The Evolution of SharePoint Online Collaboration
April 14, 2015
SharePoint Online is quickly playing catch up to the on-premises version, but the fact that they weren’t identical from the start is still perplexing. Tech Target explores the topic further in their article, “Following the SharePoint Online Collaboration Evolution.”
The article sums up the current situation:
“To an outsider, it would appear that SharePoint would have been the perfect one-to-one on-premises and cloud server option, considering it’s a Web-based option. However, it’s more complex than a move in data center location that’s local to Microsoft. And in terms of development, much of the effort has gone into the option that will drive the migration to Office 365 and the revenue from such a move, which is Exchange Online.”
Hybrid enablement is one area that SharePoint 2016 watchers are keeping a close eye on, as part of an overall focus on bringing more Office 365 experiences to on-premises customers. On the other side of the coin, certain online features are being strengthened by their reliance on SharePoint on-site under the hood. Look for Delva, Office 365, and OneDrive for Business among others. Overall, the future of SharePoint is exciting but still coming into focus. Keep an eye on ArnoldIT.com, a Web service run by a longtime search expert Stephen E. Arnold. His SharePoint feed will make additional SharePoint news accessible as it becomes available.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 14, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Bing Predicts it Will Have Decent Results
April 13, 2015
Bing is considered a search engine joke, but it might be working its way as a viable search solution…maybe. MakeUseOf notes, “How Bing Predicts Has Become So Good” due to Microsoft actually listening to its users and improving the search results with the idea that “Bing is for doing.” One way Microsoft is putting its search engine to work is with Bing Predicts, a tool that predicts who win competitions, weather, and other information analyzed from popular searches, social media, regional trends, and more.
It takes a bit more for Predicts to divine sporting event outcomes, for those Bing relies on historic team data, key player data, opinions from top news sources, and pre-game report predictions.
“Microsoft researcher, and serial predictor David Rothschild believes the prediction engine is ‘an interesting way to show users that Bing has a lot of horsepower beyond just providing good search results.’ Data is everything. Even regular Internet users understand the translation of data to power, so Microsoft’s bold step forward with their predictions underscores the confidence in their own algorithms, and their ability to handle the data coming into Redmond.”
Other than predicting games and the next American Idol winner, Bing Predicts has application for social fields and industry. Companies are already implementing some forms of future analysis and for social causes it can be used to predict the best ways to conserve resources, medicinal supplies, food, and even conservatism.
Whitney Grace, April 13, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
A Former Googler Reflects
April 10, 2015
After a year away from Google, blogger and former Googler Tim Bray (now at Amazon) reflects on what he does and does not miss about the company in his post, “Google + 1yr.” Anyone who follows his blog, ongoing, knows Bray has been outspoken about some of his problems with his former employer: First, he really dislikes “highly-overprivileged” Silicon Valley and its surrounds, where Google is based. Secondly, he found it unsettling to never communicate with the “actual customers paying the bills,” the advertisers.
What does Bray miss about Google? Their advanced bug tracking system tops the list, followed closely by the slick and efficient, highly collaborative internal apps deployment. He was also pretty keen on being paid partially in Google stock between 2010 and 2014. The food on campus is everything it’s cracked up to be, he admits, but as a remote worker, he rarely got to sample it.
It was a passage in Bray’s “neutral” section that most caught my eye, though. He writes:
“The number one popular gripe against Google is that they’re watching everything we do online and using it to monetize us. That one doesn’t bother me in the slightest. The services are free so someone’s gotta pay the rent, and that’s the advertisers.
“Are you worried about Google (or Facebook or Twitter or your telephone company or Microsoft or Amazon) misusing the data they collect? That’s perfectly reasonable. And it’s also a policy problem, nothing to do with technology; the solutions lie in the domains of politics and law.
“I’m actually pretty optimistic that existing legislation and common law might suffice to whack anyone who really went off the rails in this domain.
“Also, I have trouble getting exercised about it when we’re facing a wave of horrible, toxic, pervasive privacy attacks from abusive governments and actual criminals.”
Everything is relative, I suppose. Still, I think it understandable for non-insiders to remain a leery about these companies’ data habits. After all, the distinction between “abusive government” and businesses is not always so clear these days.
