Using Amazon Web Services with SharePoint 2013

In addition to being a web application development platform, SharePoint is also used by a large number of enterprises for document and management. Microsoft has released SharePoint 2013 with a set of advanced features to broaden its capacity. It allows organizations to avail the latest cloud-based iterations of the collaboration platform. The SharePoint applications in the cloud can be further managed by users through customized applications designed by several companies including Microsoft.

The users also have option to run SharePoint 2013 with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to avail several benefits including no upfront investment, lower operational cost, enhanced speed and flexible capacity. Microsoft has made it easier for users to run SharePoint in AWS through the License Mobility through Software Assurance. Also, Amazon EC2 running Windows Server create a secure and reliable environment to deploy and run the SharePoint applications.

Important Advantages of Using Amazon Web Services with SharePoint 2013

No Upfront Investment

When an organization decides to deploy SharePoint in the cloud, it is not required to invest any funds upfront. As Amazon requires users to pay only for the cloud resources used by them, they are not required to procure any new hardware. In addition to pay-as-you-go pricing, Amazon further takes care of the hardware management. Thus, an organization can optimize its content management without incurring any initial cost.

Easy and Fast Deployment

An enterprise can further deploy SharePoint applications in the cloud without putting any additional time and effort. After obtaining the required license, it can deploy the application quickly without waiting for the required hardware to arrive. Microsoft has further optimized the online version of SharePoint by including several advanced features to eliminate the functional gaps associated with switching to a cloud-based environment.

Use Existing Skill and Software

Similar to hardware, a business can run SharePoint application with AWS without requiring skilled developers and resources. Microsoft has designed the platform with a set of simple and easy features. So an enterprise can quickly create and deploy new apps by using its existing developers and software assets. Unlike other cloud services, the AWS platform supports a large number of operating systems and programming language. So the .NET developers can create robust application by using familiar tools and IDEs like Visual Studio.

Curtail Capital Expenses

Each modern business explores option to convert capital expenses into operational expenses. But the team managing infrastructure always tries to sabotage such initiatives in order to retain control. An organization can use SharePoint 2013 with AWS to curtail both capital and operational expenses. It can scale down the cost according to its cloud resource requirements. At the same time, a business can further avoid the large and upfront expenses. The AWS Cloud allows organizations to add capacity according to the changes in business demand. So an enterprise can easily scale the cloud capacity quickly according to its needs.

Manage SharePoint through Customized Applications

Unlike large enterprises, the small and local businesses cannot afford to deploy an IT team to manage their content and documents. SharePoint 2013 facilitates document and content management without deploying a dedicated team. The users have option to manage the SharePoint application with AWS using a variety of applications developed by Microsoft and third-party companies. So it becomes easier for the small and medium enterprises to align technologies with business processes without deploying any additional resources.

Enhanced Security

While deploying an application in the cloud, users have to explore ways to keep it secure and inaccessible. As a secure and durable technology platform, AWS is widely used by companies belonging to different industries and regions. The certifications and audit standards used by the platform is further recognized across industries. Thus, an organization gets a secure and reliable environment to deploy SharePoint applications.

A number of recent reports have highlighted that a gradual increase is noted in the number of enterprises using Amazon Web Services with SharePoint 2013. However, each organization also needs to identify and address some of the important challenges while using AWS with SharePoint 2013. It also needs to choose the right third-party applications to get enhanced data privacy and security. You can hire developers from custom Sharepoint development companies who can help build sharepoint apps for you within allocated budgets and time schedules.

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Integrating Outlook and SharePoint – The Dynamic Duo

For meeting the objective of making things less complicated for the users, one of the best options is to integrate Outlook (OL) and SharePoint (SP) with each other. The main reason behind such an integration is completion of certain tasks along with access to bit information from within the SP and from any other office applications, where they are actively in operation.

It is possible to sync any library or list in a simple way, by accessing the Calendar, List Setting or Library on a ribbon and then click the “Connect to Outlook” option. This will allow in accessing the SharePoint information within the OL, without having to open SP at all.

