Let’s Talk About Your SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 Backup Options

We can all agree that one of the most bothersome plagues of the modern workplace is the deletion — accidental or otherwise — of a file that was not supposed to be deleted in the first place. Sure, it can happen to anyone, but when it happens to you, it feels like end of the world. It feels like you wasted X amount of hours working on something, only to see it get flushed down the toilet. More specific, it makes you feel like a schmuck. And when someone else does it, may divine intervention swoop in and save them, because saying that you will be upset is putting it lightly.

The problem is that at the end of the day, there’s really nothing you can do about it… or is there? As we’ll see today, when you’re working with SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 you have a couple of backup options that are there to save the day.

Your SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 Backup Options

First and foremost, the Administrator’s Recycle Bin will be your best friend. As this post explains:

“Unlike PC’s Recycle Bin, SharePoint Recycle Bin can store not just files and folders. It is a catch-all place for any user-created content that was deleted. That includes documents, folders, whole document libraries, SharePoint lists and even complete sites! So in other words, whether you delete a document from a document library, an event from a calendar, task from a task list, contact from a contacts list or even the whole SharePoint Site – they will all end up in SharePoint Recycle Bin.”

source:  http://www.offthecusp.com

It’s a simple solution that’s available for 90 days — plenty of time for you to remember that the file shouldn’t have been deleted in the first place. In essence, anything you delete, anything at all, will be stored in the Recycle Bin. And if you do a secondary delete and empty the Bin without realizing that there was a precious file in it, rest assured knowing that there’s a ‘secondary’ backup to save the day (a quick note, only the SharePoint Administrator can access the secondary stage Recycle Bin).

Another backup option that’s not really a backup option per se, you should always manage your security and permissions. For example, if a user only needs to view a file, minimize their permissions and don’t give them contribute privileges; if they do need to make edits, don’t give them full control. A similar preemptive action you can take is to set up alerts that notify you when a file is deleted. And as you can see below, the process is pretty simple:

1. Name the alert
2. Choose who to send the alert to
3. Choose a delivery method — email or text
4. Choose the ‘change type’ — in this case, it’ll be when an item is deleted
5. Edit your change type further and specify whether to filter alerts based on specific criteria — when anything changes, when someone else changes a document, when someone else changes a document created by me, or when someone else changes a document last modified by me
6. Choose when to send alerts — immediately, as a daily summary, or as a weekly summary

source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Finally, if it’s the case there there are certain files that are especially important and you don’t want to even risk deleting, designate them as records, which essentially prevents their deletion. For some help with this, use this guide to set up retention and deletion policies.

Final Thoughts and TL;DR

Before we had the ubiquitous cloud — when things were physical and on-premise — an accidentally deleted file could be brought back to life with the help of the IT department and the regular backups they conducted. Many still do this, but many others bypass the pains that these backups entail.

Thankfully, with collaborative environments like SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365, where things are virtual and spread out everywhere, there are a couple of backup options you can make use of. We already covered these options, but if your schedule is packed and you don’t have the time for the full read, here’s the tl;dr version:

● The Recycle Bin and the secondary stage Recycle Bin will be your best friends
● Only the Administrator can access the secondary Bin
● Remember, you only have 90 days to recover files from the Bin
● Manage security and permissions and restrict what users can do
● Set up alerts to notify you when a file is deleted
● If the files are extremely important and you don’t want to take the risk, designate them as records to prevent their deletion

Best of luck!

Let’s Talk About Your SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 Backup Options

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

We can all agree that one of the most bothersome plagues of the modern workplace is the deletion — accidental or otherwise — of a file that was not supposed to be deleted in the first place. Sure, it can happen to anyone, but when it happens to you, it feels like end of the world. It feels like you wasted X amount of hours working on something, only to see it get flushed down the toilet. More specific, it makes you feel like a schmuck. And when someone else does it, may divine intervention swoop in and save them, because saying that you will be upset is putting it lightly.

The problem is that at the end of the day, there’s really nothing you can do about it… or is there? As we’ll see today, when you’re working with SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 you have a couple of backup options that are there to save the day.

