Vedant Kulshreshtha

Enterprise Search Evaluation Guides available

2009-11-18T20:16:00Z

The Enterprise Search Evaluation Guides for SharePoint 2010 product family are now available from the Microsoft Download Center now.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Search Evaluation Guide - describes the enterprise search features of SharePoint Server 2010 and familiarizes readers with how to implement enterprise search by using SharePoint Server 2010. This guide includes:

Descriptions of the new and improved enterprise search features and technologies provided by SharePoint Server 2010.
Details on the indexing and query architecture implemented by SharePoint Server 2010.
Tours and walkthroughs of the main search features provided by SharePoint Server 2010.

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Enterprise Search Evaluation Guide - describes the enterprise search features provided by FAST Search Server 2010 and is also designed to familiarize you with how to implement enterprise search by using FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. This guide includes:

Descriptions of the enterprise search features and technologies provided by FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Details of the additional features that FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint provides over and above SharePoint Server 2010.
Details on the indexing and query architecture implemented by FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.
Tours and walkthroughs of the main search features provided by FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

The Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products technical diagram compares the enterprise search capabilities in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, Microsoft Search Server 2010 and Microsoft Search Server Express 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, and Microsoft FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010.

Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 model describes the physical and logical architecture components of the search system

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Beta available now

2009-11-18T19:42:00Z

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 Beta is available for download now. You can download it from either of following links:

TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee388573.aspx

MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ee390819.aspx

From the Microsoft Download Center

SharePoint Foundation 2010 Beta

Microsoft Office Web Apps (Beta) the new web-based tools that extend the Microsoft Office 2010 experience to your browser

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Internet Sites Beta for use with SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, Enterprise Edition

Information on FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

2009-11-13T14:08:00Z

As I mentioned in my earlier post - Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products, FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint is the new search SKU in SharePoint 2010 product family. (download this technical diagram to see a comparison of search capabilities across 5 search options to choose from)

Planning and Architecture

The Planning and Architecture for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta) document covers information about planning and architecture for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. It covers functional architecture, services and components and performance and capacity planning in detail. Following figure from the document shows the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint system as part of an overall SharePoint deployment.

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint solution consists of three main parts:

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint - The server infrastructure that provides processing, indexing and query capabilities, and the administration of these features.
FAST Query Search Service Application (SSA) - The Query SSA provides the query Web front-end capabilities. You install and deploy this SSA on a SharePoint Web server, and it hosts query Web parts and SDK query integration capabilities for your search solution.
FAST Search Connector (Content SSA) - The FAST Search Connector is a Search Service Application (SSA) that retrieves content for indexing from SharePoint farms and other content repositories. You install and deploy this SSA on a SharePoint application server.

Deployment and Configuration

For those looking forward to evaluating it, some more deployment related information on the product is now available. The Deployment and configuration of FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta) article describes how to install and configure Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint as a stand-alone (single) or in a multiple server deployment. Sharing some of the stuff from the guide below:

Hardware Requirements - The following is the minimum and recommended hardware requirements to deploy FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint:

Minimum: 4 GB RAM; 4 CPU cores, 2.0GHz CPU; 50 Gb disk
Recommended: 16 GB RAM; 8 CPU cores, 2.0GHz CPU; 1 TB disk space on RAID across 6 spindles or more

Software Requirements - You should install FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint on a server that has a clean installation of one of the following OS:

Windows Server 2008 SP2 x64
Windows Server 2008 R2 x64

Other things to note is that FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint must be installed on a different server from Microsoft SharePoint Server. The server should not be used for anything other than FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

PowerShell cmdlets

Certain administrative operations in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint can only be performed by using Windows PowerShell cmdlets or by using command line tools. Read about them here:

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint Windows PowerShell Cmdlets Overview (Beta) - An overview of when to use which Windows PowerShell cmdlets in FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

FAST Search Server for SharePoint 2010 Windows PowerShell Cmdlet Help (Beta) - When to use which Windows PowerShell cmdlets in the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint functional areas

Monitoring

The article Monitoring for FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint (Beta) describes how to deploy and install the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) 2007 with FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

TechNet Webcast Series: SharePoint Internet Business

2009-10-29T18:59:00Z

Sharing some information which would be useful for anyone interested in developing Internet websites on SharePoint 2007.

Tune in and learn how you can use Microsoft SharePoint for Internet Business to help you build your public-facing portal. In this series, you will learn from experienced partners how to create secure, dynamic web presence with personalization, rich commerce capabilities, catalogue and content management, business analytics, and search capabilities for anytime, anywhere access by customers and business partners.

Click here for current schedule and registration

Direct links to webcasts …

TechNet Webcast: Ten Reasons for Hosting Web Sites on SharePoint Server 2007 for Internet Sites (Level 200)

Wednesday, November 4, 2009 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Creating SharePoint Web Sites and Reaching SmartPhone Users with Mobile Entrée (Level 200)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: X Design Pattern for Web Sites Where Contributors and Consumers Cross Boundaries (Level 200)

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Design Considerations for a Public-Facing Web Site (Level 200)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Using Your Existing SharePoint Server Investment to Power Your Web Site (Level 200)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Migrating from Content Management Server 2002 to SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Planning Your Internet Presence with SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Creating Highly Branded, Rich User Experiences in SharePoint Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 1:00 P.M.–2:00 P.M. Pacific Time

Office Web Applications

2009-10-27T06:02:00Z

Office Web Applications is a new web based productivity offering in Microsoft Office 2010 suite. You can watch the demo here: Demo of the Office Web Apps

Office Web Apps services include companions to Microsoft Word 2010, Microsoft Excel 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, and Microsoft OneNote 2010. These would be available on Windows Live at no cost to users as an ad-supported service (read: Office Web Apps Coming to Windows Live). For enterprise users, it can be hosted on SharePoint 2010 (SharePoint Foundation 2010 or the SharePoint Server 2010) either on-premise or online.

Office Web Applications are licensed with Office 2010 and need to be installed and enabled on top of SharePoint 2010. These applications are focused on offering access to Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Excel 2010, and OneNote 2010 documents through any browser across multiple platforms, lightweight creation and editing capabilities in standard formats. When enabled, it enhances experience of SharePoint user. For example,

When user clicks on an Office document in a Document Library it will launch the Office Web App viewer
When user clicks ‘New Document’ in a Document Library to create a new Office document but does not have the respective desktop application, Office Web Application will be launched to author the document

Browsers Supported

Internet Explorer 7 and 8
Firefox 3.5 on Windows, Mac and Linux
Safari 4 on Mac

Read The Office Web Apps Love Your Browser for more details.

Silverlight integration

Office Web Applications works whether or not Silverlight is installed on the machine. With Silverlight, the user experience gets better. For example:

Faster load performance
Improved text fidelity, better text spacing, better rendering and zoom beyond 100%
Text will respect ClearType tuner settings
Improved accuracy of hit highlighting in Find
Smoother PowerPoint animations and improved slide scaling

Read Under the Hood: Find in the Word Web App Viewer and The Office Web Apps Love Your Browser posts for more details.

Deploying Office Web Applications

Refer the Deploy Office Web Apps document available on the Microsoft Download Center. Deploying Office Web Apps involves three primary phases:

Installing Office Web Apps by running setup (WCSetup.exe).
Activating the Office Web Apps services.
Activating the Office Web Apps feature on those site collections for which the Office Web Apps should be available.

PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show feature

The functionality provided by the PowerPoint Web Application, also enables the PowerPoint Broadcast Slide Show feature. This is a new feature in Microsoft Office 2010 that enables presenters to broadcast a slide show from PowerPoint 2010 to remote viewers who watch in a Web browser. Broadcast Slide Show gives organizations options to provide broadcast slideshow services to users either as an internally-hosted service or as a service accessed over the Internet.

Broadcast Slide Show and Microsoft Live Meeting are complementary technologies, each providing a different level of functionality and end-user experience.

Capability	Broadcast Slide Show	Microsoft Live Meeting
Client Software	Included in Office PowerPoint 2010	LiveMeeting client
Hosting	Available with or without internally hosted server	Internally hosted or through an externally hosted service
Broadcast	PowerPoint slide show only	Any desktop application
Purpose	Just-in-time shared slideshows	Broad communication and collaboration capabilities
Use when…	You want a low-infrastructure solution for impromptu slideshow broadcasts	You want a complete Web conferencing solution with collaboration tools

To learn more about deploying Broadcast Slide Show, refer to the Deploying Broadcast Slide Show document.

Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products

2009-10-23T05:20:00Z

When compared to SharePoint 2007, one more search technology option - FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint has been added to SharePoint 2010 product family. Options now available are:

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 search
Microsoft Search Server 2010 Express
Microsoft Search Server 2010
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint provides the high-end search features (check the table below) and can search huge corpus of data extremely fast. It was not part of the Technical Preview but it will be available with public Beta. As of now, there is not much public documentation on it though :-(

The Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products document compares and contrasts the above search technologies. The document covers each technology in brief along with topology options available. Copy-pasted below is the Search Capabilities comparison table from the document:

	SharePoint Foundation 2010	Search Server 2010 Express	Search Server 2010	SharePoint Server 2010	FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
Basic search	ü	ü	ü	ü	ü
Visual Best Bets Keyword terms and synonyms defined by an administrator to enhance search results. For FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint only, a section of relevant information is displayed in addition to search results for a keyword term (for example, an image banner or HTML).		Limited	Limited	Limited	ü
Scopes Users can filter search results by using scopes.		ü	ü	ü	ü
Search enhancements based on user context Scopes Best Bets, visual Best Bets, and document promotions and demotions to a sub-group of employees.					ü
Custom properties Manage which properties are indexed and how these are treated in search results.		ü	ü	ü	ü
Property extraction Extracts key information (people names, locations, company names) from unstructured text to use as additional managed properties. (Limited: title, author, and date only.)		Limited	Limited	Limited	ü
Query federation Federates results from multiple search sources.		ü	ü	ü	ü
Query suggestions Provides help with query formulation based on what the user types.		ü	ü	ü	ü
Similar results Generates a new search based on the selected search result.					ü
Sort results on managed properties or rank profiles Sort results based on selected managed properties or by FAST Query Language (FQL) formula.					ü
Relevancy tuning by document or site promotions Promote selected documents or sites as highly relevant results for a keyword. Demote documents or sites to give lower rank. (Limited: promote documents for a given site, not query specific.)		Limited	Limited	Limited	ü
Shallow results refinement Refine results using metadata associated with the top results.		ü	ü	ü	ü
Deep results refinement Refine results using metadata associated with all results.					ü
Previewers Display inline previews of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files.					ü
Windows 7 federation Enterprise search results are available in Windows desktop search.		ü	ü	ü	ü
People search Search users to find people by name or expertise.				ü	ü
Social search Relevancy is improved by how people interact and relate with content by factoring in social tagging and the relationship of people to content and other people.				ü	ü
Taxonomy integration Takes advantage of user generated tags. Managed taxonomy influences search rankings and experience.				ü	ü
Multi-tenant hosting Data partitioning of crawled data based on tenants.				ü
Rich Web indexing support Indexing of wide variety of Web content, including Flash.					ü

Item level scale table compares the index scalability:

	Max Items that can be indexed
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 search	~ 10 million per search server
Microsoft Search Server Express	~ 300,000 with SQL Server Express, ~ 10 million with SQL Server
Microsoft Search Server 2010	~ 100 million
Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010	~ 100 million
FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint	500 million +

HTH

White Paper: Collaboration without compromise - SharePoint and Office 2010

2009-10-22T10:15:00Z

A White Paper on SharePoint server and Office suite integration - Collaboration without compromise - SharePoint and Office 2010 is available from the SharePoint 2010 Benefits Overview page. This paper describes how the 2010, 2007, and 2003 versions of Office work together with the 2010, 2007, and 2003 versions of SharePoint technologies. Main focus though is on the integration features of the Microsoft Office 2010 with Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

The scenarios outlined in this paper show examples along with screenshots of how the SharePoint 2010 and Office 2010 applications integrate to deliver rich, intuitive, and easy-to-use capabilities to users. The scenarios cover the following value areas:

Collaboration Without Compromise
Bring Ideas to Life
Anywhere Access
The Practical IT Platform

If you are looking for a feature level comparison in a tabular format, you can refer to the appendices section at the end.

Appendix A: Microsoft SharePoint 2010 with Different Versions of Microsoft Office (2010, 2007, 2003)
Appendix B: Microsoft Office 2010 with Different Versions of Microsoft SharePoint (2010, 2007, 2003)

The paper concludes that to realize the best user experience with Office and SharePoint integration features, organizations should upgrade client programs to Office Professional Plus 2010 and server technologies to SharePoint 2010.

What happens when SharePoint Online subscription expires?

2009-10-21T09:15:00Z

SharePoint Online subscriptions are purchased for a specific period of time. In case, your company does not renew it, subscriptions "expire". When a subscription expires, it will go through two phases before it is removed:

Warning Phase - grace period after a subscription expires. When a subscription enters the warning phase, service administrators and users assigned to that subscription begin to receive warning notifications in the Microsoft Online Services Sign In application and My Company Portal
Disabled Phase - data retention period starting from the day that the warning phase ends. During the disabled phase, user accounts assigned to that subscription are disabled and users are unable to access the service; however, service administrators assigned to that subscription can still access the service

Its important to understand this concept as it effects the data stored in the SharePoint sites and user access to the data. You can read the About Expiration of Subscriptions page for more details on the process.

Options available

You have 2 options in case the subscription expires:

Renew expired subscription - your company can renew the expired subscription during both Warning and Disabled phases
Export data - If you do not renew the expired subscription, the expired subscription will be removed after the disabled phase ends. So, you would need to export the data stored on SharePoint online sites

When you renew a subscription, you can choose to decrease the number of licenses of the subscription. However, if the total number of licenses in use exceeds the total number of paid licenses, in the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center the service administrator will see the Out of compliance warning for this subscription, and will see that the number of Total in use is greater than the number of Total licenses.

Saving SharePoint Online information

Microsoft SharePoint Online can contain many different types of information. The methods used to save the information will vary depending on the information type. Before starting the process of saving your company's SharePoint Online information, you should review the methods given in the About Saving SharePoint Online Information article and the issues associated with saving each type of information.

Save SharePoint Online Information article describes the procedures to save Microsoft SharePoint Online information from Microsoft Online Services to a set of local files. SharePoint Online administrators can view, download, and save all document library content in their organization’s SharePoint Online sites. Site owners can view, download, and save all document library content from sites for which they have administrator permissions. Four methods are available and discussed in this article:

Use Windows Explorer
Export to Office Excel
Export to Office Access
Export to Office Outlook

Convert from Trial to Paid Subscription

You can convert from a trial to a paid subscription by contacting the company from which you received your trial subscription. Please refer to Convert from Trial to Paid Subscription article for more details. Important points to note here are:

If you decide not to convert from a trial to a paid subscription, you can export your data during the warning phase or disabled phase after your trial subscription expires
You cannot recover data after the subscription is removed
Any data not recovered by the end of the disabled phase will be permanently lost

Also refer to "Moving From Try to Buy" section in the Use Trial Subscriptions page in Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal Help website.

Update: SharePoint 2010 documentation

2009-10-20T15:00:00Z

Since posting my last blog post - SharePoint 2010 documentation now available, I came across some more content available on Microsoft Download Center. Given below are the new resources I found:

SharePoint 2010: Developer Platform White Paper - An Introduction for ASP.NET Solution Architects by David Chapell. This white paper provides an overview of the SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform for ASP.NET developers

SharePoint 2010: Developer and IT Professional Learning Plan - This document provides information to help developers and IT professionals learn Microsoft SharePoint 2010

SharePoint 2010: Getting Started with Development on SharePoint 2010 Hands-on Labs in C# and Visual Basic - Use these 10 hands-on lab manuals for SharePoint 2010 to get started learning SharePoint 2010 development

SharePoint 2010: SharePoint Developer Platform Wall Poster - The SharePoint 2010 Developer Platform wall poster (PDF format) shows a view of the SharePoint 2010 developer tools, community ecosystem, execution environment, SharePoint Server 2010 workloads, and target application types. The poster is intended to be printed at 24 inches x 36 inches (61 centimeters x 91 centimeters).

Topologies for SharePoint Server 2010 - Describes common ways to build and scale farm topologies, including planning which servers to start services on

Hosting Environments for SharePoint 2010 Products - Summarizes the support for hosting environments and illustrates common hosting architectures

Microsoft Business Connectivity Services Model - Microsoft Business Connectivity Services enable users to interact with external data by using SharePoint lists and Microsoft Office 2010

Search Technologies for SharePoint 2010 Products - Compares and contrasts search technologies in SharePoint 2010 Products

Search Environment Planning for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 - This model describes primary architecture design decisions for search environments.

Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 - This model describes the physical and logical architecture components of the search system

Design Search Architectures for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 - This model describes the steps to determine a basic design for a SharePoint Server 2010 search architecture.

SharePoint 2010 documentation now available

2009-10-20T04:09:00Z

The SharePoint 2010 public Beta will be available in November 2009. You can start now by reading and knowing more about it as the SharePoint 2010 documentation and learning resources are now available on MSDN SharePoint Developer Center and TechNet's SharePoint Products TechCenter.

SharePoint 2010 post by Jeff Teper – Corporate Vice President, SharePoint Server, Microsoft on the Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog contains a nice summary of SharePoint 2010 features.

What's New information

You can start by reading the What's new in SharePoint Foundation 2010 (Windows SharePoint Services is now Microsoft SharePoint Foundation) and What's new in SharePoint Server 2010 pages in SharePoint Developer Center. Then read the What's New in SharePoint Server 2010 (Beta) page and What's New in SharePoint Foundation 2010 (Beta) in SharePoint Products TechCenter.

SharePoint Foundation Building Blocks provides a concise view of the primary underlying components of SharePoint Foundation.

For PerformancePoint Server 2007 developers, the place to start is What's new for PerformancePoint Services (SharePoint Server 2010) page.

Evaluation Guides

SharePoint 2010 Professional Developers Evaluation Guide - describes the SharePoint 2010 developer platform, including walkthroughs of some of the new capabilities for developers
SharePoint Server 2010 Evaluation Guide for IT Professionals - designed to help IT pros gain sufficient knowledge and understanding to evaluate Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Models/Posters

Services in SharePoint Products 2010 - Describes and illustrates the services architecture, including and common ways to deploy services in your overall solution design
Cross-farm Services in SharePoint 2010 Products - illustrates how to deploy services across farms to provide centralized administration of services

Starting Development

Getting Started: How SharePoint 2010 Works module provides information on system requirements, which browsers are supported, and basic concepts of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Setting Up the Development Environment for SharePoint Server article describes how to install a development environment with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.

Get Started Developing on SharePoint 2010 page has links to following 10 modules.

Upgrade Information

For information on upgrading current SharePoint 2007 installations, refer to SharePoint 2010 Upgrade Resource Center for guidance. There is lot of relevant information in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010: Deprecated Types and Methods.

HTH

Microsoft PressPass – Analyst Reports site

2009-10-09T09:00:00Z

Analyst reports are a good reference point for customers evaluating products for their requirement. The Analyst Reports site on Microsoft PressPass is the place to look for analyst reports published by leading independent analyst firms on, or including, Microsoft.

Some recent SharePoint and FAST related reports available here are:

Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals (Gartner Research, Sept. 17, 2009)

Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology (Gartner Research, Inc., Sept. 2, 2009)

The Forrester Wave: Collaboration Platforms, Q3 2009 (Forrester, August 6, 2009, .pdf file, 442 kb)

Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management (Gartner Research, Inc., Aug. 5, 2009)

HTH.

Migrating Lotus Notes applications to SharePoint 2007 – Part 3

2009-10-08T11:36:00Z

Part 3: Migration Process

Any Lotus Notes application has 3 parts to it:

User Interfaces Pages or Forms – Lotus Notes Forms, Pages, Navigators, etc..
Application Logic – Lotus Notes Scripts/Formulas in Action buttons, Agents etc..
Data – Lotus Notes Documents

Given the architecture of Lotus Notes and APIs it provides, you can only migrate #3 i.e. the data out of its databases. That's the ground reality. So,

If the application can be mapped to a List Template in SharePoint, you get all the user interface elements and features out of the box from SharePoint. Even if some list/library customization is required in SharePoint, the effort is small and manageable
If application needs custom InfoPath form, ASP.NET form, Web Part(s) or complex workflows then those elements need to be custom developed and effort might be substantial

So, migration process and effort depends on whether a Lotus Notes application can be mapped to some out of the box or custom template in SharePoint or not.

Classifying Appplications

Classifying applications based on their complexity, features and integration requirements helps in:

mapping each application to target solution
evaluate and select migration tool (s)
estimate effort required and prepare a project plan

As the Application Analysis Envisioning Process for Lotus Domino Applications guide mentions, dissecting the domino application and determining the baseline pattens will help you be successful in seeing the end-state solution that will replace the Domino Application. Some patterns mentioned in it are:

Pattern 1 Document Management
Pattern 2 Workflow
Pattern 3 Connection to external data source
Pattern 4 Connection to other notes application
Pattern 5 Discussion databases
Pattern 6 Team rooms

Based on your environment, you can identify more patterns and then use them to classify applications. One of the ways to classify them might be:

Simple applications - can be mapped to standard SharePoint list/site templates
Medium applications - applications without workflow - need custom list/site templates in SharePoint
Complex applications - custom applications with workflow - need custom list/site templates and workflow development
High Complexity applications - need extensive SharePoint application development
Non-SharePoint apps - where SharePoint is not the right fit technically/strategically. They will get replaced by some existing .NET application, a LoB app or some standard package

Migration Tool Options

Microsoft Transporter Suite - Microsoft Transporter Suite is a set of interoperability and migration tools to migrate content from Lotus Domino servers or Generic POP/IMAP servers. For Lotus Domino the suite contains a set of tools for Directory and Free/Busy interoperability between Lotus Domino 6, 7 and 8 and Exchange Server 2007 and Windows Server 2003/2008 Active Directory. In addition for Lotus Domino the suite contains migration tools to migrate users, groups, personal address lists, mailboxes, personal mail archives, and applications from Lotus Domino 5, 6, 7 or 8 to Active Directory, Exchange Server 2007, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.

You can read the Microsoft Transporter Suite for Lotus Domino white paper for more details. The click-through flash demo - Microsoft Transporter Suite 2007 for Lotus Domino Demo: Application Data Migration shows how to use the Microsoft Transporter Suite 2007 for Lotus Domino to transfer application data to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

A lot of migration tools are available from Microsoft partners. Some of these are:

It's difficult to make a recommendation on the tool to use. Microsoft's tool is free, rest of the tools have a license cost and support options which comes along with it.

I would advise you to first try out the Microsoft tool. If it does not suffice your requirement, download evaluation versions of the 3rd Party tools given above and test them on a sample set of your databases. Most vendors provide evaluation version and live demo or Live Meeting options. Appendix 3: Application Migration Tools Matrix in the Application Analysis Envisioning Process for Lotus Domino Applications guide provides a comparison table but most products have been upgraded since then.

There is tool specific content on some blogs also. For example, posts - Migrating Lotus Notes Applications to Microsoft SharePoint: Understanding Application Complexity and the Value of Consolidation and Automation and Thirteen ways to migrate a document to SharePoint on the Notes SharePoint Blog.

Some Tools do claim ability to migrate Lotus Notes Forms and code. Please do evaluate these claims using a trial version to see if the output meets your expectations or not.

IBM Lotus NotesSQL

IBM Lotus NotesSQL is the ODBC driver for Lotus Notes and Domino which allows ODBC-enabled data reporting tools, database tools, and application development tools to read, report, and update information that is stored in Domino databases (NSF files). You can use this driver to migrate data to Microsoft SQL databases in case the target solution is ASP.NET or a InfoPath based application with data in SQL database.

Tools to assist Co-existence

In case, co-existence of Lotus Notes and SharePoint environment is required for some time, there are tools available from Microsoft Partners which can help you in data integration.

Addition Resources for Reference

Application Templates for Windows SharePoint Services are out-of-box custom scenarios for the Windows SharePoint Services platform, tailored to address the needs and requirements of specific business processes or sets of tasks in organizations of any size.

Product Innovation Custom Application Comparison Demo shows a highly customized Lotus Domino application for processing new product ideas, compares that with the same application built on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and highlights the ease of creating workflow and reports using Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 and Excel Services.

Project Tracking Application Template Comparison Demo compares the out-of-the-box project tracking template applications from Lotus Domino and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, and shows how the integrated platform of SharePoint and Microsoft Office can create a more streamlined project management process.

Sales and Inventory Tracking Application Comparison Demo shows a custom suite of Lotus Domino applications developed for a sales organization, and compares that with a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 sales and inventory tracking application with the same functionality, while highlighting the integrated capabilities of the Microsoft platform using SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server, and Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007.

Migrating Lotus Notes applications to SharePoint 2007 – Part 2

2009-10-06T17:30:00Z

Part 2: Application Analysis

Preparing the Inventory

First step in any migration exercise is to build an inventory of Lotus Notes databases. Not many Lotus Domino administrators can actually tell how many databases are running across all servers. The Notes Log (log.nsf) and Catalog (catalog.nsf) database on each server contain most of the information you need but its not in a consolidated and analysis-friendly format.