Cynthia Murrell, April 10, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Microsoft Streamlining Update Process for SharePoint 2016
April 9, 2015
One of the most frequent complaints from SharePoint users and administrators is the cumbersome update process. It seems that Microsoft is listening and finally responding. Read more in the Redmond Channel Partner article, “Microsoft To Revamp Update Process for SharePoint 2016.”
The article sums up the news:
“The process of updating SharePoint Server will become less cumbersome in the next version of the product, according to a Microsoft executive. Speaking about the upcoming SharePoint 2016 during an IT Unity-hosted talk last Friday, Bill Baer, a Microsoft senior technical product manager and a Microsoft Certified Master for SharePoint, said that IT pros will get smaller updates and that applying them will entail less downtime for organizations.”
Less downtime for organizations will be a welcome change. Stephen E. Arnold is a longtime search expert, and has followed SharePoint through its ups and downs. He often finds that though SharePoint is the most widely adopted enterprise solution, its complicated nature and poor user experience often lead to perceived failures. Keep up with the latest SharePoint news on ArnoldIT.com, specifically the dedicated SharePoint feed, to determine if the streamlining of updates leads to higher marks for SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 9, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
EBay Develops Open Source Pulsar for Real Time Data Analysis
April 2, 2015
A new large-scale, real-time analytics platform has been launched in response to one huge company’s huge data needs. VentureBeat reports, “EBay Launches Pulsar, an Open-Source Tool for Quickly Taming Big Data.” EBay has made the code available under an open-source license. It seems traditional batch processing systems, like that found in the widely used open-source Hadoop, just won’t cut it for eBay. That puts them in good company; Google, Microsoft, Twitter, and LinkedIn have each also created their own stream-processing systems.
Shortly before the launch, eBay released a whitepaper on the project, “Pulsar—Real-time Analytics at Scale.” It describes the what and why behind Pulsar’s design; check it out for the technical details. The whitepaper summarizes itself:
“In this paper we have described the data and processing model for a class of problems related to user behavior analytics in real time. We describe some of the design considerations for Pulsar. Pulsar has been in production in the eBay cloud for over a year. We process hundreds of thousands of events/sec with a steady state loss of less than 0.01%. Our pipeline end to end latency is less than a hundred milliseconds measured at the 95th percentile. We have successfully operated the pipeline over this time at 99.99% availability. Several teams within eBay have successfully built solutions leveraging our platform, solving problems like in-session personalization, advertising, internet marketing, billing, business monitoring and many more.”
For updated information on Pulsar, monitor their official website at gopulsar.io.
Cynthia Murrell, April 2, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Mistakes to Avoid When Migrating to Office 365
April 2, 2015
Sadly, many migrations are considered failures by the organization and users, even if all the content survives. Why is this the case? Well, user experience usually suffers greatly. Redmond Magazine offers more insight and advice in their article, “5 Mistakes To Avoid When Migrating from SharePoint to Office 365.”
The article starts with a mention of the upcoming SharePoint 2016 release, and the every evolving Office 365 before stating:
“The question for many organizations isn’t whether to stay with SharePoint — rather, IT managers are grappling with how to advance its use in the most strategic and cost-effective way possible. As organizations consider a myriad of options from Microsoft, it becomes essential to have not only a long-term strategic technology vision — but also a SharePoint migration and upgrade roadmap that’s big on efficiency and low on cost.“
It is easy to be shortsighted. And while planning is hard and cumbersome, having a long-term plan is one of the only ways to avoid some of the mistakes mentioned in the article. Stephen E. Arnold is another resource to consider when planning. His Web site, ArnoldIT.com, is a top destination for the latest news in search, including SharePoint. His SharePoint feed provides a one-stop-shop for all the latest tips and tricks to assist your organization with their SharePoint planning.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 2, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
SharePoint Fest Coming to Seattle
March 31, 2015
SharePoint training and education is essential for any SharePoint manager and daily user. The updates and changes are so constant that a concerted effort must be made to stay on top of the latest news. One way to stay in touch is to attend a conference, which provides a concentrated burst of information. SharePoint Fest is one notable event and the details of SharePoint Fest 2015 are available in the Benzinga article, “SharePoint Fest Announced for Seattle Washington August 18-20.”
