering around Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or more precisely understands exactly what the most important information is for you at any given moment. It’s a center of excellence and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud together.
Additional offerings from Mindbreeze surround the central product and offer features such as Connectors to other solutions. The Mindbreeze suite is now fully mobile and security is guaranteed based on the highest EU standards. Explore the Mindbreeze solutions for yourself and see how it can improve or supplant your next migration.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Low Profile Thetus Knows How to Party
May 30, 2012
Many companies plan work retreats for their employees as a way to get outside the office environment and refocus on the big picture. Thetus Corporation, a semantic technology developer, takes this concept seriously, according to their recent blog post “Thetus Takes on Pacific City for the 2012 Offsite.”
According to post, every year Thetus takes a different company retreat, called a “Thetus Offsite”, to a location within several hours of its downtown Portland office. This year they went to the coastal town of Pacific City.
The article states:
“These group meetings allow us to break away from our normal teams and collaborate with coworkers that we don’t interact with on a daily basis. We’ve found this helps employees see the whole process of product creation and look at our company and product from a different perspective. The offsite is a time for employees to share their ideas, from a new meeting system to the need for a hammock room in the office. It’s also a time to learn more about your coworkers.”
I think more companies should follow Thetus’s example and take the time to step outside of the regular 9 to 5 office environment to foster creativity and fun.
Jasmine Ashton, May 30, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Enterprise Content Management, Beyond SharePoint
May 29, 2012
Going beyond search, SharePoint 2010 is also capable of enterprise content management (ECM). Content management on any platform requires quite a bit of intentionality and planning, a task that can be daunting for any content management specialist. Jennifer Mason at CMS Wire gives users something to consider in, “SharePoint 2010: Enterprise Content Management for the Masses.”
Because there are so many pieces to consider, the best advice that can be given about getting started with the concept of records management is to start by planning. Before you ever look at the technology, you should work within your organization to ensure that you have a good set of requirements and an understanding of the overall management strategy. Once that is created, you can look at the various components required (such as Content Types and Metadata) and plan for the various elements you will need.
As Mason walks readers through various ECM features and how to use them, the advice is valuable. However, many users will benefit from a content management system that is more intuitive, requiring less customization. These smaller more nimble organizations should consider Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise.
Highly efficient enterprise search and specific connectors link together data sources in companies and organizations. They integrate the knowledge of different sections of a company into a uniform, linked whole. The award-winning high-tech product is your personal assistant. 24/7, 365 days a year. Regardless of which data you are looking for and with which system you are working with – Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise answers your questions with pinpoint accuracy.
Enterprise is not the only offering available from Mindbreeze, with an entire suite of solutions designed to connect the information needs of your entire organization. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is a leader in third party enterprise search solutions – see what it can do for your information needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, May 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Semantic Key Word Research
May 29, 2012
Keyword research is the time-tested, reliable way to locate information on the Internet and databases. There have been many changes to they way people use keyword research, some of them have stayed around and others have disappeared into the invisible web faster than a spambot hits a web site. The Search Engine Journal has come up with “5 Tips for Conducting Semantic Keyword Research” which believes that users “must recognize the semantic nature of the search engines’ indexing behaviors.”
For those without a dictionary handy, semantics refers to the meaning or interpretation of a word or phrase. When a user types a phrase into a search engine, it uses indexing (akin to browsing through a list of synonyms) to find other pertinent results.
A happy quack to http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu
So how do the tips measure up? Tip #1 has users create a list of “level 1” core keywords aka write a list of subject/keywords. This is the first step in any research project and most people will be familiar with it if they have completed elementary school. Pretty basic, but it builds the foundation for an entire project. Tip #2 delves farther by having users expand the first list by finding more supporting keywords that are not necessary tied to the main keyword, but are connected to others on the list. Again another elementary research tip, reach out and expand.
Tip #3 moves us away from the keyword lists and tells users to peruse their results and see what questions they can answer. After the users find what can be answered they make another list detailing their findings (so we didn’t step that far away from lists).
Tip #4 explains to combine tips #1-3, which will allow the users to outline their research and then write an article on the topic. Lastly. Tip #5 is a fare-thee-well, good luck, and write interesting content:
“One final tip for incorporating semantically-related keywords into your website’s content… Building these varied phrases into your web articles should help eliminate the stilted, unpleasant content that results from trying to stuff a single target keyword into your text a certain number of times.
However, it’s still important to focus on using your new keyword lists to write content that’s as appealing to your readers as it is to the search engines. If Google’s recent crackdowns on Web spam are any indication of its future intentions, it’s safe to say that the best long-term strategy is to use semantic keywords to enhance the value of your copy – without letting its optimization eclipse the quality of the information you deliver to your website visitors.”
