What am I supposed to do when a good friend (and former Bamboo employee) turns against SharePoint? Should I un-friend him on Facebook? Maybe “fix” the brakes on his car? What do you guys think?  -  Dooley

Top News Stories
SharePoint Performance Sinks, Swims with SQL Server Throughput (SearchContentManagement)
When things slow down in a SharePoint system, the initial fix is often to add more Web servers to better handle the load. But those front-end servers rely on the same back-end database server, and the back end is where SharePoint usually encounters the most performance problems. That’s because it essentially relies on SQL Server as both a database and a file system.  It’s not that SQL Server isn’t a speed demon; it can be. But SharePoint’s processing demands tend to highlight SQL Server’s most common bottleneck: disk I/O.

SharePoint: Today & Tomorrow (Enterprise Irregulars)
Since the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) ended up in my backyard this year, I decided to drop by for a couple of sessions. There’s a lot here that’s not all that interesting to me – more for the partners’ sales teams on how to sell more Microsoft stuff – but it’s a good opportunity for me to catch up on a few product announcements and also see some of my vendor contacts who are also Microsoft partners. You can watch the keynotes and some other interviews online and follow the Twitter stream; this morning, we heard about how Windows 8 is going to be the biggest thing since Windows 95, and saw some of the new hardware that’s being developed to take advantage of the new features.

Is Microsoft Planning to Reveal Office 2013 Any Day Now? (SiliconRepublic)
Microsoft is reportedly planning to preview its next major productivity suite Office 2013 (or Office 15 if you like) on 16 July, suggesting a full launch early next year. The Consumer Preview of the productivity suite had been tipped for July. According to USA Today, Office 15 is expected to be available early next year “bristling with hooks into Windows 8.”

Microsoft COO: Let’s Rescue Customers From Oracle, IBM (The VAR Guy)
Microsoft COO Kevin Turner sees prime opportunities for partners to “rescue customers” from IBM, Oracle and others, according to his WPC12 keynote. “VMware, Oracle, Apple and Google are great competitors. We’ll respect them but we’re not going to fear them. This is our time to take back the dialog.” Here’s the keynote recap.

Does Microsoft Windows Azure Threaten vCloud? (CloudTweaks)
It appears like Microsoft is desperate to become the OS for cloud computing. At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference on July 10th, the company has announced its Windows Azure’s white-label version which is targeted at the web hosts currently based on Windows Server. This can be viewed as a challenge for VMware, which is trying to push its vCloud agenda. In recent years, VMware is spanning cloud-based and on-premise deployments.

Don’t Hate Me for Liking Windows 8 (CNET)
I often find myself on the wrong side of my opinionated friends and colleagues. Years ago, I fought hard defending Tim Burton’s films, despite each new release being worse than the last (trust me, I’ve given up that ghost). I like bad TV shows and sappy music, I avoid fine dining when I can, I prefer console games over PC games (who can be bothered with driver updates?) and I’ve seen Game of Thrones, but I haven’t come close to picking up the books.

Microsoft to Apple: Forget the Post-PC World, It’s Time for PC+ (DailyFinance)
A few years ago, Apple’s Steve Jobs was credited with popularizing the term “Post-PC.” With it, he embodied Apple’s fundamental view that mobile devices are an entirely different category of devices than traditional PCs, including Macs. Current CEO Tim Cook echoed this sentiment lately when he said, “In my view, the tablet and the PC are different.” On the other side, Microsoft firmly believes that a tablet is a PC, simply in a different form factor.

 

Around the Blogosphere
SharePoint *Cloud* Terminology is Confusing Market (SharePoint Development Blog by Jeremy Thake)
The industry is still buzzing about the cloud and in the SharePoint World there are plenty of different terms thrown around. I think it is important to define a terminology for SharePoint servers outside of “on-premise” where the assumption is full control of the servers to deploy full-trust solutions and “online” or “cloud” where the assumption is only control of site collection downwards and no full-trust solutions. This is essentially because offerings such as fpWeb, Rackspace and the new Windows Azure Virtual Machines (IaaS) also provide the ability to have full control and aren’t “on-premise”. There are also plenty of SaaS type offerings in the cloud for a multi-tenant environment with sandboxed control such as Office 365 SharePoint Online.

