The Fpweb.net Team

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.

“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.  

Well folks, Spring is officially here!

What’s that you say? You’ve been enjoying the new season for the past month and a half? Okay, truth is… I have too! I spent all winter making meals in the Crock Pot (yes, I still consider this cooking), but the crazy nice weather has got me grilling anything and everything I can think of. Have you ever tried peaches on the grill, drizzled with honey? If not, please stop what you’re doing and go make some now… I promise you won’t regret it!

Alright, I may have gotten a little off track with the peach thing. But really… spring is all about baseball games, evening walks, and soaking up every minute of daylight you possibly can. Another thing it’s good for? Traveling the globe, talking about SharePoint. So without further ado, here’s what the Fpweb.net SharePoint Hosting ‘Road Crew’ will be up to in April:

Innovative-e, Inc. and Fpweb.net are proud to host a free SharePoint webinar series – “Temptations That Lead to the 5 Deadly Sins of SharePoint in the Enterprise.”

Join us for the next webinar in the series, “5 Risky SharePoint Temptations for IT Leaders” on Thursday, March 29, 2012, at 2:00pm ET. Co-hosts Dux Raymond Sy, managing partner of Innovative-e, and Mark Miller, Director of Global Strategy and Senior Storyteller at Fpweb.net, will discuss SharePoint risk management and take an in-depth look into the “temptations” or mistakes that IT leaders make when it comes to implementing and managing SharePoint enterprise-wise.

The “SharePoint Temptations” series is an extension of the original “5 Deadly Sins of SharePoint in the Enterprise” webinar. Innovative-e’s monthly webinar series began in January and Fpweb.net is proud to be joining this month as a co-host. The series will continue through June 2012.

Please register FREE to attend this featured SharePoint webinar.

You will be sent a link to obtain your unique attendance URL the day before or morning of the event.

Looking for a change? Want a job where you look forward to showing up?

Thinking about starting a new career with a company that is designed around harnessing your creativity? Fpweb.net is filling its St. Louis offices with talented, driven individuals who can help take our Fpweb.net teams to new places. We understand that hard work should be rewarded and that’s why we take care of our employees.

We care about our employees and while they’re taking care of the company, we want to take care of them. On top of our strong benefits package that includes medical, dental and life insurance, we offer a retirement plan (matching 401k) and a Gold’s Gym membership for good measure. We don’t track your vacation or sick days. If you need a day, take it. We’re a relatively small team so you’ll actually have a say in how things are done here. We provide you the environment to perform at your best and excel at your career!

Want to win cool prizes? Tell us your favorite Fpweb.net blog post!

Do you read Fpweb.net’s blog? Has a particular post been especially beneficial to you? Taught you something new? Made you laugh? What post did you give a second look?

The contest is simple, tweet us your favorite blog post! The grand prize: A seat at the table! Specifically, a seat at Innovative-e’s upcoming SharePoint training session “How to Build a Project Management Information System (PMIS) with SharePoint 2010” on March 9th, 2012 (this Friday!) from 11am-3pm ET.

This free ticket to Innovative-e’s online training session is a $249 value (covers attendance, artifacts and resources, and a recording of the presentation) but one random tweeter will enjoy the full course for free! The winner can attend or choose to send a friend! Plus, Additional prizes will be sent randomly to other contestants (coffee mugs, sunglasses, flash drives, etc).

It’s easy to enter the contest, and easy to win!:

1. Acknowledge @fpweb in your tweet
2. Link to your favorite Fpweb.net blog post
3. Add the hash tag #bestfpwebblog

Ex. My favorite @fpweb blog is When Cloud Computing Meets SharePoint http://blog.fpweb.net/cloud-computing-sharepoint-in-the-cloud/ #bestfpwebblog

A winner will be chosen randomly from all contestants on Thursday at 2pm CT. Winners will be announced on Twitter; make sure you’re following @fpweb so we can Direct Message you if you win!

The session is available to everyone, even if you don’t win (enter the discount code ‘Fpweb’ to receive an exclusive 20% off!)  Learn more and register here!

A Word with Chris Riley, Product Marketing Manager and Evangelist for CloudShare

Here at Fpweb.net, we aim to be your trusted SharePoint advisor. To live up to that name, we develop strong relationships with companies that offer quality third party tools for Microsoft SharePoint. Fpweb.net does the legwork so that when our customers are ready to build out their environment, we know what direction to point them in. We’ll even setup the meeting.

We want to take the time to focus on some of the people and services of some such companies and how Fpweb.net’s Hosted SharePoint can integrate with their products and services. From time to time we identify and evaluate new offerings from these companies and do our best to show customers how to best utilize them.

Recently, I had the opportunity to break e-bread with Chris Riley from CloudShare. CloudShare is in the business of moving enterprises to the Cloud. It earns its name by making the transition to the cloud easy, offering the benefits of performance and accessibility among others. Chris shares Fpweb.net’s enthusiasm for the future of cloud computing, and he’s ready to tell you all about it:

…THE NEXT BYTE

The Next Byte is our series of posts about the relationship between SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft SharePoint, written by database administrator Don Conrad. Missed the last post? Please read “Microsoft SQL Server: The Database Behind SharePoint”.

Up for discussion:

• A high-level description of SQL Server
• What are the major components of SQL Server?
• What are the core functions of SQL Server?
• What do I have after installing SQL Server?

SQL Server is a database server product. It’s arguably one of the three most popular ones on the market (the other two being ORACLE, manufactured by the ORACLE corporation, and DB2 by IBM). All three provide very similar functions albeit on three different hardware platforms. SQL Server runs on Microsoft Windows servers, ORACLE primarily on Unix/Linux platforms and DB2 generally on IBM mainframes.

While all three perform mostly similar activities, Bill G. and I can probably agree that SQL Server is the premier product. After all, administering SQL Server has helped me pay most of my bills these past years!

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.