SPTechCon focuses on 2010, embraces MOSS 2007

New features and functionality in SharePoint 2010 will be the focal point, but SharePoint Server 2007 instruction will be plentiful at SPTechCon—the SharePoint Technology Conference—being held Feb. 10–12 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, Calif.

SPTechCon, produced by BZ Media LLC, which owns SD Times, will feature more than 80 workshops and technical classes spanning three full days. The 39-member faculty features some of the brightest minds in SharePoint today, including a Microsoft Certified Master in SharePoint as well as numerous Microsoft MVPs and a host of experts with very specific knowledge about all aspects of SharePoint.

The first day will feature full-day workshops for people just getting started with SharePoint. “SharePoint 101” sessions will be offered for developers, IT administrators and business users. Other workshops include “Become a SharePoint 2010 Power User,” "SharePoint Site Planning: Get it Right the First Time,” and “15 Things Developers Should Know About Migrating to SharePoint 2010.”

The opening keynote will again be presented by Tom Rizzo, Microsoft’s director of SharePoint. Rizzo, who delivered the keynote address at the two SPTechCon events in 2009, will speak on the delivery of SharePoint 2010. A second keynote will be given by Ted Pattison, a SharePoint consultant who recently founded Critical Path Training.

A special session called “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (About SharePoint)” gives Microsoft’s SharePoint partners an opportunity to present important information to conference attendees in an entertaining, lightning-talk style, while “Pizza and Answers” gives attendees a chance to talk to our expert faculty members in a very informal setting.

By David Rubinstein

Microsoft Partners Say Office 2010 Ready To Roll

Microsoft Partners Say Office 2010 Ready To Roll,

With Office 2010 now code-complete, Microsoft channel partners are getting ready to drum up demand for the latest version of the software giant's productivity suite.

Ken Winell, CEO, ExpertCollab, a SharePoint-focused solution provider in US, has been using the beta version of Office 2010 for months. "I have found it stable and feature-complete," he said. "Microsoft has always been careful to ensure the flagship product is not buggy out of the box, and the extended beta period hopefully made sure.

Dave Sobel, CEO of Evolve Technologies, a Microsoft partner, agrees with the stability assessment. "It definitely bodes well for its launch," Sobel said. "I haven't had any issues with it, but Office has always been stable. I expect customers to have the same sort of reaction."

One of the most closely watched aspects of Office 2010 is Office Web Apps, free cloud-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote. Office Web Apps will go up against Google Apps in the market for free Web-based productivity apps, and they're viewed as Microsoft's response to Google Apps' growing profile in the marketplace.

But Google Apps has some key limitations, such as its inability to format and work on documents offline. That's an essential feature for many users, according to Winell.

However, Google has started to make some inroads in sharing documents, Winell said. "The new version offers a near real-time collaboration ability that is pretty good," he said. "It is my understanding that the attraction of Google Docs is the cost (none) or for enterprises is substantially lower than a full Microsoft license.

Microsoft partners believe that Office Web Apps will give Microsoft a powerful tool for combating Google Apps, particularly in companies that have standardized on Microsoft technology.

"We just haven't seen any customers express any interest in Google Apps at all," said Marc Harrison, President, Silicon East, a Microsoft solution provider in US. "That being said, if they do at some point in the future, we'll just point to Microsoft's Office Web Apps, offhandedly mention they're compatible with the desktop apps pretty much the entire world is using, and let them make their own decision."

Sobel echoed this sentiment: "There's a faceoff between Microsoft and Google because both want to manage the technological environment as well as customer relations," he said. "Google oversimplifies and has always had a one-size-fits-all philosophy, while Microsoft now offers more choices and is embracing multiple ways of doing things."

Microsoft has a clear advantage over Google when it comes to cloud apps because of customers' preference for Office software, particularly in the business marketplace, says Matt Makowicz, Principal, Ambition Consulting, a US-based solution provider.

"Microsoft has made it a mission to win in the cloud computing space," Makowicz said. "The availability of Office 2010 will help keep Microsoft at the forefront of the productivity suite conversations and ahead of Google, with help from partners who continue to recommend Office over anything else."