Since most of the users spend a lion's share of time dealing with OL, naturally it is imperative that users have all the relevant information at their fingertips. This will ostensibly minimize or limit the use of other windows, making the task much simpler. The most pertinent uses of this phenomenon include:

Sync Calendars

This method can be used with the Outlook Connector in Outlook 2003/07/10/EAS of Outlook 2013 for syncing the calendar along with the contacts of other smartphones or computers when using an IMAP or a POP3 email account. All that is needed is a MS Account, for obtaining a valid email address. Hotmail, Outlook.com address or Live are not needed.

Sync Team Discussion

This will help in saving a considerable amount of time, by reducing the extent of email traffic as well as providing some astounding updates to people, irrespective of their time as well as location.

Sync Document Libraries

This is again an extremely handy property, that helps users to take a preview of any document or presentation in the OL Reading Pane. However, it is not without limitations.

Capture emails along with attachments or the attachments independently and separately

OnePlaceMail (which helps in connecting MS Outlook, MS Office as well as Windows Explorer to MS SharePoint 2007/10/13 along with Office 365) comes up with an obvious as well as common filing experience of saving mails from the MS OL to the SharePoint. OnePlaceMail provides the users the option of:

• Transferring emails from Outlook to SharePoint with drag and drop facility of attachments, and the option to drag and drop mails to the SP without any prompts whatsoever. This helps in capturing various attributes of the emails automatically like Attachment Names, To, From, Date, Subject, conversion ID, etc. This makes it far easier as well as efficient for the users, when it comes to sharing information.

A plausible way of synchronizing the documents of a library for using them offline, is to click on the SYNC option that is available on the site header adjacent to the user's name.

Let us discuss another classical way of integrating SharePoint with Outlook:

In case a user spends too much of time in MS OL but stores documents along with other stuffs in SharePoint, connecting SP with Outlook does make a sense. Connecting SharePoint, library, list of contacts along with other documents with Outlook will bring the contents in the SharePoint into Outlook and one can view the contents along with various other personal information in the Outlook itself. This also helps in searching as well as editing the contents of SP offline, even when the computer is not connected to the internet and then integrate the contents back to SP once the user goes online.

The option “Sync a Library To Your Computer” will help with additional information.

1) Go to calendar, list or library that is to be connected to Outlook

2) Click on “Calendar/Library/List, depending upon the kind of library or list connected to Outlook.

3) Click “Connect to Outlook”.

4) Once the dialog box appears, click on “Allow” and then “Yes” as deemed appropriate. If the site comes with Office365, the user name along with password are needed.

Once done, the calendar will appear in the Outlook that comes under “Other Calendars”. Contacts will appear in the “Other Contacts” option. Libraries, including document libraries, picture libraries, come under “SharePoint Lists”. The files of the library behave in the same way as the e-mail messages. In case of office files, clicking on the preview file option that appears in the Reading Pane will open it. Right clicking on the file will give more options. You can hire developers from top companies in SharePoint development who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide SharePoint development services. If you would like to hire developers from custom SharePoint development company like Mindfire Solutions, please contact us.

Detailed Feature Reviews of Design Manager in SharePoint 2013

SharePoint Server 2013 comes with several innovative features including the Design Manager. The feature enables enterprises to manage the styling and branding of SharePoint sites and pages in a more structured way. It can also be used in Office 365 as an advanced site design tool to design custom websites for an organization or business. The developers also have option to create custom website designs by using HTML editors or web design tools they are familiar with. At the same time, the advanced features of Design Manager allow developers to build a completely new website within a shorter span of time.

Key Feature Reviews of Design Manager in SharePoint 2013

Mange Device Channels

The option allows you to optimize areas of the website content by targeting different devices. SharePoint uses the user agent to find out the device being used by the user, and use the information to perform specific tasks. For instance, the user agent helps SharePoint to find out if a specific device supports Flash content or not. So the target areas of content can be rendered based on the device used by the user. Also, the Manage Device Channels option can be used to create new channels and edit existing channels.

Upload Design Files

You can use the feature to upload the HTML version of your master file along with JavaScript and CSS files, and similar design resources. Also, the feature allows you to access and edit the design files in a straightforward way. At the same time, you can further check if a network drive can be mapped to the master page gallery or need to be accessed through the Windows Explorer.