The Perfect SharePoint iOS App – Features I’d Like to See (EndUserSharePoint)
So what would make the perfect iOS app? I’ve had the idea for this post in my head now for several months and haven’t been able to coax it out into writing until now. Hopefully it has been worth the wait. I’ve reviewed a number of the different SharePoint iOS app offerings including Lite, Pro/Premium editions of:

SharePoint: Reporting on “Anonymous” Surveys (ITPro)
SharePoint enables the creation of anonymous surveys, but how anonymous are they? If you want a truly anonymous survey, then you will want to create a new web application that allows anonymous access without authentication. Here’s a TechNet article with some good guidance on doing that.

How to Import Data from SQL Server to SharePoint with List Bulk Import 2.5 (The Bamboo Team Blog)
List Bulk Import allows users to migrate documents, pictures, and list data into SharePoint from: legacy databases; spreadsheets; SharePoint to SharePoint Server; Office 365; Claims-based and Forms-based Authentication environments; and/or any SharePoint document management application with large volumes of data and/or documents that need to be widely accessed. In addition, List Bulk Import allows users to schedule imports with the template file which is created while importing, taking advantage of one of the best features in BI. In this article, I will demonstrate how to import data from SQL Server to a SharePoint site.

Automatically Creating a Project Site with PM Central R3.5 … It’s Like Having Your Own “Easy Button”! (The Bamboo Team Blog)
Are you friends or friendly with the IT guy in your organization? You know who I’m talking about, right? Most of our IT administrators are nice people, but we’re all too aware that they don’t want to be bothered with our requests when they’re in the middle of fixing the network or the server farm. Don’t you wish you had a way to streamline the site creation process so that once you’ve received approval, your new project site would just automatically get created and you wouldn’t have to bug your friend in IT? You know, as if you had, say, a magic wand … or an “Easy Button”!

Direct Reply to a Discussion in a SharePoint 2010 Display Form Using SharePoint Designer 2010 (SharePoint 2010)
Built into the framework of SharePoint is a powerful communication tool called Discussion Boards.  Think of Discussion Boards in terms of a forum, where an initial topic is introduced and users can then provide feedback (called Replies) to that topic. But how do you keep the communication going without wasting time manually monitoring each topic? Luckily, SharePoint provides an alerting mechanism that’s built right into Discussion Boards. Users can optionally choose to be alerted on a given Discussion Board or topic. Upon doing so, the user will receive alerts based on the configuration of the alert, most commonly when a reply to a topic has been created. The Alert looks something like this:

 

SharePoint Job Listings*
Senior SharePoint Administrator – Memphis, TN
The Senior SharePoint Administrator serves as the primary individual to develop, plan, install, configure, monitor, and maintain Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) infrastructure. Requires expert knowledge of MOSS Architecture and functionality and a strong working knowledge of related technologies such as: Windows Server administration, Windows Architecture, SQL Server 200x, Internet Information Server, Active Directory, SSL, Kerberos, and Microsoft Office desktop application integration with SharePoint. Experience with workflow and InfoPath integration with other technologies is necessary.

SharePoint Architect with Organisational Governance EXP. – Fremont/Sunnyvale/San Jose, CA
The ideal SharePoint Architect will have experience conducting the following in Fortune 100 environments:  Architecture Design Sessions * Architecture planning, deployment planning and capacity planning; Planning and performing SharePoint Installations, Upgrades and Migrations; developing Governance Plans and driving user adoption of SharePoint across the enterprise.

 

Microsoft Updates
Vehicle Manufacturer Propels Customer Engagement with Digital Marketing Solutions (Microsoft)
Polaris Industries, a maker of recreational vehicles, wanted to better engage with customers to generate higher sales and revenues. The company implemented a solution that takes advantage of the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 digital marketing platform along with technologies from Webtrends and GNet Group. Now, Polaris marketers use web-based dashboards to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing strategies. The solution integrates data from numerous channels to provide insights about the performance of each Polaris brand’s effectiveness in reaching consumers—much faster than before. For instance, Polaris produces real-time reports to measure engagement on its website and in other channels to improve engagement and optimize its marketing investments. Since implementing the solution, Polaris has achieved a double-digit reduction in “bounce rate” and cost-per-visit for its online ads.