The article begins:
“After an attendance setting record conference in Washington DC, SharePoint Fest will be setting its sights on Seattle. This 13th iteration of SharePoint Fest will take place in Microsoft’s backyard at the Washington State Convention Center . . . The event will consist of pre-conference workshops on August 18th, followed by a two-day conference August 19-20.”
For those who are interested in a daily, low-investment way to stay on top of the latest SharePoint developments, consider ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold is a long-time expert in search, and his dedicated SharePoint feed is a concentrated place for SharePoint news, tips, and tricks. Consider adding an ArnoldIT reading it to your daily routine.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 31, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Microsoft Changes Its Tune on SharePoint Server Update
March 30, 2015
In February, Microsoft announced an unpopular decision to push future SharePoint server product updates through Windows Update. The concern was that the service would automatically install “important” updates, which could pose a threat if no prior testing had been done. However, it appears that Microsoft has heard the frustration and repealed that decision. Redmond Magazine covers the latest in their article, “Microsoft Rescinds Windows Update Policy for SharePoint Server.”
The article quotes Microsoft’s Stefan Gossner:
“In response to a question in his post, Gossner clarified that ‘now the decision was made to only release security fixes through Windows Update.’ In other words, the new policy is now the same as the old one. Microsoft won’t push down product updates through its Windows Update service. The rollback decision may give IT pros some peace of mind as they regain a modicum of control over their production environments.”
Without forced pushed updates, IT pros have the time to test updates before launching them. For organizations that are affected by Microsoft’s policies and decisions, stay tuned to ArnoldIT.com. Stephen E. Arnold a lifelong leader in all things search. His Web site features a devoted SharePoint feed, where the latest tips, tricks, and news is shared. It is a simple way to keep an eye out for the good, bad, and the ugly of SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 30, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Microsoft Delve and PowerBi Make Data User Friendly
March 30, 2015
Microsoft Delve is a new part of the Office 365 package and it is similar to Facebook Graph Search or your Internet browsing history. ChannelWorld posted “Microsoft Rolls Out Delve To Office 365, Previews PowerBi And Skype For Business.” Microsoft will release Delve soon and it comes as demand for relationship-building tools grow in demand. Delve tracks information from Office 365 applications such as Outlook, PowerPoint, Bing, Word, and more. Microsoft is calling the collected data the Office Graph, showing how people interact with the software.
PowerBI is another rollout from Microsoft:
“Microsoft also announced that it has now rolled out the technical preview of PowerBI for Excel around the world, following its launch a year ago. PowerBI is designed to be a tool for non-techies to access technical data, quickly composing their own sales reports through natural-language queries against robust data sources–typing in a query like “what was our most popular product in Brazil last year?” should deliver a graph or even a map of those results. Incorporating Google Analytics, Microsoft Dynamics Marketing, Acumatica, Zuora and Twilio will come soon, Microsoft said.”
Microsoft will also incorporate Skype in Office 365. Office 365’s is one of Microsoft’s most viable products and people have complained they have not done much with it in recent years. Upgrades like Skype, Delve, and OfficeBI demonstrate that Microsoft is still invested in making Office 365 a competitive, usable, and reliable product.
Whitney Grace, March 30, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
Glimpses of SharePoint 2016 on the Way
March 26, 2015
The tech world is excited for the upcoming SharePoint 2016 release. Curious parties will be glad to hear that sneak peaks will be coming this spring. Read more in the CMS Wire article, “Microsoft Leaks Offer a Glimpse of SharePoint 2016.”
The article lays out some of the details:
“Microsoft has started leaking news about SharePoint 2016 — and they suggest the company plans to showcase an early edition at Ignite, its upcoming all-in-one conference for everyone from senior decision makers, IT pros and “big thinkers” and to enterprise developers and architects. In a just released podcast, Bill Baer, senior product manager for SharePoint, said the company will offer a look at the latest version of SharePoint at the conference, which will be held in Chicago from May 4 through 8.”
Some experts have already weighed in with predictions for SharePoint 2016 features: hybrid search and improved user experience among them. Stephen E. Arnold will also be keeping an eye on the new version, reporting his findings on his dedicated SharePoint feed. He has devoted his career to all things search, including SharePoint, and keeps readers informed on his Web site ArnoldIT.com. Stay tuned for more updates on SharePoint 2016 as it becomes available.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 26, 2015
Stephen E Arnold, Publisher of CyberOSINT at www.xenky.com
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