Edit Master Pages

Your will use the feature frequently to convert the uploaded HTML files into SharePoint master page by using conversion wizards. After clicking on the link, you will be allowed to choose the HTML file to be converted, and follow a series of screen to create a new master file. The feature can also be used to publish a major version of the file from the list. Also, you can view an error message if there are any problems during the conversion process.

Edit Page Template

The latest version of SharePoint also comes with innovative display templates. These display templates are used to format search results and other web parts related to search. The Edit Page Template feature of Design Manager allows you to copy an existing template, and customize it according to your specific requirements.

Edit Page Layout

The page layouts in SharePoint enable you to use an HTML page like a master file, and render the output by adding SharePoint specific lines of code. As the name indicates, the option can be used to create new page layouts by naming the page layout and associate it with a master file. Once the page layout is created, you can download it to your computer. The file will include the SharePoint specific lines of code required to render the output correctly. The feature further allows you to upload your existing page layouts or save the layout directly to the master gallery.

Publish and Apply Design

Once you create the custom design according to a brand, it needs to be published and shared with others. The publish and apply design page allows you to apply the brand by clicking on a given link. It is also the most straightforward way to share and publish the brand created by you with others.

Create Design Packages

The page facilitates movement of your designs between multiple environments. Once you choose the design package name, the page will allow you to include search configuration. During the process, the page will gather all the files and packages, and bundle those neatly into a WSP file. After creating the WSP file, it will show you a link to download the file. At the same time, the file will also be stored to the solutions store at the site collection level. So you can easily move the design packages to Office 365.

As an innovative tool, Design Manager allows users to brand SharePoint in an innovative yet easy way. They can avail the feature to make the look and feel of a SharePoint site both fresh and distinct. So it becomes easier to make an organization’s website represent its brand, instead of looking like a SharePoint site. You can hire a top companies in sharepoint development who can help you build products within allocated budgets and time schedules.

We provide Sharepoint application development services. If you would like to speak to one of our expert SharePoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Don't Forget User Training when Migrating to SharePoint 2013

Many reports have highlighted how an enterprise can avail several benefits by migrating to SharePoint 2013. But Microsoft has made the technology by combining a variety of collaboration and content management capabilities. At the same time, each enterprise must customize SharePoint solution according to its specific needs and objectives. That is why; it become essential for an organization to make and implement a comprehensive migration plan to take full advantage of the innovative technology.

In comparison to other elements of the migration plan, it is important to concentrate on providing adequate and relevant training to business users. The training will make it easier for managers and SharePoint administrators to optimize the business processes by availing the new features. Also, the training will help enterprises in adopting the latest version of SharePoint within a reduced span of time. An organization has several options to manage the training process. However, the plan must consider a set of key factors to make the training program more beneficial and effective.

Key Elements of an Effective SharePoint 2013 Training Program

Test SharePoint 2013 in an Isolated Environment: Before providing SharePoint 2013 education to your staff, it is important to ensure that it is effective in meeting your needs. Before making the training program, you must check the technology in an isolated environment by concentrating on a set of significant factors. Along with using the new features and checking their relevancy for your employees, you also need to ensure that environment is 100% stable and reliable. The environment can also be tested several times till you are sure about its reliability and importance. You can even get the environment tested by your experts and consultants. Once you have created the perfect environment, it is time to make a training program for end users.

Training Requirements: The SharePoint 2013 training needs will vary from one organization to another. If an organization has already deployed SharePoint 2010 or any other previous release its employees will not require comprehensive education. As the end users are familiar with features like document libraries, established site collections, and information lists, they need not be trained from the scratch. On the other hand, the end users need comprehensive education, when the organization switches to SharePoint 2013 from some other content management system. So an organization must identify the training requirements before making the training program. SharePoint CMS customization enables organisations to reap maximum benefits for organization.

Option to Perform Advanced Functions: SharePoint 2013 enables end users to perform a set of advanced functions. So the organization has to decide whether it wants the end users to perform additional functions by learning specific features. For instance, the end users must learn how to build and administer team sites, or modify their SharePoint profiles to perform customized administration functions. Microsoft has further made several changes to the user interface along with including new features to help users in creating sites and modify profiles. Also, the users must be provided with customized training to optimize the performance of their sites by using lightweight apps.

