SharePoint Saturday (SPS) is coming to Los Angeles! Here are the quick facts:

• First, its free and will take place on September 18th, 2010.
• For speakers, submit your submissions to me (wahidsaleemi@sharepointexperts.org)
• For attendees, register here (Eventbrite).

You can find complete information (as its updated) on the official SPSLA site.

For “real time” news, follow #SPSLA hashtag on twitter.

During the past year, I’ve worked alongside some of the smartest minds in my entire IT career. Their creativity and ingenuity always surprises me.  I hope my small contributions at the Defense Contract Management Agency bring value and evolve to provide better services to the agency’s users.  While I enjoyed working there very much, it was time for me to move towards a different direction.

I’m very happy to announce that I will be starting a new role at Avanade as a Senior Consultant for SharePoint Products. Working in this capacity will really allow me to apply my knowledge in architecting collaboration solutions for different organizations.

I’m excited to work with others who share my passion for the value SharePoint can deliver to businesses. I’ll continue working with the community (SoCal SharePoint User Group) and perhaps be able to be more involved.

Avanade seems to be a very good place to work and it will allow me to spend much less time on the road. I hope to continue learning from my peers and share the knowledge I gain as well.

For my former colleagues, friends, and other SharePoint enthusiasts, feel free to follow me via my blog or twitter (@wahidsaleemi).

I recently ran across a very short blog post by John Timney (blog) regarding SharePoint and BranchCache. He basically mentioned that SharePoint 2010 supports it and it would reduce WAN traffic (bandwidth costs) in global SharePoint farms. I decided to dig deeper and what I found really excited.

BranchCache is implemented at the protocol stack level (HTTP in the case of SharePoint) and therefore will work for any version of SharePoint.

So whats needed?

• SharePoint Web Servers must be running on Windows Server 2008 R2
• Clients must be running on WIndows 7 Enterprise or higher

What does it do and how does it work?

Over-simplified: BranchCache will use a portion (5% default) of a client computers hard drive to store requested files (or chunks of files). So, second requests for the same file will use this locally cached copy. That eliminates the need to re-download this large file over the WAN.

BranchCache operates in two modes:

• Distributed: Each client is a cache for all other clients. This is like a peer to peer network.
• Hosted: A server (which must be Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise) resides at the remote office and holds the cache.

I’ll be using the Distributed BranchCache mode for my example. Client A (in Los Angeles) requests a 20 MB PowerPoint file (call it WhySharePoint2010.pptx) from the central SharePoint Server in New York. Client A asks (via a multicast shout) if anyone locally has the file, they don’t so its downloaded from the server. Later, Client B requests the same file and asks if anyone locally has the file. Since Client A downloaded it earlier, its available to Client B. However, Client B still needs to contact the server to get the encryption key. This ensures that Client B is authenticated and is authorized to view this file.

Although Client B is still contacting the server (for content identifiers, hashes, encryption key), the actual bulk of the content is being served locally. In almost all cases, you’ll have much more internal LAN bandwidth (100 Mbps or 1 Gbps) than you do WAN bandwidth.

In this simple example, we’re talking about 2 clients. Generally, you’ll have many more (say 50). Each of these clients would hold chunks of the data, especially for large files so that one client does not get over burdened serving up this file. BranchCache uses parallel downloading for large files (like a swarm) which again, would really speed up receiving a file.

Let’s talk a bit more about security.

If communication is encrypted (HTTPS), data is encrypted; using or not using BranchCache makes no difference here.

Data sent between clients using BranchCache is encrypted, regardless of the original communications method. The receiving client would need the server encryption key which it can only get if its authenticated and authorized to view that file.

Data stored in client caches isn’t encrypted but it is hashed. It would be difficult to re-assemble the hashes into usable data. But for better security, use drive encryption like BitLocker or EFS.

So, how would you set this up?

On the Windows Server, enable BranchCache Feature through Server Manager. You’ll want to enable BranchCache on all SharePoint Web Servers (Web Front Ends).

If you have more than one Web Server, setup a BranchCache Encryption Key Passphrase:

netsh branchcache set key passphrase=“MY_PASSPHRASE”

On the clients, enable BranchCache using GPO.

Or use the command line:

netsh branchcache set service mode=DISTRIBUTED

As you can see, setting up and using BranchCache is very easy. As with any technology, perform due diligence, test it out in your environment and architect it properly from the start. BranchCache is a powerful, cost-saving technology that helps improve user experience. I urge readers to consider it in your SharePoint deployment.

Resources:

Site: http://www.branchcache.com

TechNet: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd637832(WS.10).aspx

Email: branch@microsoft.com

Teched 2010 slides: Slides

I will be presenting a session at the Los Angeles SharePoint User Group called “SharePoint 2007 to 2010 Upgrade Discussion and Demo” on May 27th, 2010. Is that a run-on sentence?

We’ll be touching on preparing your 2007 environment for the upgrade, some tips to do the actual upgrade and sharing resources to help you plan and execute. Hopefully, I’ll be able to demo some of it, pending suppression of Murphy’s Law.

If you’re in the area, sign up and join us. SPUGS.org is a non-profit group dedicated to promoting SharePoint User Groups everywhere.

• Link to sign up: LASPUG Sign-Up
• Link to session descriptions: LA SPUG Calendar
• Link to SPUGS.org: SPUGS.org

Note: This article is re-posted from the original, at EndUserSharePoint.com.

I recently spent some time looking at SharePoint Server 2010 and it’s competition from vendors like Oracle, IBM, and Google. Key focus areas for me were ECM, Collaboration and integrating existing Busines Intelligence applications. Each vendor spent a day talking about their latest products and here’s what I learned.

Oracle

Oracle had a great presentation and they showed a demo of Oracle WebCenter Spaces. During the demo, it was difficult to distinguish between the Spaces product and all the other add-ons. A large part of the demo focused on a “MySite” type social experience and come to find out, you don’t get that out of the box.

The product is called “Social Connections” and is available as a stand-alone or add-on to Spaces.

Spaces does give you a lot out of the box though. There are wikis, blogs, tagging, links, mashups, Group and Personal spaces. Their calendar feature even allows aggregation of several calendars overlayed right in Microsoft Office Outlook. They also showed us a demo on “presence,” which is the ability to see if a co-worker is online. When asked “how” it was enabled, we were told you needed something like Microsoft Office Communications Server. There is full support for integrating BI systems and .NET development of portlets (web parts), which was a huge plus. Oracle also did a demo on Oracle BI Server which I found to be very powerful and easy to use, but again doesn’t come with the product.

I didn’t see Spaces as something for larger teams, and definitely not what I was after: A scalable and cohesive enterprise portal platform. For that, Oracle has other products that you could use with Spaces to get the desired result. Finally, Oracle explained their other portal products, five of them!

Track record of past integration is important to me. I think Oracle has done a poor job of integrating its acquisition of competing technologies. Spaces was built from the ground up but is still too new. A clear roadmap is also important and Oracle doesn’t seem to have one. They are getting their feet wet with Spaces but still support other products that do the same things, some better than others.

Result: Confused.

Google

I didn’t know what to expect from Google but it was worth a look. Google showed us a suite called Google Apps and specifically focused on Google Sites. Unlike the other vendors, Google Apps is a “cloud only” offering, which has its pros and cons. The demo touched on messaging a bit and most of us were familiar with Gmail. I think Gmail has some really compelling features, specifically storage, search, and presence.

For their collaboration piece, Google Docs provides easy sharing and collaboration. Groups can be created to help manage permissions and the user has all the power! This removes IT from managing groups, authentication, and organization of documents and sites. However, there was no cohesive navigation experience, which you may or may not need. This was important to me though, as I was seeking a good ECM system.

Google Sites is the engine for creating wikis and pages full of content and integrating the other pieces such as Google Docs, Calendar, Maps, and Picasa Pictures. Google Sites basically gives you an empty “Web Part” page. Gadgets can be added by dropping them on the page, quick and easy.

Integrating anything into your Google Site that was not Google is very hard or impossible to do. Custom development was another important area for me and Sites provides no support for .NET but perhaps Java or Python. Google Apps is very centered around the individual and wasn’t really a portal solution. Google did promote the fact that they improve the product, based on feedback, every 2-3 weeks. However, if you’re looking for more of an all-in-one solution, Google Apps is not a good fit. You’re left mostly powerless and dependent on Google.

Result: Not ready.

IBM

IBM showed us their Websphere suite. Actually, much of the time was spent on more generic lessons like what a Portal is, what ECM means, etc. I really wanted to see the demo! Alas, they got to it but just played a series of videos showing a “day in the life” of an information worker.

There’s support for some ECM, like document check-out and check-in and versioning but nothing like what SharePoint Foundation can do. For more functionality, you could purchase and integrate Lotus Quickr which gives you rich media (play in browser), content libraries, team places (like team sites) and a personal space.