Microsoft to update Office Communications Server

Microsoft to update Office Communications Server

Microsoft plans to release a new version of its OCS (Office Communications Server) by the latter half of 2010, according to Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group.

The new version of the software will include new features such as E911 (Enhanced 911), deeper integration with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Exchange 2010, as well as enhanced voice recognition capabilities.

The new software hasn't been officially given a name yet, though Microsoft's official working name is Communications Server 14. Pall did not say what the "14" stands for. OCS is software that provides instant messaging, Internet telephony, video conferencing, presence notification and other communications capabilities to large organizations.

When connected to a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) trunk or a PSTN (public switched telephone network), OCS can replace an office's PBX (private branch exchange) equipment. That can cut the costs of long-distance calls and telephony in general, Pall argued. "This is a complete VoIP [voice over Internet Protocol] solution," he said.

One new feature is E911, which allows a user, no matter where they are located, to dial 911 and get local assistance.

Another new feature is call parking, or the ability to put a call on hold and then resume the call from any other phone on the system.

The Communicator client has been simplified and outfitted with new features as well, Pall said. When integrated with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, the client can offer a deeper level of search. Previously, users could search the internal directories for names, but now they can search for expertise and knowledge areas as well, he said. The software uses the SharePoint directories to harvest this expertise data. Once you find an expert, you can call them directly from the desktop, using a USB headset. For the recipient of the call, the area of expertise serves as the subject line of the incoming call notification.

Using speech recognition software, the Communicator client can also transcribe voice mails so they can be read on screen.

Speaking at the VoiceCon2010 conference in Orlando on Wednesday, Pall expressed optimism for the growing adoption of unified communications, or the ability to intermingle multiple forms of communications.

By Joab Jackson on Infoworld.

  Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is the next release of Windows SharePoint Services, the collaboration platform from Microsoft. It offers a lot of new features and enhancements over Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, the earlier release.  It is also the foundation set of services on which the SharePoint Server 2010 is built. This release of SharePoint is highlighted with some important new features like Business Connectivity Services, UI Enhancements, Client Object Model, Sandboxed solutions, Claims based security, Services Architecture and Performance Point Services.

Microsoft’s Steve Fox sees the future

Microsoft’s Steve Fox sees the future (we’re talking months, not years), and it is “service-oriented applications.” By that he means giving developers the ability to access data hosted in the cloud to build into their applications, and then deploying those applications on premises or back out to the cloud.

With Microsoft’s release of its Azure cloud platform, and the upcoming releases of SharePoint 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, developers can take advantage of rich integrations to create “very compelling applications,” he said. Fox also mentioned “Dallas,” the codename for Microsoft’s still-in-beta Azure-hosted data libraries, as a key technology for service-oriented applications.

He gave the example of a Silverlight application calling into the cloud to access crime and business data to be overlaid on a Bing map so realtors can make decisions about whether they want to introduce a potential client into a certain area.

With Sandbox Solutions in SharePoint 2010 acting as a “lowest common denominator” for SharePoint 2010 on premises and SharePoint Online, Fox said parity can be brought to those instances so that a true hybrid solution can be created. “The SOA model is all about bridging heterogeneous systems,” he said. “You’re re-architecting your applications to go beyond on-premises.”

 Synergetics is Awarded as the "Best. NET Training Service Provider" by Microsoft.

SPTechCon focuses on 2010 embraces MOSS 2007

SPTechCon focuses on 2010 embraces MOSS 2007

New features and functionality in SharePoint 2010 will be the focal point, but SharePoint Server 2007 instruction will be plentiful at SPTechCon—the SharePoint Technology Conference—being held Feb. 10–12 at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame, Calif.

SPTechCon, produced by BZ Media LLC, which owns SD Times, will feature more than 80 workshops and technical classes spanning three full days. The 39-member faculty features some of the brightest minds in SharePoint today, including a Microsoft Certified Master in SharePoint as well as numerous Microsoft MVPs and a host of experts with very specific knowledge about all aspects of SharePoint.

The first day will feature full-day workshops for people just getting started with SharePoint. “SharePoint 101” sessions will be offered for developers, IT administrators and business users. Other workshops include "Become a SharePoint 2010 Power User,” "SharePoint Site Planning: Get it Right the First Time,” and “15 Things Developers Should Know About Migrating to SharePoint 2010."

The opening keynote will again be presented by Tom Rizzo, Microsoft’s director of SharePoint. Rizzo, who delivered the keynote address at the two SPTechCon events in 2009, will speak on the delivery of SharePoint 2010. A second keynote will be given by Ted Pattison, a SharePoint consultant who recently founded Critical Path Training.

A special session called “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know (About SharePoint)” gives Microsoft’s SharePoint partners an opportunity to present important information to conference attendees in an entertaining, lightning-talk style, while “Pizza and Answers” gives attendees a chance to talk to our expert faculty members in a very informal setting.

A complete listing of classes and workshops as well as registration information can be found at www.sptechcon.com.

On SDtimes, Writes By David Rubinstein on January 4, 2010

 Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 is the next release of Windows SharePoint Services, the collaboration platform from Microsoft. It offers a lot of new  features and enhancements over Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, the earlier release.  It is also the foundation set of services on which the SharePoint Server 2010 is built. This release of SharePoint is highlighted with some important new features like Business Connectivity Services, UI Enhancements, Client Object Model, Sandboxed solutions, Claims based security, Services Architecture and PerformancePoint Services.

Why developers like SharePoint 2010

Why developers like SharePoint 2010, Integration with Visual Studio is one change that makes SharePoint much easier to develop collaboration apps, developers say, by Paul Krill

SharePoint 2010, the newly announced upgrade to Microsoft's popular Web and collaboration platform, is receiving a thumbs-up from developers pleased with the product's capabilities, including its use of Visual Studio as a tool for building SharePoint applications.

A feature-completed version of SharePoint 2010 was detailed by Microsoft late last month.

[InfoWorld’s J. Peter Bruzzese provides a first look at SharePoint 2010, while InfoWorld's Martin Heller takes a sneak peek at Visual Studio 2010. ]

"It's getting better and better" for developers, says Serge van den Oever, a specialist software developer with Macaw, a systems integrator. Previously, Macaw created its own solutions "factory" to provide tools for building with SharePoint 2007 (officially named Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007). With the SharePoint 2010 version, Visual Studio integration will let Macaw bypass having to use a lot of its own tools, van den Oever says.

Overall, the full breadth of capabilities in SharePoint 2010 is on the rise, van den Oever says: "One of the things [improving] is the whole hosted platform, where you can run sandboxed applications."

"The Visual Studio integration is wonderful," says Navid Falconer, a software engineer at Arctic Slope Regional, an oil field services firm. While he did not do that much development in SharePoint 2007, Falconer notes, "I did enough to know how painful it was."

I think [SharePoint 2010 is making it] easy for developers to come through and help progress SharePoint further, " says Jesse Backof, a desktop applications specialist at the Miles & Stockbridge law firm. "Visual Studio is definitely being more refined now" for use with SharePoint, he says.

The Visual Studio integration removes obstacles in deploying systems, says Benjamin Bach, a staff development consultant at General Mills: "[Visual Studio integration] provides a much more complete and easy system to actually package up and deploy and debug and work directly with SharePoint. The integrated feeling of being able to work with that is a huge plus."

SharePoint 2010 offers a better development platform and probably faster search capabilities as well, says Bert Sandie, director of technical excellence at games maker Electronic Arts. Visual Studio appears "to be much better integrated by the looks of it," he notes.

Improvements in capabilities such as connectivity to data sources are anticipated in the SharePoint 2010 release, Sandie says. Overall, SharePoint offers an economical development solution, he adds: "For us, from a development perspective, developing on top of [SharePoint], it's actually pretty cheap" with Electronic Arts using ASP.Net code.

"I think [Microsoft is] doing a lot of good stuff around social collaboration" in SharePoint 2010, Sandie says. Electronic Arts has an estimated 2,000 SharePoint sites for 9,000 employees, with about 1,000 active sites.