 

SharePoint Events*

• July 17, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 17, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Community Central Webinar
• July 17, Online – Hypermiling With SharePoint Backup
• July 18, Online – SharePoint as a Platform in a Highly Regulated Environment
• July 18, Online – Instant ROI with SharePoint Search Webinar
• July 18, Online – SharePoint as a Platform in a Highly Regulated Environment
• July 19, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 19, Online – Webinar: NewsGator Gives Benco Dental Social Bite
• July 19, Online – Integrating Office 365 With the Rest of Your Enterprise – Best Practices & Common Pitfalls
• July 24, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Project Management Central Webinar
• July 25, Online – Making the Connection Between SharePoint and your Information Security Program
• July 26, Online – Bamboo SharePoint Time Tracking & Management Webinar
• July 26, Online – Business Intelligence & Reporting
• July 26, Online – Webinar: Business Intelligence for SharePoint
• July 28, New York, New York – SharePoint Saturday
• July 28, Louisville, Kentucky – SharePoint Saturday
• August 7, Online – Building Choices: Using Managed Metadata to Create Managed Choice Columns
• August 22-24, Washington, DC – SharePoint Saturday: The Conference
• August 28, Online – SharePoint Training Best Practices
• September 8, Branson, Missouri – SharePoint Saturday
• September 22, Manchester, New Hampshire – SharePoint Saturday
• September 25-27, Chicago, Illinois – SharePoint Fest
• September 29, Troy, Michigan – SharePoint Saturday

 

SharePoint Training*

• July 13, Online – Bamboo Select – Bamboo Solutions
• July 16-20, Minneapolis, Minnesota – SharePoint 2010 Advanced Developer – Mindsharp
• July 16-20, Minneapolis, Minnesota – SharePoint 2010 Designer – Mindsharp
• July 17-18, Chicago, Illinois – Introduction to SharePoint Foundation 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• July 17-20, Chicago, Illinois – Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• July 18, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Bamboo Solutions
• July 19, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Session 2 – Bamboo Solutions
• July 19, Online – SharePoint Re-Design And User Adoption Seminar – Mindsharp
• July 23-27, Online – SharePoint 2010 Core Technologies – Mindsharp
• July 24, Online – Project Management Central End User Training – Bamboo Solutions
• July 24-26, Dallas, Texas – Introduction to SharePoint 2010 for Server Administrators – SharePoint Solutions
• July 30-August 2, Atlanta, Georgia – The Great SharePoint Adventure 2010 – Critical Path Training
• July 30-Aug 3, Online – SharePoint 2010 Power End User – Mindsharp
• July 30-Aug 3, Online – SharePoint 2010 Foundation Developer – Mindsharp
• July 30-Aug 3, Atlanta, Georgia – The Great SharePoint Adventure 2010 – Critical Path Training
• August 1-3, Minneapolis, Minnesota – SharePoint Information Architecture – How to Optimize Findability in SharePoint- Earley & Associates
• August 6-10, Dulles, Virginia – Power User 2010 Train the Trainer – SusQtech
• August 7, Online – Workflow Conductor Designer Training – Bamboo Solutions
• August 7-10, Washington, DC – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive  – SharePoint Solutions
• August 13-16, Dulles, Virginia – SharePoint 2010 Styling & Branding – SusQtech
• August 14-17, Dallas, Texas – Introduction to SharePoint Server 2010 – SharePoint Solutions
• August 21-23, Nashville, Tennessee – Introduction to SharePoint 2010 for Server Administrators – SharePoint Solutions
• August 22, Online – Project Management Central (3.0) Application Administrative Training – Bamboo Solutions
• August 24, Online – Bamboo Select – Bamboo Solutions
• August 28, Online – Project Management Central End User Training – Bamboo Solutions
• August 28-30, Toronto, ON – SharePoint Information Architecture – How to Optimize Findability in SharePoint – Earley & Associates
• August 28-31, Chicago, Illinois – InfoPath 2010/SharePoint 2010 Workflow Deep Dive – SharePoint Solutions

* Please contact Chris Dooley (chris.dooley@bamboosolutions.com) to be included in SharePoint Daily™.

 

Have SharePoint Daily™ delivered to your email inbox every morning.