Using the Online Version: Microsoft further allows enterprises to migrate to the online version of SharePoint 2013 along with Office 365. But an organization must focus on many factors while navigating to an online environment. As the Office 265 is designed as a multi-purpose interface, the end users must learn its key features and functionality. At the same time, the users must learn how to access the options related to SharePoint after logging into the Office 365 portal. The training will make it easier for them to avail the full advantage of a unified communication system. Therefore, an organization has to implement a different training program to migrate to the online version of technology smoothly.

The training program must decide a timeline to enable each user for using the new technology. Many experts also recommend enterprises to make a comprehensive training program for SharePoint 2013 and Office 2013. The mixed training environment will make it easier for end-users to integrate the applications they use on a regular basis.

We provide Sharepoint development services. If you would like to hire Sharepoint developer from our certified team of SharePoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Why the Term Governance for SharePoint is Overhyped

A prevalent belief is that so far as SharePoint is concerned, the term governance is very much hyped and hence, we tend to talk more about the concept of governance rather that the solutions essential to do away with the problems it is entitled to deal with. Before discussing further on this matter, let us have a look at what governance means. When it comes to a non-profit organization or a business, governance implies cohesive policies, consistent management, decision-rights, processes and guidance with respect to a particular area of responsibility. The term is not related only to SharePoint, but organizations should think about it irrespective of the technology platform used. Instead of talking about the necessity for proper governance, it is more important to deal with the actual day-to-day challenges faced by the organizations while managing or organizing their information.

Solutions are more significant than the concepts

Very often, SharePoint is what we call as a grassroots implementation. Basic installation of SharePoint can be conveniently done, making the platform available to departments or teams for organization or collaboration around a particular information set. Once everybody gets started, each group tends to utilize it differently or use various methods for information organization and share. Sites often tend to grow out of control, a phenomenon referred to as “SharePoint sprawl.”

The question that arises is why a grassroots implementation should be stopped if it allows more effective collaboration. It is by no means the optimal solution to any SP implementation. But in case some groups are allowed to use it, they understand the value and render increased support to the platform. Now, the best information architecture needs to be considered depending upon the requirements of those already utilizing it. You can take into account proper site planning, user training, data security and gradually shift the current users towards a proper SharePoint development model.

The rapid changes taking place within organizations make the job of a SharePoint admin difficult, because the person always has to be proactive in order to adapt to the environmental alterations quickly. At this point, procedures and policies become essential.

Presently, organizations take the advantage of a number of tools and technologies along with file sharing sites such as SkyDrive, DropBox, Amazon or Google Drive. Herein, they come across convenient means to share documents as well as carry them wherever they go. The biggest SharePoint administration challenge is- How can you guarantee that only the appropriate people have access to it?

The meaning of governance is different to different people

One of the complications that lies with talking about governance is the fact that the concept is as such loose which implies that its meaning might vary from people to people. In case you are sitting within a room and are going around a table for getting a comprehensive overview of the challenges faced by organizations in management of their information, you will most certainly not find someone saying that they are in need of proper governance. It might mean a lot, including policies related to the creation and archiving of SharePoint sites, ways in which taxonomies are developed as well as maintained or procedures that guarantee correctness of permissions.

The truth is that it implies all of the above and more. Rather than trying to deal with the real meaning of the concept of governance for an organization, it is more important to comprehend the manner in which the organization works and then discuss the problems faced by them in dealing with SharePoint as well as information in general. It is advisable to put forward certain solutions to cope up with the problems, be it better procedures and policies or any kind of supporting technology.

We provide sharepoint site migration services. If you would like to hire sharepoint programmers from our team, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.

15 free SharePoint tools to make IT admins smile

SharePoint is a rich tool and offers extensive features for a better, customized and organized work flow. It enables to make processes easier and swift that enables organizations to make the best out of their employees. It is the best CMS that enables to manage huge amount of content effectively.

