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Demystifying SharePoint. Milan Gross Principal Synergy Corporate Technologies. www.synergyonline.com/sg. About Milan Gross. Principal, Synergy - Asia Pacific Region Lead SharePoint Architect Invited Presenter at TechEd Co-Author of books on SharePoint 2007. Outline.
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Demystifying SharePoint Milan Gross Principal Synergy Corporate Technologies www.synergyonline.com/sg
About Milan Gross • Principal, Synergy - Asia Pacific Region • Lead SharePoint Architect • Invited Presenter at TechEd • Co-Author of books on SharePoint 2007
Outline • How to understand the complexity of SharePoint • How to plan a SharePoint deployment • How to gauge the cost of a SharePoint deployment • How to manage a SharePoint infrastructure • How to effectively scale your SharePoint farm • How to use SharePoint to unburden IT • How to govern SharePoint sites • How to design custom sites that meet corporate guidelines • How to extend SharePoint through SOA • How to automate business practices in SharePoint
Publishing Content to the Web Knowledge Discovery and Insight Collaboration and Sharing Employee Productivity Focus on Business Objectives Automate Business Workflow Secure Web Sites
Adopt an Iterative Process • Typical deployment cycle 3 months
Expect Organic Adoption HomeSalesWebHRWebProfile Functional Sites Menu control Project Site Sales ProductSite WS SalesWeb All FTE Office-All HR Web Office WS WS
Plan for success • Success may be your worst case scenario • Growth can be sudden and dramatic • Implement governance policies early
Only Deploy What You Need • Build a solid core server farm • Infrastructure can be easily expanded • Focus on services to your departments and users • Adoption will fund growth
Leverage the Vendor Ecosystem • SharePoint provides excellent value • Does NOT provide best-of-breed components • 3rd Party market DOES provide best-of-breed
Where Are The Savings? • MOSS provides greatest bang-for-the-buck • 90% Solution in most cases • Growing number of competing MS partners • Growing cadre of skilled professionals • 3rd Party vendors reduce development need
Staffing Levels • IT Staff needs comparable to Exchange Server • 2 Farm Administrators • 1 Search Administrator • 1 Portal Content Manager • Multiple Site Managers
Maintenance and Monitoring • SharePoint is a “living” system • Load and usage will change and evolve • Monitor for proactive maintenance • System Center Operations Manager 2007 • SharePoint Monitoring Toolkit • Adjust infrastructure to meet conditions
Training is Essential • SharePoint is too complex to learn as you go • Majority of problems result from ignorance • Training = Problem Prevention • Locate trainers with hands-on experience
Start with extensible farm • SharePoint Server • Web Front End Role • Index Server Role • Query Server Role • Application Server Role Clustered SQLServer WFE Servers IndexServer SQL Server • Minimum extensible configuration • Optimizes data transfer between roles • Small companies and extranet/internet farms • Minimum configuration for high-availability • No single critical point of failure
Virtualize With Care • Virtual Server, VMWare, or W2k8 w. Hyper-V • Can allow increase in farm resources • Requires extensive hardware to be in place • VMs not fault tolerant on same server
SharePoint can reduce burden on IT • SharePoint designed for delegation • Delegate: • Site Administration • Site Design • Content Management • Business Intelligence • Workflows
Delegate Site Administration • Site Collection Administrator • Should not be Farm Administrator • Performs many tasks usually managed centrally • Self-Sufficient • Site Owner (Administrator) • Controls collaboration at the site level • Owns the content and workflow • Determines access rights at granular level
Delegate Site Design • New Role – SharePoint Designer • Responsible for modifying the look-and-feel of a site without code • Highly visual • Does not require developer skills • Does not require server admin rights
Delegate Data Display and Consumption • Web parts can be added by site owners • Web parts can be added and personalized by Contributors (editors) • Page can be re-arranged to suit needs • Graphical Data can be populated and updated by non-IT staff.
Myth that you can control collaboration • You can structure collaborative environment • You can encourage collaboration • Best collaboration occurs outside the lines • People collaborate to get things done
Implement Governance Policies • Relates to decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance • Required - NOT Optional • High Level – management and direction • Low Level – practices and policies
Training is Essential • Train users on SharePoint as a tool • Document management • Office Integration • Site Administration • Train users on company policies and practices
Delegate to Responsible Users • Empower power-users • Provide additional training • Encourage independence within boundaries • Encourage creativity • Define policies to limit external impacts
8. How to design custom sites that meet corporate guidelines
Create Un-Customized Master Pages • Use Features to associate Master Pages with templates • Link in corporate CSS and Javascript libraries • These can be modified centrally
Customize Individual Sites Online • Allow Site Designers to customize sites • Requires SharePoint Designer 2007 • All data and files stored in the database • Does not require file access to server • Will not impact any other sites • Can be reversed by reverting to site definition
Embrace Model of Loose Coupling • Services/components that can work together • Do not depend on each other • When joined, create composite that is greater than the separate pieces
Features • Definition of a module of functionality • Can be Enabled or Disabled • Enabled functionality adds to capabilities • Disabling does not “break” functionality • Entire SharePoint system built on Features • Developers can build custom Features
Web Parts • Modular elements of UI functionality • Can be added to page in any combination • Logically independent • Can be connected to share data • Create systems of connected components
Automation Aids Human Workflow • SharePoint is not a process automation engine • Use BizTalk for rules-based automated processing of data • Use SQL Server for back-end processing of data • Use SharePoint to enhance and assist human workflows
Workflows • Build in Visual Studio to create company-wide templates • Use in Lists and Content types to apply templates • Build custom workflows in SharePoint Designer for ad-hoc and project-specific needs
Events • Use to restrict data updates or deletions • Use to cascade additions or updates • Use to connect fixed-process behaviors to objects without user involvement