What have we got here? Are the tips useful? Yes, they are, but they do not bring about new material about keyword searching. As mentioned earlier, these steps are taught as the very basic of elementary research: make a keyword list about your topic, find associated terms, read what you got, then write the report. It is true that many schools and higher education institutes do not teach the basics, thus so-called researchers lack these finite skills. Also people tend to forget the beginner’s steps. Two common mishaps that make articles like this necessary, but the more seasoned researcher will simply intone, “Duh!.”
Whitney Grace, May 29, 2012
Sponsored by Polyspot
Inteltrax: Top Stories, May 21 to May 25
May 28, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, the latest happenings with some of big data’s biggest names.
Our story, “Data Analytics Expert Points to the Crux of Big Data Issues,” looked at the CEO of Revolution Analytics and Digital Reasoning, catching up with their latest moves.
“EMC Provides a Lot of Analytic Good,” shows all the positive ways in which EMC is moving the analytic game ahead.
While, “MicroTech Wins Military Intelligence Contract” shows this up-and-coming firm making a name for itself with defense.
There are a million different directions that analytics are moving in at any given moment, but we’ll be providing snapshots of the scene, just like this, every day. Be sure to tune in.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
May 28, 2012
The Promises and Realities of SharePoint Database Management
May 28, 2012
Robert Schifreen has over 30 years of experience in reporting and implementing online technology with his latest projects focused on SharePoint installation. The positives and negatives of his experience are relayed in his post, “Attack of the BLOBs: Data Behaving Badly.” In this sixth installment of his SharePoint 2010 series, Schifreen analyzes the nuances of SharePoint databases.
Databases are the most important core of any farm as they store valuable content like user data, sites, documents, libraries, lists, calendars, wikis, and more. Schifreen explains some challenges with databases in SharePoint 2010:
You can have as many SQL databases as you like, but Microsoft recommends that you don’t allow any one database to grow larger than 200GB, after which performance apparently starts to degrade. It’s also best not to have individual drive volumes that run into tens of terabytes, because they’re a pain to back up. Microsoft has a solution to the problem of storing large data objects (BLOBs) in SQL databases, which is something called RBS or Remote Blob Storage. Each blob gets stored as a standard file on the file system and its entry in the database is replaced with a pointer to the external file.
He goes on to explain the complex nature of SharePoint architecture and RBS middleware. While a SharePoint deployment can get complicated quickly, it is important to analyze your environment and keep it simple until you need to add more complex features. Schifreen’s article is a good example of that process and may be worth the read. But we also know that a powerful search feature is necessary to navigate and get the most out of your SharePoint investments.
To fill in the search gaps in your SharePoint system, consider a third party application. We like the good reviews for the Fabasoft Mindbreeze suite of solutions. With clear navigation and a self-explanatory interface, Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise facilitates findability.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise finds every scrap of information within a very short time, whether document, contract, note, e-mail or calendar entry, in intranet or internet, person- or text-related. The software solution finds all required information, regardless of source, for its users. Get a comprehensive overview of corporate knowledge in seconds without redundancy or loss of data.
While databases can become convoluted, Mindbreeze can save employees time by connecting them to the right information via a user-friendly interface even with vast amounts of unstructured data. Navigate to http://www.mindbreeze.com/ to read more.
Philip West, May 28, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
InQuira Antecedents: Answerfriend and Electric Knowledge
May 26, 2012
I have had to look up the antecedents for InQuira again. I wanted to create this post to make it easy to reference these two firms which were combined to create InQuira. InQuira was acquired by Oracle Corp. in that company’s push to address its long-standing search and content processing issues. I have in my Overflight system the 2006 InQuira marketing collateral which, I noticed, provides a crib sheet for the many enterprise search vendors piling into the customer support segment. What’s interesting is that customer support is one of the sectors where open source search is getting some attention.
The antecedents of InQuira were:
- Answerfriend. The company had software which could understand text. In 2000, the company landed Accenture as a customer. Answerfriend pivoted on its natural language processing technology. Allegedly Answerfriend could handle both structured an unstructured data. Sound familiar in 2012?
- Electric Knowledge Inc. This also was an NLP shop. The technology was based on computational linguistic technology. This company had licensed its technology to Bank of America, an outfit which has had a long history of trying to find a search system which meets its requirements.
InQuira was created in 2002. The notion of hooking together two separate vendors to do the 1+1=3 thing has been used more recently by Lexalytics and Attensity.
At one time, InQuira was the answer system used by Yahoo’s customer support service. I encountered this when I tried to cancel a Yahoo service. The InQuira service was not too helpful to me. I just killed the credit card and solved the problem.
The marketing pitch of InQuira is as fresh today as it was in 2002. How much progress has there been in search and content processing in the last decade? Could the marketing collateral for a 2002 Oldsmobile be used without any changes? Probably not. Search has a limited supply of jargon, and it gets recycled endlessly in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, May 26, 2012
Sponsored by Polyspot
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