We live in a competitive world and latest technologies emerge to enable to deliver the best results possible. SharePoint is Microsoft's tool that enables to build richer attractive websites. It is considered to be the most popular collaborative tool that provides all the necessary tools to manage people and content effectively. This platform makes it easy for employees of an organization to share ideas and engage smoothly in knowledge sharing activities.

Some of the free tools which helps admins while customizing their websites are as follows:

1.Microsoft's SharePoint development Administration Toolkit 2.0 (for 2010 and 2007 versions)

Microsoft bakes a bunch of nice things into this little add-on, including a kit that generates test loads to check how well any SharePoint deployment runs. It includes another important addon for the Security Configuration Wizard so one can harden the profile of deployment through Windows Server 2008. The SPDiag 3.0 utility is most useful. It grabs a heap of statistics from all the servers in a SharePoint farm, interprets them and presents them in a very neat and customized report.

2.ManageEngine's Free SharePoint Health Monitor Tool

For smaller SharePoint deployment, this lightweight tool gives just an overall rollup of SharePoint farm's health status at a glance. The ManageEngine Free SharePoint Health Monitor fits this bill nicely, giving a conveniently efficient dashboard view where one can see the details about the memory, CPU and disk space usage for each server running SharePoint.

It can be drilled down into the SharePoint workload itself to see the response time, service status, Web server (Internet Information Services) process details and even SQL Server details such as buffer cache hit ratio, cache memory and free pages.

3.IntLock's CardioLog Analytics Free Edition

If systems have a quarter of a million page views or fewer per month, one can use this free tool to help which finds out the sites employees are using, how long they are typically engrosed with those websites and what areas of those websites are most used. It installs quickly and is compatible with all kinds of versions of SharePoint, even the latest new SharePoint 2013. One can easily upgrade to the paid version where the free edition has all of the same features, with the only differences being the page view tracking limit and allowing for web-based support.

4.Microsoft's SharePoint Designer (for 2007, 2010 and 2013)

Designer is like the FrontPage web design tool of the SharePoint world. One can use it to customize the look and feel of SharePoint websites, create and modify simple workflows and personalize a SharePoint deployment at ease.

If one have a large SharePoint deployment with multiple versions running at the same time, one must use the Designer version specific to the particular SharePoint edition.

5.Idera's Free SharePoint Admin Toolset

This is a combination of seven tools in one, a site monitor is present to check up on any SharePoint sites one manages, a space trends report to track using disk space on deployment for folders, libraries and websites, a handy accelerator that essentially rebuilds the database indexes on the SQL Server instance managing SharePoint deployment, a clean report to show how much SQL database space deployment is consuming, a permissions analyzer to show what users can access which specific websites and libraries, a smart tool to compare the configurations of site collections to see where they are different and a quick admin tool that brings together most frequently used links to SharePoint Central Administration. A very smart tool set to make tasks easier and smart way to deal with.

6.Idera's Free SharePoint Performance Monitor

To have a detailed information at what is happening under the hood of any SharePoint farm, this great tool Idera's Free SharePoint Performance Monitor is used. This tool gives a holistic overview of the performance statistics and metrics for SharePoint itself, the SQL Server instance on any given server and information about the host's operating system and memory configuration.

The tool also can be configured to send simple e-mail alerts when one of the performance indicators does not work. One can also monitor multiple websites at a time for their deployments and one can generate nifty graphs and charts about connections, requests, response time, pages, disk usage and many more.

7.McAfee's Network Discovery for Microsoft SharePoint

It is a good SharePoint-specific inventory tool. If one has overall responsibility for a network, one might not even know if one of departments has deployed a SharePoint server. The McAfee Network Discovery Tool for Microsoft SharePoint will scan the network to find SharePoint 2003, 2007 and 2010 environments and then display the results of its scan in a nice neat HTML report that shows in detail which servers have been deployed and what version they're running.

8.Axceler's ViewPoint for SharePoint

This is a great tool for visualizing in a convenient table form exactly which users have what permissions on any given site. This could be very useful in an auditing scenario or any environment where permissions can tighten without granting full access to users needlessly. One can choose to work from the graphical dashboard, to run and print reports to provide to management or to work through with any administrative tools. It works with both SharePoint 2010 as well as SharePoint 2013 deployments. It even requires full SharePoint administrator permissions to do its job properly.