Preparing inventory is not a trivial exercise for customers with 10s or 100s of Domino servers spread in multiple locations. So, automation is the key here. You can write a small Lotus Notes application to do this or use of the many free tools available in the market.

You can evaluate these products and decide which one is best for your environment and requirements.

You can also watch - Microsoft Transporter Suite 2007 for Lotus Domino Demo: Application Analysis and Reporting. This click-through flash demo shows how to use the Transporter Suite 2007 for Lotus Domino to analyze your existing Lotus Domino applications and create general and custom reports for them

Recommended Read

I would recommend anyone starting on the Analysis exercise to first read the Application Analysis Envisioning Process for Lotus Domino Applications guide. This guide (authors: Scott Andersen, Lou Mandich, John Gilbert and Dirk Hamstra) discusses the Application Analysis Envisioning Process (AAEP) for Lotus Domino applications. The AAEP provides you with a process to identify and classify Lotus Domino infrastructure, understand its core components and functionality, and accurate guidance for a recommended target solution. AAEP has 4 phases:

Phase One: Data Collection
Phase Two: Data Analysis
Phase Three: Target Solution Mapping
Phase Four: Architect and Proof of Concept

In all the migration projects I have seen, these are the phases which everyone follows more or less. This guide will provide you a clarity of thought, help you plan better and optimize effort.

Analysis

The analysis of application inventory data throws up lot of useful statistics like last modified date, application usage, number of documents, database template name, which you can use to optimize the migration effort and cost. Some activities advised are:

Identify and Remove applications not used or needed. A very large percentage of the application databases would be used infrequently or not at all. In most customers, this figure exceeds 75%. You should identify these databases and after discussion with the relevant business owners delete/archive them
Archive legacy data. Some application databases contain historic non-business critical data which is used for reference infrequently and that too by few users. Check the option of exporting such data to an Excel sheet and/or File server and give it to users who might need it in future
Drive standardization. Many applications would be similar but not same or replicas. This happens because it's really easy to copy-paste-edit a design component or even a database in Lotus Notes. Migrating such applications to a standardized template based SharePoint Site/List would save a lot of effort and time

In some instances, at the end of analysis process, less than 10% of Lotus Notes application databases actually need migration. Rest of the databases are either deleted or data is exported and then they are archived. For complexity point of view, the migration candidates are either:

Simple and/or Standard Template based applications
Custom and/or complex applications

Target Solution

For each migration candidate, you would need to decide the target SharePoint solution. The Table below shows the most common options -

Lotus Notes application	Target SharePoint solution
Data management applications	List
Document Management applications	Document Library List
Discussion Forums	Discussion Board
Form based applications	InfoPath 2007 with (out) Form Services List
Workflow applications	List/Library with OOB workflow List/Library with custom workflow

The current Microsoft Technology environment and applications should also be analyzed as options for target solution. For example, migrating a complex Lotus Notes application to an existing ASP.NET application might save you some effort and cost. In some cases, a simple data migration to an existing application might suffice the need.

Few more things to account for when deciding on target solution are:

Integration and Reporting needs – Tool based analysis is not perfect at detecting all the integration points the application might have with other applications or the reporting requirements. So, for complex and business critical applications, its advisable to manually go through some design components like Forms and Agents to confirm these
Buy vs Build decision. You might come across some home grown complex applications like – Client Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Help Desk, etc. If these are feature rich, then it might make sense to deploy a standard package like Microsoft Dynamics instead of trying to build all the features in SharePoint. You will save on customization effort/time and users will get a ton of additional features
User Experience. User experience changes completely in SharePoint so, account for these changes and the related training requirement and costs in the migration plan. Involving some power users and decision makers from the project start would help you a lot in designing most appropriate SharePoint interface and drive adoption after go-live

Proof of Concept

If you have more than one option for the target solution, it's advisable to do a quick Proof of Concept (PoC). You can also include evaluation of a migration tool as part of the PoC scope. PoC helps you in sharing the user experience and feature set with a pre-determined set of end users and get their feedback before deciding on the target solution.

After the PoC, once you have decided the target solution for each Lotus Notes application you are ready for the migration process. That's discussed in next post.

