Tech and Hosting News

(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

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.  

(Don Conrad, a.k.a. “Don SQL”, is Fpweb.net’s resident database wizard and expert in all things Microsoft SQL related. In this post he examines the next version of SQL Server. Missed an installment of The Next Byte? Check out Don’s complete Microsoft SharePoint and SQL Server series.) 

The Next Byte – Special Edition

Microsoft is busy promoting its next version of SQL Server, the database that powers the SharePoint platform. The RTM (“Release to Manufacturing”) edition of SQL Server 2012 is already available for download, and Microsoft will publicly unveil this new database technology before the end of March. As a result, SQL Server database administrators – and DBAs-in-training – are occupied studying up on the differences between SQL Server 2008 and this new version. For this “Special Edition” post, I’ve taken a break in my on-going talks about SQL Server to cover the highlights of new features in SQL Server 2012.

Perhaps the most pressing questions for SQL Server DBAs are:

1) What are the major enhancements?
2) What editions are available?
3) Did the pricing change?

Many of the feature updates in this version are truly significant and really enhance the usefulness of SQL Server. They are less about storing more, faster. Instead, they are more about how can I use my data quicker and better. They also directly address the massive increase in information that has been ongoing for 10+ years and is now threatening to be unmanageably large. How can we store, and access in a meaningful manner, the incredible quantities of data we already have stored and continue storing the increasing magnitude of data that we will have accumulated in the next few years?

Why the ‘Reasons You Don’t Want to Move to the Cloud’ are actually the ‘Reasons You Should be in the Cloud’

The Cloud is a buzzword. The Cloud is the buzzword. We’ve tried to make that abundantly clear. Most of our blogs and conversations center around it. Why you need the Cloud. Where SharePoint meets the Cloud. Security concerns with the Cloud.  The Hybrid Cloud SharePoint Model. and the list goes on and on! But it’s not because we love the sound of our own voice; it’s because we know what the Cloud is capable of! We know that it’s revolutionizing the way that companies store data, the way it’s changing productivity within that company, and especially the way it’s making everything available at the click of a button.

Yet concerns about cloud-based infrastructure persist- because it’s that special. It has changed the game and frankly, adapting to change can be difficult at times. I’ve said before that it wasn’t easy for me to jump into social media. It’s like I’m late to every party. We only just now got onto Pinterest…

So I’ve gathered five of the most common Cloud concerns to help explain that what you consider a setback, we consider a benefit. Please review and share! If it seems like a bit of a sales pitch, it’s because it is. For every benefit the cloud offers, Fpweb.net’s Private Cloud SharePoint solutions harness it best!

This is the fourth in a series of articles documenting the Sharing the Point South America 2012 Tour, sponsored by Fpweb.net and AvePoint.

“Your plane has crashed down. We have had to cancel the flight.”

These were the words we heard when reaching the checkout counter at the airport, before leaving from Montevideo, Uruguay for our flight to Santiago, Chile. It seems there was something lost in translation. Fortunately, “Your plane has crashed down” only means “There is a mechanical failure and the plane has been taken off the schedule.”

While it was a relief to get that worked out, the dilemma was now how are we going to get to Santiago? Option one: Rent a van and drive 12 to 14 hours through the mountains at night. Not a great choice, but available as a last resort. Option two: Find a private plane and charter the flight. Not viable at all on our budget. Option three: Stand at the counter, holding up the entire line at the airport until the attendant found us seats on the next available flight.

At first, that didn’t look like it was going to work, but we were persistent and with the blessing of a group of nuns standing in line right behind us, we were able to book a late night flight, arriving in Santiago about 1:00am.

The European Commission recently put together a new draft of their outdated Data Protection Laws. In our previous post in this series (EU Commission and Data Protection, Part 1 of 2), we outlined the key changes to the original 1995 directive. This final part of the series will focus on the U.S. response.

The EU Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, and the European Commission have announced their controversial new directives and left the world asking a fundamental question: How much control should each individual user have over their online identity?

The reforms make it clear that web sites, search engines and social networks are being held accountable for what they do with personal user data. And while EU is setting the pace, many major U.S. enterprises with European users are sucked into the mix.

(This blog is a follow-up to our previous post USA Patriot Act and Cloud Hosting: What You Need to Know. It focuses on the recent draft of data protection directives set forth by the European Commission in response to their outdated data privacy laws.)

Background

As discussed in a previous blog, the USA Patriot Act reaches far beyond its own borders. The Patriot Act makes any data kept by a U.S. company, both within or outside the U.S., susceptible to a possible U.S. Government seizure or unwarranted search. So, regardless of where it is stored, any data can be turned over to the government for inspection since the company storing the data is governed by U.S. law. As expected, this is a concern for European users who have data stored in a server that falls under U.S. law. This applies to most major cloud services like Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Facebook.

The blog finished by reminding readers that the European Commission would meet in January 2012 and clarify the Patriot Act’s reach within EU’s jurisdiction. A 15-year-old Data Protection Directive would be revised and every effort would be made to let EU data remain in EU jurisdiction with EU law taking precedence. This is the result of that meeting:

This is the third in our series of articles documenting the Sharing the Point South America 2012 Tour.

It was an early wake up call to get to the ferry for the trip to Montevideo, Uruguay. We had all agreed to a short night the night before because we were going to have to catch the 7:30am ferry, with a mandatory 6:30am check in.

That’s not how things roll, though, in the Oleson/Noel family tour. They still hadn’t actually seen a real Argentinian tango club. Joel, Paul, Ricardo and Michael went on the hunt and found a place where locals go to tango in the evening. Only hitch? It seems like tango is only for the over-60 crowd nowadays. Even with those restrictions, the guys had fun talking to the clientele and learning a couple steps.

(This is the second in a series of articles documenting the Sharing the Point South America 2012 Tour sponsored by Fpweb.net and AvePoint. In case you missed it, please check out the Sharing The Point 2012 South America & Antarctica Travelogue, Part 1)

By coincidence, four of us routed our travel through Washington DC and ended up on the same flight down to Buenos Aires. This was a long haul, but relatively easy because of the 10:00pm departure, allowing us to get some sleep before we arrived.

The first shock of the trip was having to pay $140.00 as an entrance fee into Argentina. The pass is valid for 10 years, but it still felt like getting hit with a “tourist tax”. Dan Holme had flown in a couple days earlier and warned us to negotiate a taxi fee before we accepted a ride. We were able to get that done through the taxi info center at the airport and headed into downtown Buenos Aires.

It has been a week since my return from the Sharing the Point Tour of South America and Antarctica, and yet the aura surrounding the event has not dissipated.

In fact, it gets stronger each time I view the pictures or talk with people about the trip. Even this morning while walking the kids to school, neighbors were surrounding us, asking questions and listening in awe as I described some of the scenarios of the journey through South America and Antarctica. My six year old’s first grade class is studying foods of the world, so I’ve even been invited to give a presentation at PS 41 in New York City, showing our food pictures from the trip.

I was able to visit six locations near the “end of the world”, as they call it in Ushuaia, speaking with people about their use of SharePoint, what their projects look like and what their plans are for the future. Along the way there were food adventures, unexpected changes in travel plans and hospitality that made us feel welcome wherever we went.

This is the first in a series of articles reliving moments from our tour, explaining why we do what we do and talking about future plans for Sharing the Point.