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(Welcome to The Next Byte, a series on Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server written by Don Conrad, a.k.a. “Don SQL”, the Fpweb.net SharePoint database wizard and expert in all things SQL-related. In this post Don examines new features in SQL Server 2012. Missed an installment of The Next Byte? Check out the complete Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server series.)

and now… THE NEXT BYTE

SQL Server 2012 Topics to Discuss:

1. Which new features will have the biggest impact for SharePoint?
2. Why is the filetable so important?
3. What are the pricing considerations?

Microsoft recently released the newest version of its premier enterprise database management system, SQL Server 2012. This update contains many new and significant features from the current release, 2008 R2. Many of the features are notable improvements over 2008 R2 and there are so many that we couldn’t possibly do justice to them in one article.

In fact, we won’t even try. Instead we’ll focus some of the feature updates that will have the most impact on Microsoft SharePoint, since, after all, SharePoint hosting is what we do here at Fpweb.net.

SQL Server 2012 key features (in no particular order):

1. AlwaysOn
2. Contained databases
3. The FileTable feature (*not a datatype)
4. Core-based licensing

[In Part 5 of his series on Document Management and Collaboration in Microsoft SharePoint, Matt Milsark focuses on co-authoring and Office Web Apps with SharePoint. Missed a post? Check out the previous article on SharePoint Major/Minor Version Control & Content Approval.]

SharePoint Co-Authoring and Office Web Apps

This is the last post (at least for now) in my ongoing series on document collaboration in SharePoint 2010. For this post, we’re going to take a look at co-authoring and Microsoft Office Web Apps. SharePoint’s co-authoring feature provides the ability for multiple persons to work on the same document simultaneously. This greatly decreases the life cycle of a document as many people can contribute their portion without waiting for someone else to finish.

In a time-crunch, co-authoring can also be used as a sort of quick editing tool; multiple people can review and perform group editing on a document.

Andy Milsark has already provided a quick look at co-authoring Word documents in a previous post. Please take the time to review his blog as well. As was mentioned in his post, co-authoring is a feature available in SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010. Unfortunately, you cannot use co-authoring in either SharePoint 2007 or Office 2007. You can, however, use co-authoring with SharePoint 2010 Foundation, SharePoint Server Standard, or SharePoint Server Enterprise editions.

The required technologies depend on what type of documents you want to co-author. For example, Word documents can be co-authored immediately after installing SharePoint, with no other add-ons needed.

A conversation about doing more with less

I found myself getting slightly annoyed the other day while talking with a friend. They run a small business and have yet to utilize social media to get the message across. They’re just a bit old fashioned and can’t be bothered to dive into this form of marketing. <Editor’s Note: Just to warn/relieve you, this post is not about social media; it’s about missed opportunities.>

I reasoned that Twitter and Facebook may seem trendy and self-indulgent to some, but what matters is that your customers are using it, and so are your competitors. It’s a free service – get on there and get your message out. Makes sense, right?

Time will tell if I win that battle, but it did remind me of a similar scratch-your-head scenario that still exists. Companies who still haven’t moved their SharePoint to a private cloud.

Now is the time

Recession. There’s your buzzword. Tossed throughout blog posts and newswires everywhere you look. Global economies are suffering and recessions are flaring up on every continent. And the blame is just as prevalent – tossed around at every politician and disaster in its path. But I’m not here to talk about how we got here; I’m just the guy trained in CPR and holding the life raft to get your business out alive.

I’m here to talk about moving your on-premise SharePoint infrastructure to the private cloud. Yes, it’s an economy only the Cloud could love. And that’s why you need to be…

Doing More with Less

I think we can all agree that whatever industry you’re in and whatever position you hold, you’ve been charged by your superiors or, for those at the top, your budget, to do more with less. The first time I heard this I looked down at the pencil in my hand and broke it in half. Bam! Two pencils. So I’m experienced at finding solutions. But sometimes the solution isn’t that simple; sometimes it takes more of a leap.

SharePoint Hosting provider Fpweb.net is once again teaming up with Innovative-e, Inc. to present a FREE webinar on “5 Risky SharePoint HR Temptations” on Wednesday, May 23rd at 2:00pm ET.

Join Chris Schwab, SharePoint Engineering Director for Fpweb.net, and Caroll Ford, Managing Partner and SharePoint Practice Owner for Innovative-e, Inc., for an in-depth look into the Human Resources “temptations” or mistakes that organizations make when it comes to understanding the roles necessary to successfully implement and maintain a SharePoint portal, as well as knowing what skills are essential to the various roles. Key topics in this FREE webinar include:

• Discussing the different roles that are required to successfully implement a SharePoint portal
• For each role, learning the appropriate technical and soft skills necessary to form a winning team
• Selecting the “right” people for a SharePoint team
• Understanding how SharePoint governance guidelines and policies interact with the team selection and success
• Managing a cross-functional team that consists of IT and business people who may report through different structures

Please register FREE to attend this featured SharePoint webinar.

[In Part 4 of his series on Document Management and Collaboration in Microsoft SharePoint, Matt Milsark focuses on Major/Minor SharePoint Versioning and Content approval. Missed a post? Check out the previous article on SharePoint 2010 Version Control.]