9.Quest's Server Administrator for SharePoint

This great tool is suitable on SharePoint 2007 and 2010. It lets to see which parts of farm configuration are affecting the security, performance and availability of deployment.

It helps to build PowerShell scripts to maintain environment. It also helps with a migration to SharePoint 2010 from 2007, required to get to SharePoint 2013 as well, by showing which parts of deployment are ready for the upgrade and which are not. And it provides an intelligent rating to show what is most important to upgrade before one begin against what would simply be "nice to have."

10.SharePoint SUSHI

SharePoint SUSHI is an open source project hosted on CodePlex that essentially takes the most common administrative tasks and puts them in one convenient tool. SUSHI, which bills itself as a "Swiss army knife for SharePoint," stands for SharePoint Utilities with a smart and useful interface.

One can view the lists and sites of any given user can access, which is really helpful for looking at effective permissions, upload user photos as profile images, back up and restore sites; apply a theme to a group of sites with one click and much more.

11.Clockwork Software

It is SharePoint Migration Tool, reliable migration of documents from old ECMS to SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013. From any SQL Server based ECMS (EDRMS, DMS, CMS) with files stored on a network drive or share. ECMSs such as Hummingbird DM6, DOCs Open, Worksite, FileNet etc.

- Migrate all versions and metadata (including managed metadata)

- Migrate to SharePoint libraries and folders

- Apply document level security if desired

- Currently in use on migration projects totalling about 2 million documents

- Good for small migrations with a cost effective pricing scheme.

12.Metalogix

It can migrate content into SharePoint from just about any source system. From one SharePoint version to another (2003, 2007, 2010, WSSv2 or WSSv3), from various Enterprise Content Management systems (eRoom, Stellent, Livelink) and from file systems, exchange public folders, blogs and websites.

13.PCVITA Express Migrator

It is SharePoint comprehensive too designed for enterprise to migrate content to SharePoint as part of SharePoint migration strategy that goes above and beyond other traditional SharePoint migration software, thereby allowing to have visually architected migration. It provides an effective and simple solution for enterprise to migrate their business-critical data from different repositories (Lotus Notes, File Share, File System, Public Folder and SharePoint etc) to Microsoft SharePoint Server. The SharePoint migration product granularly migrates content while keeping all the associated metadata & permission intact.

14.Vyapin

A powerful tool for developing SharePoint application for migrating documents, NTFS permissions, data and their associated metadata properties from network file shares, file servers and local hard drives to Microsoft SharePoint 2013, Office 365 (SharePoint Online), SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2007.

Here are the list of functions it provides such as migrate folders and files into SharePoint libraries from various file servers and network shares. Carry forward default file properties, including custom Office document properties to the respective documents in SharePoint. Automate entire migration process, with the ability to correct and rectify migration errors using the pre-migration validation tool. Migrate content from file shares to on-premise SharePoint servers and SharePoint Online in Office 365 (Standard) environment using a single application.

15.Tzunami

This Deployer tool offers a cost-effective solution for migrating and consolidating multiple content sources into SharePoint. It supports almost all versions of SharePoint, from SPS 2001 to SharePoint 2013. Automating the entire process of migrating unstructured content.

SharePoint offers multiple benefits for enterprises big and small. It is for this reason that enterprises are stressing on this particular technology for enabling them to function optimally. It enables to increase employee productivity and enables them to remain more focused with their work. It can function as an effective content management system, document management tool and collaborative platform. Businesses have profited much more with this awesome tool and it has enabled to enhance business initiatives. SharePoint development services are frequently used to reap maximum benefits.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to speak to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Need for Change Management in a Hybrid SharePoint Environment

Microsoft does recognize that Hybrid SharePoint environments are here to stay for some time. Most of the companies have earnestly started exploring the implications of the cloud. Organizations are realizing that they need adequate amount of time to figure out whether they are required to transfer their assets to the cloud, and if so, how they would be moving their digital assets within the cloud. It is a fact that software delivery is moving towards the cloud and maximum number of organizations across the globe are considering their own strategy for the cloud. However, the rate of adoption of the cloud varies as per the industry, geopolitical as well as regulatory openness. As organizations gradually make this shift, they will continue to transfer certain digital assets along with prime work loads to the cloud. Hence solutions will definitely be required for management of the new hybrid world.

The dilemma with this hybrid world coupled with the associated requirement for change management solutions are not completely new. However, the velocity with which companies are shifting key work loads towards the cloud is creating an awareness of these requisites. Around ten years ago, collaboration platforms as well as hosted supply chains appeared online, a majority within the high-tech manufacturing space, experiencing the pains of a shift to the cloud: huge file transfer protocols, WAN optimization, edge devices, single sign-on along with other means of communication enhancements across private networks. Years later, we happen to be dealing with a number of similar issues, and this time, it's on a much higher scale. A lot of improvements have taken place in the collaboration technologies but there is still the need for tools to assist in managing between cloud platforms and on premises.

Hybrid environments would continue to remain a prime factor for a minimum of three to five years. This recognition by Microsoft showcases the requirement for robust change management abilities across the cloud and on premises environments. Change management does not simply imply migration, it also takes structural mobility into consideration. Moving content, lists, metadata, forms, workflows as well as other components within diverse SharePoint environments along with maintenance of their integrity, has turned into a business imperative.

Change management within the hybrid SharePoint development environment implies the following:

• Enhanced movement between the development, staging as well as production environments.
• Development of solutions once, followed by going for replication of the same across environments.
• Restructuring of topology and content as workloads are migrated into the cloud.
• Creating and managing governance standards which are consistent, throughout these environments.
• Introducing bulk changes to the environments instead of site-by-site.
• Creation of dashboards as well as federated reports across all the environments.

There are a number of efficient vendors for rendering support to the hybrid SharePoint world, thereby offering administrators with flexible as well as powerful tools for the purpose of reporting, permissions management, information architecture management or re-design, compliance and auditing, along with distributed management which offers farm admins to power users increased hold over their environments. There are suites which offer great assistance within the change management category, providing potent functionality for helping organizations manage and gain control over their hybrid SP environments.

As organizations begin to explore Office 365 and how to reap adequate benefits from the large investments made in the transition from SharePoint on premises to a cloud-oriented model, it is advisable to begin thinking about the ways in which the various assets can be managed during the transition, whatever time the transition might involve. Proper solutions that cater to the needs of administration, governance and change management with respect to SharePoint must be adopted for business effectiveness.

We provide custom SharePoint development services. If you would like to speak to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.

Top 10 Content Migration Tools to SharePoint Platform

With rapid advancement of technology dominating the enterprise scenario, more and more organizations are looking forward to migrating from an older version of SharePoint to a more advanced version and also from an altogether different Enterprise Content Management (EMC). Well, when it comes to taking up content migration to SharePoint platform, it is always wiser to rely upon effective migration tool for best results.

 Here is a look at the third-party solutions that features a number of tools that help easy as well as successful content migration from a range of sources to SharePoint 2007.

AvePoint enables data transferring from a range of sources to SP 2007 platform through various tools.

• AvePoint Website Migrator – For web data transfer
• DocAve Public Folder Migrator – Allows data transportation from Exchange folders to designated SP Libraries and List in MOSS 2007 and SPS2003 platform
• DocAve SharePoint Migrator – Facilitates transfer of data to MOSS 2007 from SPS 2003
• DocAve Documentum eRoom Migrator – For document libraries as well as collective workspaces transfer from Documentun eRoom EMC
• DocAve File System Migrator – Enables documents transfer from the conventional network file shares or file systems that are based on Windows to online document libraries
• DocAve LiveLink Migrator – Allows Open Text LiveLink migration to WSS v3.0 and MOSS 2007

Tzunami facilitates transportation of information to SP 2007 from different sources with the help of several tools.