IBM made some investments in social enterprise with presence, instant messaging and activity streams. However, you would need IBM Lotus Sametime, which is a separate product. Also, separate is IBM Lotus Connections which gives you tagging, communities (like team sites) and people finder.

Like Oracle, it was hard to figure out what was being shown. When asked directly, we found out that you basically get an empty shell but can add-on about 35 additional products (at an additional cost for each) to get the experience that was shown. IBM stated they acquired over 80 companies, while that is an achievement, it’s not positive unless you can take the best from each of those and integrate them well. This is certainly not the case with IBM.

You’ll also notice that many of those products overlap and you have to choose which ones to enable to get what you need. Websphere Portal by itself basically gives you nothing (except a blank Web Application), whcih was disappointing.

Result: Underwhelmed.

Conclusion

IBM and Oracle provide a nice “integration framework,” but a lot of the work is left for you to figure out how and what to integrate; never mind the additional costs of doing so. Google takes the other extreme, giving you a very limited toolset on the cheap.

Microsoft SharePoint gives you the best value – you get a top-notch platform with all the features that other vendors advertise, like social tagging, document management, team sites, and excellent search. In addition, you’ll get great out of the box web parts and an intuitive interface that people are used to seeing. You really don’t have to integrate anything to get a full, rich experience but optionally can do so with support for many standards. SharePoint offers a good balance of enterprise control and user empowerment.

Both IBM and Oracle have products that tie into SharePoint, one way or another. Why is this? One vendor said it best: It exists because they recognize SharePoint’s pervasive nature in the enterprise and business world.

Being Held Hostage

Just recently (ok, yesterday), I finished the final touches on my home lab. Hopefully this article will be useful to someone trying to build a scalable home lab for any purpose, though mine was built for testing various SharePoint Farm scenarios. For a long time, I’ve used my Sager laptop (more of a desktop replacement) running Windows Server 2008 R2 and Hyper-V. This served me well in SharePoint 2007 days but for SharePoint 2010, it just doesn’t cut it. Part of the reason is because SharePoint 2010 requires a lot of memory to run well. Although my laptop holds 12GB, it wasn’t enough. Normal activities (browsing the web, checking email in Outlook) were frustratingly slow. Anyway, here’s a screenshot of what I had:

 

As you can see, I have lots of machines! It became hard to test scenarios, specifically around disaster recover. My laptop just couldn’t run a DC, 2 SQL Servers, and 2-4 SharePoint servers. I felt like I was being held hostage to the limitations of the technology I had.

I decided to “invest” (isn’t that the term we use when we don’t want to admit we spent too much money on something??) in a real solution. Below is an explanation of how I put together my new infrastructure.

Core: Networking

This one’s easy, I already had wireless networking. The problem was that the server NIC was not wireless. I looked at the cost of adding one and weighed the pros and cons. In the end, I decided that I still don’t trust wireless enough to run a server on and that relocating my router was easier and cheaper. Originally, I had a Cisco WRVS4400N which I bought because it had VPN capability. After using it a while, I realized the VPN wasn’t that great. What was more frustrating was that my wireless connection would drop. I tried firmware upgrades and called support. Their resolution was to swap it out; so I went to Fry’s and did just that, except I went with a different vendor. I got a Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700; it has these features:

• 680 MHz 32-bit MIPS CPU
  
• 8 MB flash / 64 MB RAM
  
• USB Connection (ReadyShare to create a NAS)
  
• Firewall (Stateful Packet Inspection); VLANs; multiple SSIDs
  
• Dual band (2.4GHz + 5GHz) gives you 300+300 = 600Gbps
  
• Gigabit Ethernet Ports (GREAT for my server!)
  

I liked the router, asked for an open box and they had one at a slight discount (original price is $149). With top-of-the-line security, wired and wireless speed, I was ready to rock! The router connects all of my systems with uncompromising speed.

COST: $143

Weapon: Server

Next thing I needed was a server. I looked around for something cheap and powerful. What I ended up with was a Dell PowerEdge R805 which I won on eBay. This server will serve my needs for quite some time. Here are the specs:

• 2 Quad-core 2.2GHz AMD Opteron Processors
  
• 32 GB of RAM
  
• 2 x 146GB SAS Drives
  
• 3 x 1Gbps Network Interface Cards
  
• Dual Power Supply, DVD-ROM, RAID Controller, etc
  

I thought for all it came with, I got a good value. It was pre-owned and came with the original warranty, which amounts to 18 months for me. Armed with this server, I could now fire up multiple VMs, create complex SharePoint Farms and scenarios and maybe even host a SharePoint Internet site.

COST: $2400

Protection: Storage

I knew that running all my VMs on those two SAS drives wasn’t ideal. I think the #1 concern for SharePoint and other enterprise applications in general is that when you virtualize you must pay attention to disk configuration. I needed external storage. Something fast. Something scalable. Something redundant. I asked around at work actually, to some storage experts and they told me that I couldn’t get everything I wanted for the price I wanted to pay (under $2500). However, they did suggest looking at the Drobo line of products. Drobo is interesting, it looks like a traditional NAS but has some pretty cool functionality built in. Here are some of those features:

• Support for multi-host (in case I get another server in a few years!)
  
• Gigabit Ethernet for iSCSI and multi stream optimization
  
• Support 8 drives (start with 1, add more later)
  
• VMWare vSphere Ready (Certified)
  
• BeyondRAID
  

What’s BeyondRAID? Pretty freakin’ cool, if you ask me! BeyondRAID is a storage virtualization layer. Imagine, VMWare for Storage. It affords you great flexibility and easy of use. It gives you self managing and auto healing capabilities. Basically, it gives you RAID 6 (protection for up to 2 failed drives) and improves performance (data striping). I found that creating volumes was a snap, I even added two hard drives later and didn’t have to touch one bit of configuration.

The best features for me? I could start off with just one drive, add more later, from any vendor, any size, any speed. Now that’s magic!

COST: $2700 (ok, I indulged)

Now, I’m Iron Man

Just like Iron Man, now, I have a killer infrastructure at my disposal. With this setup, I can defeat any enemy, large or small. Wait… that should say, I can build any SharePoint Farm, large or small. Including hard drives (2TB drives for $89? Wow!), this cost me about $5500 over 6 months. I’ve been able to build scenarios based on best practices (like using SQL connection aliases) and demo what happens if you don’t follow best practices.

For people who just can’t spend that much, consider a more used server with less RAM and perhaps a Drobo FS ($629). You can get great open box deals and deals on craigslist and eBay. If all you want to do it demo or play around, consider Amazon’s cloud-computing offering is pretty cheap and they charge by the hour. Turn off the machines when not in use and you’re not charged. You can even bid for other peoples unused hours for a cheaper price.

P.S: I used Microsoft Office Word 2010 to create and publish this post to my WordPress Blog. If you haven’t used Word as a blog editor, try it out (works in 2007 also).

• @DiegoTrashcan Thanks for the #FF ! in reply to DiegoTrashcan #
• #FF @BrianTJackett @buckleyplanet @cwheeler76 @meetdux @JoyKnows @don_zielke @DiegoTrashcan @toddklindt >>i'm always learning from the pros! #
• RT @henry_ong: Google says you must play pac-man on google.com before submitting any searches. >> That's hilarious, and cool! #
• Resources Abound with the Launch of SharePoint Server 2010 and Office 2010 #sharepoint http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff699531.aspx #
• Resources Abound with the Launch of SharePoint Server 2010 and Office 2010 #sharepoint
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ff699531.aspx #
• @givenscj show me! in reply to givenscj #
• Waiting at Reagan National to get back home to LAX… what a long week #
• #spsdc Are the "Empire State of SharePoint" lyrics posted anywhere? Good job @MarcyKellar @meetdux #
• @globitz may have a PM candidate for you. email me onewahid@gmail.com #spsdc #sharepoint in reply to globitz #
• ditto. RT @cwheeler76: So many of my friends are presenting at the same time at #SPSDC . Makes it tough to choose; I want to see them all. #
• Check out SharePoint 2010 Videos #spsdc #sp2010 http://bit.ly/c5ayo7 #
• @EUSP I'm leaving around 7:15. Compact car but i can take 3. #SPSDC in reply to EUSP #
• @BrianTJackett sure #spsdc in reply to BrianTJackett #

• Can someone register for #spsdc at the event? if they're late? #
• @slkrck invite me in reply to slkrck #
• Me too! RT @harbars i still hat epowerpoint #
• I'm there already ! @vman916 on the plane headed in #spsdc ..anyone else arriving at the Marriott tonight? #
• RT @WomeninSP Testing new avatar. Comments? Ilikeit #
• @chrisgeier haven't seen it but people seem not to take it easily. in reply to chrisgeier #
• @mikewat it changes! Bring jacket. in reply to mikewat #
• RT @Karuana: Please RT LA Party live meeting http://bit.ly/LAParty #join2010 #sharepoint #
• Checked in at Fairview Park, Marriott. #spsdc #
• @usher yep! Thanks in reply to usher #
• @meetdux is there a schedule for sessions at #spsdc #
• @moonrock how about hootsuite in reply to moonrock #
• @DiegoTrashcan Are comments enabled on your blog? #
• on my way to Washington D.C. for work – will be there all week #
• @harbars funny.. it spells the word correctly in my Word 2010. in reply to harbars #
• RT @pl_sharepoint: chjohn: #SharePoint 2010 Demo and Eval VM (RTM edition) http://bit.ly/cMk6aD > Why download manager is a good idea still #

• Sprint HTC Hero Android 2.1 Update, Release Date Delayed AGAIN http://bit.ly/by0dXY #
• @blm3000x lol, created a new search service app and deleted the old one. We r friends again. in reply to blm3000x #
• I hate you, SharePoint Search. #
• pretty cool. RT @DomBurf: Microsoft Announces Social Aggregator http://bit.ly/9eygaV #
• umm my 'create new index partition' in #sharepoint2010 has been running for 433 minutes how do i kill it? (properly) #
• Need sleep. Someone have s governance doc I can read ? #
• It is 5am and I have been wide awake for an hour: this sucks #
• Powershell makes my head hurt #powershell #
• These instructions are so confusing: Deploy using DBA-created dbs. Why am I creating a temporary database server? http://bit.ly/cdN179 #
• Anyone know resource showing how to pre-create sharepoint databases? #
• I want to #Join2010 http://bit.ly/VLE2010 #
• RT @virtudude: @wahidsaleemi SPW will work with Office 2007 so long as Groove 2007 is not installed. >> Thanks!! #
• @jdattis I used to think that too in reply to jdattis #
• @henry_ong ditto! in reply to henry_ong #
• @DiegoTrashcan great! Had issues partitioning vmfs volume but its good now. May do a blog post on it. in reply to DiegoTrashcan #
• @moonrock u must be rich by now then! in reply to moonrock #
• @SharepointJon great! Keep motivated in reply to SharepointJon #
• Great article on SharePoint ECM. Whats new in 2010 and whats still missing: http://bit.ly/aPHbfb #
• @georgekhalil is it finally available. Couldn't find it a few days ago in reply to georgekhalil #
• @DiegoTrashcan nice, working on my lab too. Bought a drobo in reply to DiegoTrashcan #
• @moonrock I'm using twidroid and hootsuite in reply to moonrock #

• #FF my #LASPUG tweeps @NedraAllmond @henry_ong @Karuana and others @AndrewWBurns @pateketu @mgamlin @crchapman @pswider @meetdux thanks guys #
• @EUSP Take a look at Disqus commenting system, might help with spam. in reply to EUSP #
• @m_macrae i bet it will. since there's no SP bits on the SQL server, it shouldn't matter. in reply to m_macrae #
• Would SharePoint Workspace 2010 work with Office suite 2007 ?? #sharepoint #
• @jantielens have a lot of success w/ winimage. converted the SharePoint IW demo with it. in reply to jantielens #
• Poll: Do customers use SharePoint Site Directory? #sharepoint #
• @georgekhalil how about SharePoint Workspace for iPhone in reply to georgekhalil #
• Derive requirements from business outcomes – Susan Hanley on governance. Most useful thing I've heard on governance! #
• Anyone know where LASPUG meeting is tonight? #Tec2010 #
• @crchapman cool, thanks for the post. I also found an alternative here http://bit.ly/ciNosn for Site Directory in SharePoint 2010 in reply to crchapman #
• @pswider also, how about installing SP2010 using single server and local accounts? http://bit.ly/4oAhpm in reply to pswider #
• @pswider i saw a guide on how to do it but there's just too many steps and modifications, it won't resemble production in reply to pswider #
• Why is there no Site Directory in SharePoint 2010 #fail #sharepoint2010 #sharepoint #
• @moonrock OH ok, well thats boring then n e way, i think u have mad skillz, i bet they're good! in reply to moonrock #
• @moonrock lol, ok well i guessed they were for work but curious what platform, website, etc. just interested in your work in reply to moonrock #
• In SP2010 u can backup config db and reuse it across environments #tec2010 #
• @innagordin having problems with new banner codes @ sharepointads.com; why is it all script tags now? #
• @moonrock interesting, whats this for? in reply to moonrock #
• Built out SharePoint 2010 RTM boxes. Underwhelmed by choice of a template for intranet site :-/ #
• @moonrock lucky you! in reply to moonrock #
• @meetdux meeeeee in reply to meetdux #