In the last post of this series, we looked at major versioning in SharePoint 2010. In this one, we’re going to look at including minor versioning, as well as the content approval process.

These features are useful if a document will go through several iterations before being published. For example, an employee handbook may have quite a few collaborators and editors. However, before being distributed or made available company-wide, an HR manager will need to approve its contents.

So let’s take a closer look at how versioning and content approval would work in this scenario.

“It’s a Dog-Eat-Dog World.”

Besides lending some pretty revolting imagery, the term’s purpose is to warn that society is looking out for itself, so beware.

It’s rare for a stranger or a company to legitimately look out for your best interests and cater to your needs.

Frustratingly rare. We’re programmed to enter any economic exchange (whether it’s buying clothes from a department store or purchasing *shudder* car insurance, etc.) with the mindset that if we aren’t careful, we’ll be taken advantage of. And it’s not our fault, because this is usually the case.

They know they can’t make money without customers right?

I’ve talked about Why Customer Service Matters before, because it’s critical to me. Go ahead and read that link. I’ll wait… In that case, my experience with United Airlines (with whom I’ve been a loyal, almost exclusive, flyer for the past eight years for some reason) was horrible. And when I confronted them about it, I got the standard ‘sorry and see ya later’ response. And that’s not good enough.

Want easy, seamless integration between your company’s network and Fpweb.net’s SharePoint Cloud? How about Disaster Recovery (DR) failover with fast, secure Virtual Machine (VM) replication across the Internet? New updates in the core Microsoft server product lineup are closing the gaps and facilitating smarter cloud-based SharePoint environments. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Microsoft SharePoint and the Cloud are becoming fast friends! (*hold for applause*)

At the recent Microsoft Hosting Summit 2012, I was thrilled to see the future of Cloud tools unfolding before my eyes. Microsoft is finally producing tools that enable providers like Fpweb.net to go big and fast. As a trusted SharePoint advisor and leading hosting provider for the platform, Fpweb.net is 100% SharePoint, and solving our customers’ SharePoint needs just got easier!

Fpweb.net has provided Microsoft’s SharePoint Team with a ton of feedback from our customers, and I am delighted to say that most of our wish list has been fulfilled with this release of products. Always nice to see Redmond recognizing Fpweb.net’s dedicated SharePoint team in their new product release presentations.

So, let’s talk about what the Microsoft Product Teams have been up to – and which tools Fpweb.net will be using to build the next-generation SharePoint Cloud. The big three core components behind SharePoint are Windows Server 8, SQL Server 2012 and System Center 2012. SPOILER: Windows Server 8 is the greatest Cloud platform on the planet…

Without further ado, let’s get started.  

(In this final post in a  4-part series on How to Upgrade SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 series resident SharePoint Engineer Joe Beyer provides insight on the configuring Microsoft SQL Server and the final steps using the Database Attach upgrade process.)

In my last post, I covered one of the two primary methods of upgrading SharePoint: the In-Place Upgrade. Now let’s take a closer look at using the ‘Database Attach’ method of upgrading.

Database Attach

For this method, I am going to assume the following tasks have already been completed:

• SharePoint 2010 required hardware and software is already in place and ready for upgrade.
• Current SharePoint 2007 environment has been patched with Service Pack 2 or later.
• Successfully ran PreUpgradeCheck (stsadm –o preupgradecheck).
• Ran the prerequisite installer on each web server in the farm.

At some point, you probably used Explorer View on your SharePoint site to move data in bulk.

Many times I’ve seen this taken one step further, and a drive mapped to the SharePoint Library. Interestingly enough, I’ve encountered several issues with this recently, and it took quite a while to actually confirm what was happening. There is a bit of a “bug” in this process, not so much with SharePoint but in the drive mapping protocol itself, that can lead to improper security elevation and false test results among other things. While this sounds scary at first, it is actually fairly innocent as long as you know what you are looking for and how to prevent it.

Let me provide a real-world client example. In one recent case, the Admin had utilized Explorer View and Drive Mapping on their SharePoint site. When the client contacted our SharePoint Support Team, they reported an issue where the Drive Mapping was not properly permission trimming, and so wished to disable this due to possible security problems that could result. Since they had combined drive mapping with Explorer View, this was not an easy request because disabling one disables both, (done by turning off WebDav). They were willing to give up the ability to Map Drives, but not Explorer View, so I dug into what the problem with the security trimming could be.

It’s spring cleaning time – and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

Did you know? … Spring cleaning began ages ago when houses were kept warm though the winter by burning wood and using kerosene lamps to stay warm.  By the time the cold weather had left and you could open the windows, there would be a sickly layer of soot covering the house.  ‘Spring Cleaning’ involved the unfortunate task of scrubbing the walls and ceiling to prepare for the bright days of summer.

But if you’re a SharePoint administrator, Spring Cleaning can also be a time for renewal and clean-up of another kind. Has your SharePoint installation become unwieldy? Are there extra applications or old collaboration sites bogging down your performance- even though they’re no longer being used?

So whether you’re at home cursing yourself for still using kerosene lamps or just debating whether you really need that 1970′s paisley print couch in the corner of an otherwise barren basement, this Spring you should also be considering another environment that may need the soot knocked off it: your SharePoint environment.

Fortunately for you, Fpweb.net has some suggestions to get your SharePoint platform back into tip-top shape: