To the SharePoint : Planning

Want your whitepapers in PDF or XPS?

Brenda Carter — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:55:00 GMT

By request we have added a couple of format options for the download of a recent and popular whitepaper: Administrator's Guide of Topics to Consider before Deployment (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=139163&clcid=0x409), by Shane Young and the folks at SharePoint 911 (http://www.sharepoint911.com).

On the download page, you'll see three different format options: docx, pdf, and xps.

Choose the option you like best and we'll track the metrics and popularity of each. Who knows, we might offer these options for future whitepapers.

Using MIS with SharePoint? Blatchington Mill School shows how to do the job.

Brenda Carter — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:11:00 GMT

I recently completed a technical case study with a school in the UK: Blatchington Mill School (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd335971.aspx).

This is the second school I've worked with in the UK. I was attracted to this solution by the sophisticated use of reporting that ties into the school's MIS system. In a nutshell, here's how it works:

1. The MIS system is hosted on a separate server. Here's the lineup of servers in their environment:

For details on the server hardware, see the case study.

2. A separate site collection houses all pages and Web Parts provided by the Capita SIMS (MIS) system. This site surfaces data from SIMS.net for staff, students and parents.

3. Capita SIMS SLG2 Web Parts are installed on target portals (see diagram above). Information that is displayed through each Web Part varies depending on the user’s role. Here's an example:

Blatchington Mill School uses a simple architecture to provide a sophisticated solution. The MIS system is integrated into SharePoint and the reporting features are threaded through each of the targeted portals sites, bringing together each of the school’s core audiences in practical and meaningful ways.

Brenda Carter, Writer, SharePoint Products and Technologies

Introducing the Performance and Capacity Planning Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007

Kelley Vice — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:40:00 GMT

There is a tremendous wealth of technical performance and capacity–related information available for Office SharePoint Server 2007 on TechNet. I know, because I wrote quite a lot of it. However, the greater the volume of content that becomes available, the harder it can be to find.

Yes; I can hear you now. “Kelley,” you’re saying, “thank you so much for sharing with us this valuable piece of information, that is in no way extremely obvious and well-known by every sentient being in existence, and even some non-sentient ones, such as fruit flies.”

You’re welcome.

And now, allow me to introduce the (begin drum roll here) Performance and Capacity Planning Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007 (cue trumpet flourishes and fireworks)! We’ve rigorously reviewed, analyzed, folded, starched, ironed, and consolidated every existing bit of performance and capacity planning content available today in one easy-to-use page.

Some highlights include:

· Topics organized into meaningful categories:

o Planning

o Recommendations

o Estimate performance based on test results

· Sections listing available resources:

o Demos

o Tools from Microsoft

o Tools from partners and the SharePoint community

o Community resources

We hope you’ll find this resource center helpful, and that it will save you time, money and precious, precious tears. We would like to hear from you if there’s anything we can do better. We actually do read customer comments and suggestions, and in fact, a large part of our work is improving our content based on your input.

Enjoy!

-- Kelley Vice

SharePoint IT Pro Writer

Blogging with the Twynham School IT Team and Shane Young

Brenda Carter — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:39:00 GMT

By Brenda Carter, IT Pro Technical Writer, SharePoint Products and Technologies

Last March, Shane Young and I sat down with Dave Coleman at the SharePoint conference in Seattle to review the solution design for Twynham School in the UK. Shane Young is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) who has designed solutions for several schools, including the Boulder Valley School District and Central Michigan University. Typically in these sessions Microsoft experts give design guidance to customers. However, during this session Coleman showed us how it’s done.

Coleman described how he stumbled across the initial version of SharePoint Team Services years ago and has since developed a growing Web presence with each subsequent version of SharePoint Products and Technologies. With his small IT team and a strong partnership with the community at the school, Coleman has produced a world-class IT solution. His team also hosts sites for several feeder schools. Finally, Coleman’s team generously shares their expertise (and templates!) with the other 63+ secondary schools in the area, helping them get up and running with SharePoint quickly.

Young applauds Twynham for their savvy solution and especially for openly sharing their work with the education community: "Colemans' team is saving education providers worldwide countless hours by sharing their lessons learned and helping them start on the right foot." Young emphasizes that starting with a viable design that has been proven in the field can greatly reduce the learning curve.

The purpose of this blog article is to introduce you to Shane Young and the Twynham team and to let them field your questions right here on this blog!

Shane Young has over 12 years experience architecting and administering large-scale server farms using Microsoft enterprise technologies. He has architected SharePoint solutions for clients ranging from 20 to 25,000 users. He is the President and lead consultant of www.SharePoint911.com.

Twynham School is a secondary school on the south coast of the UK and is rated among the top 10% of schools nationally. From left to right, the Twynham team includes:

Sylvia Haghighi (IT Technician)
Dan Rolles (Senior IT Technician)
Chris McKinley (SQL Admin/Web Developer)
Darren White (Web Developer)
Dave Coleman (Network Manager)
Mike Herrity (Assistant Headteacher)

For information about Twynham’s solution architecture as well as the architecture that Coleman recommend for single schools, see the following technical case study resources:

The Twynham IT team also hosts a site to showcase their solution: http://www.twynhamschool.com/supportinglearning/.

Here are some highlights from the Twynham case study:

While Twynham’s farm runs on five servers, Coleman reports that a single server is plenty of hardware for a single school. For the recommended specs, see the article!
Coleman’s team spent a summer digitizing media assets and hosts a bank of media files that teachers can easily incorporate into classroom sites. The media files are hosted on a separate server that is directly attached to a Web server. The article describes how Coleman ensures that students have access only to media files that are appropriate for their age and curriculum.
Teachers collaborate on the content that is offered on each subject site. For example, the French subject site incorporates RSS news feeds from French newspaper sites as well as links to other French media sites.
Twynham makes extensive use of podcasts across many of the subject sites. Students can subscribe to the podcasts and listen to them on their MP3 players, mobile phones, and computers.
The IT team and staff collaborated on sites to help students prepare for standardized exams. In the two months prior to the 2007 exams, Twynham Year 11 students viewed over 70,000 pages to prepare for their exams.
External access to sites was a priority. Students can access class materials and blog about what they are learning from home and even during their travels to World War I sites in England or overseas trips to geological sites in New Zealand.

If you are a medium-size school district or university and are interested in working with me to produce a similar technical case study, let me know! (bcarter@microsoft.com).

Meanwhile, feel free to post questions for Shane Young and the Twynham IT team. Thanks, Brenda

Clearing out the underbrush in the Planning TOC

samanro — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:05:00 GMT

We're tinkering a bit with the Planning section of the technical library for Office SharePoint Server. We've gotten feedback that it's tough to find the topics you want, and that there's a lot of extra words in the titles that we just don't need. So we're...(read more)