Migrating Lotus Notes applications to SharePoint 2007 – Part 1

2009-10-05T17:00:00Z

Part1: Starting the Migration

Some Background

Lotus Notes and Domino was the first Enterprise Collaboration software and the only one for many years (refer to: The History of Notes and Domino). Introduction of Microsoft’s SharePoint Technologies in addition to IBM’s own goof-up of introducing Workspace brand (with a completely different technical stack) and then retreating back contributed a lot to its downfall. What most customers have realized is that Lotus Notes is no longer a strategic platform for IBM. All the IBM’s newest collaboration products like – Quickr and Connections are based on non-Notes technologies.

The trend of Lotus Notes and Domino loosing market share continues with more and more customers transitioning away from it. First it was only Microsoft but now even Google has started targeting Lotus Notes application customers. When transitioning away from Lotus Notes/Domino product family, many customers choose Microsoft’s SharePoint as their Portal and Collaboration platform and migrate to it. In this series of 4 posts, I will cover the approach for migrating Lotus Notes application databases to SharePoint 2007, process and tools available to accelerate the process.

Difference between “Lotus Notes” and “Lotus Domino”

Customers use both these terms interchangeably which often confuses SharePoint developers. Here’s the difference for you:

Lotus Notes: name of the Client application installed on user desktop. Needed to access the Lotus Notes mailboxes and applications
Lotus Domino: name of the Server. Hosts and runs Lotus Notes applications and messaging components

Applications run on the Lotus Domino servers and are accessible either using the Lotus Notes client or a web browser or both.

What’s on the Lotus Domino server?

Following are the different type of databases you would find on the server:

Domino Directory: Maintains Server configuration, user accounts and messaging information. The filename is always “names.nsf”. Domino server cannot run without it. In Microsoft world, these features are spread across the Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint servers
System Databases: a set of supporting databases needed to support server and administrative functions
Mailboxes: user mailboxes and mail-in databases. In Microsoft world, mailboxes are on the Exchange server and mail-in databases are equivalent to the mail enabled Libraries in SharePoint
Application Databases: business applications like document library, discussion forum, employee self service or workflow applications. List/Library and Sites would be the equivalent in SharePoint world
Notes Templates: any Lotus Notes database can be saved as a template and then another clone of the application can be created using the template. Lot of Template database ship out of the box in the product. List template and Site template would be the equivalent in SharePoint

When migrating messaging infrastructure, you would concentrate on the Domino Directory and Mailboxes on Lotus Domino server. For migrating the application infrastructure, you would concentrate on the Application Databases running on the Lotus Domino server.

Microsoft Resources and Guidance

Resources for Interoperability and Migration from Lotus Domino in Interoperability TechCenter is the homepage for all information on migrating Lotus Notes environment to Microsoft. For Microsoft partners, there is information available on Transitioning IBM Lotus Notes Customers page in the Microsoft Partner Network website.

Migrating from Lotus Notes to the Microsoft Collaboration Platform document provides a high-level overview of the process of analyzing and planning a migration from Lotus Notes to the Microsoft Collaboration Platform. It introduces the various tools available for coexisting these two environments as well as for migrating the Domino Directory, mail, and applications.

Lot of content I discuss in this series is also available on the Microsoft website links given above.

High-Level Migration Approach

For migrating the Lotus Notes and Domino environment to Microsoft platform, you would need to migrate:

Mailboxes to Microsoft Exchange server
Applications to Microsoft SharePoint server

Lotus Notes client would get replaced by the Microsoft Office Outlook client for accessing mailboxes and offline SharePoint content. Users would use a Web browser for access the SharePoint sites and applications.

Messaging and Directory Services is Standards based so a tools based approach is possible. Migration Tools are available from Microsoft and other 3rd Party vendors.

In the next post, I will discuss the application analysis process and then the migration process in post after that.

Some good to know stuff for SharePoint 2007

2009-09-02T22:28:00Z

In this post, I am sharing links to some TechNet documentation which have helped me a lot in the troubleshooting process. They are worth adding to web browser favorites and to the Resources list in SharePoint Central Administration website.

Events and error reference (Office SharePoint Server)

Account permissions and security settings - This article describes Microsoft Office SharePoint Server administrative and services account permissions. It covers the following areas: Microsoft SQL Server, the file system, file shares, and registry entries

Files and permissions for Office SharePoint Server 2007 - This article lists the detailed minimum file permission settings for folders and files created when you install Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

List of rights (Office SharePoint Server) - In this article: List permissions, Site permissions and Personal permissions

Special directories and storage locations (Office SharePoint Server) - This article lists the folders and files that are used by Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007