• TD File Shares Migration – Files as well as folder structure transfer from any network or local file share to the particular platform
• TD SPS 2001 Migration: Transfer to SharePoint 2007 from SharePoint 2001
• TD SPS 3003 Migration: Data transfer from SPS 2003 platform to SP 2007
• TD Exchange Migration: Exchange Public Folders migration to SharePoint 2007 Libraries and Lists
• TD DocuShare Migration: Data transfer of Xerox DocuShare
• TD eRoom Migration: EMC eRoom transfer of data into SP 2007 products
• TD LiveLink Migration: LiveLink content migration into the specific platform
• TD Documentum Migration: EMC Documentum content migration
• TD Hyperwave Migration: Hyperwave data transfer
• TD Hummingbird Migration: Data transfer of Hummingbird Document Management
• TD Lotus Notes Migration: Lotus Notes applications as well as database transportation
• TD Aqualogic Migration – Aqualogic Interaction data transfer

MetaLogix featuring a number of tools allow easy transfer of content to SP 2007 from a range of sources

Migration Manger for FileShare – Enables transportation from the following platforms:

• Personal drives
• Network file shares
• Web-based extranet and intranet document storehouse
• Document Management Systems and Enterprise File Sharing including Documentum, eRoom, and Lotus Notes

Migration Manger of Web Content – Allows transportation of information from the following platforms:

• Microsoft Content Management Server 2002.
• WCM Third-Party Enterprise Systems like Stellent, RedDot, Interwoven, Vignette, Percussion, and Tridion.
• All home-grown HTTP – accessible dynamic and static websites.
• Databases, documentum eRoom calendars, version files, and files.

eRoom Migration Manager – Allows migrating information to SharePoint 2007 from Documentum eRoom

SharePoint Site Migration Manager – Enables content migration from SPS 2003 to 2007

Quest has several tools that make it easy to transfer data from Lotus Notes, file share, SharePoint 2003 to the specific SP 2007 platform.

• File Migrator – Data transfer from file shares
• SharePoint Migration Manger – SPS 2003 information transportation to SP 2007
• Notes Migrator – Information transportation from QuickPlace, Domino.Doc application, and Notes
• Public Folder Migrator – Bulk transferring of data from Exchange Public Folders

VitalPath facilitates transportation of information from a range of repository consolidation along with migration from a different sources.

• Path Builder for SharePoint – Facilitates an integration of above 40 content storehouse with SharePoint.
• Path Builder – This solution i.e. vendor-neutral communicates at the API level consolidating all aspects of diverse content management systems providing Repository consolidation services.

Vamosa has several tools that allow both SP 2007 transfer as well as data transfer from a range of source systems to targeted platforms of CMS.

• Vamosa Content Migrator – Facilitates transportation of information to any target system from source system
• Vamosa Solutions for SharePoint 2007 – Enables transfer of data from several sites including all previous SharePoint, several other content management systems as well as Microsoft Content Management

Xavor primarily enables data transfer between MOSS and WSS 3.0 platforms.

Xavor SharePoint Migrator (XSPM)- Data transfer to MOSS 2007 from WSS 3.0 and between MOSS and WSS 3.0 respectively.

Proventeq offers a support to data transferring to the platforms of Oracle Stellent and SP

Content Migration Accelerator – Provides complete and comprehensive solution that enables a migration of documents, web content, and digital assets from an extensive source range to a number of targeted systems of Enterprise Content Management (ECM).

Metavis facilitates content migration between SP as well as other platforms like LiveLink, eRoom to SP.

ECM Migrator

• SharePoint to SharePoint
• Livelink to SharePoint
• eRoom to SharePoint

Kapow Technologies feature tools that are ideal for taking up migration of web data to a range of different CMS platforms.

This particular module functions like an ETL tool, but conducts the extraction and transformation of the data at the GUI level. Kapow features the ability of directly loading the contents into a standard XML file or a destination application to enable an import through standard tools of content importing. Therefore, any data can be easily synchronized or migrated between web based CRM, SMS, ERP, or Project Management System. Most Content Management Systems feature standard adopters like Interwoven, Oracle Stellent, Vignette, SDL Tridion, FatWire, EMC/Documentum, CoreMedia, Joomla, and IBM FileNet. CRM systems support include Oracle CRM, Siebel, NetSuite, as well as salesforce.com.

Content migration to custom SharePoint development platform gets easier with the above-mentioned tools offers by various third – party solutions providers.

We provide SharePoint application development services. If you would like to talk to one of our certified SharePoint developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.