Your SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 Backup Options

First and foremost, the Administrator’s Recycle Bin will be your best friend. As this post explains:

“Unlike PC’s Recycle Bin, SharePoint Recycle Bin can store not just files and folders. It is a catch-all place for any user-created content that was deleted. That includes documents, folders, whole document libraries, SharePoint lists and even complete sites! So in other words, whether you delete a document from a document library, an event from a calendar, task from a task list, contact from a contacts list or even the whole SharePoint Site – they will all end up in SharePoint Recycle Bin.”

source:  http://www.offthecusp.com

It’s a simple solution that’s available for 90 days — plenty of time for you to remember that the file shouldn’t have been deleted in the first place. In essence, anything you delete, anything at all, will be stored in the Recycle Bin. And if you do a secondary delete and empty the Bin without realizing that there was a precious file in it, rest assured knowing that there’s a ‘secondary’ backup to save the day (a quick note, only the SharePoint Administrator can access the secondary stage Recycle Bin).

Another backup option that’s not really a backup option per se, you should always manage your security and permissions. For example, if a user only needs to view a file, minimize their permissions and don’t give them contribute privileges; if they do need to make edits, don’t give them full control. A similar preemptive action you can take is to set up alerts that notify you when a file is deleted. And as you can see below, the process is pretty simple:

1. Name the alert
2. Choose who to send the alert to
3. Choose a delivery method — email or text
4. Choose the ‘change type’ — in this case, it’ll be when an item is deleted
5. Edit your change type further and specify whether to filter alerts based on specific criteria — when anything changes, when someone else changes a document, when someone else changes a document created by me, or when someone else changes a document last modified by me
6. Choose when to send alerts — immediately, as a daily summary, or as a weekly summary

source: https://commons.wikimedia.org

Finally, if it’s the case there there are certain files that are especially important and you don’t want to even risk deleting, designate them as records, which essentially prevents their deletion. For some help with this, use this guide to set up retention and deletion policies.

Final Thoughts and TL;DR

Before we had the ubiquitous cloud — when things were physical and on-premise — an accidentally deleted file could be brought back to life with the help of the IT department and the regular backups they conducted. Many still do this, but many others bypass the pains that these backups entail.

Thankfully, with collaborative environments like SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365, where things are virtual and spread out everywhere, there are a couple of backup options you can make use of. We already covered these options, but if your schedule is packed and you don’t have the time for the full read, here’s the tl;dr version:

● The Recycle Bin and the secondary stage Recycle Bin will be your best friends
● Only the Administrator can access the secondary Bin
● Remember, you only have 90 days to recover files from the Bin
● Manage security and permissions and restrict what users can do
● Set up alerts to notify you when a file is deleted
● If the files are extremely important and you don’t want to take the risk, designate them as records to prevent their deletion

Best of luck!

Microsoft Launched Power BI Report Integration for SharePoint Online

                Image Source: powerbicdn.azureedge.net

As marketers, we love the idea of data discovery and presenting it in a way that can be easily understood. For the past year or so, Power BI has allowed us to effectively prepare data and turn it into interactive visualizations. However, for us SharePoint users it has been agonizing to integrate these Power BI reports… until now.
As per a Microsoft Blog posted in early February, “The new web part we are releasing today enables SharePoint authors to embed Power BI reports directly in SharePoint Online pages with no code required!”

What’s Power BI?

Released in July of 2015, Power BI is a dynamic cloud-based service that gives report analysts the ability to distribute insights from their business’s data through visualizations. It’s essentially Microsoft’s way of allowing users to transform information into graphs and other powerful ocular representations.

And Microsoft Did This Because...

Well, Microsoft did this because SharePoint Online is an essential managing platform for a large amount of enterprises. The fact that users couldn’t effortlessly consolidate visualizations from this software also persuaded Microsoft into realizing this may be something to explore. All of this in an attempt to continue making Microsoft SharePoint a simple yet powerful platform to work with.
With no further ado, let’s go over some of the key benefits from this update.

How is This Done?

Microsoft shares the exact process of embedding on their official blog post. For a quick run down, the procedure is pretty straightforward. It’s as effortless as publishing a report, adding the Power BI web part to your SharePoint Online page, and pasting the URL of your report when directed to do so.

To the Rescue

The ability to not only visualize data but to also share it with your organization in a seamless user experience is exactly what this integration is all about. Microsoft is giving every SharePoint-using corporation the insight it needs to strategically communicate and disseminate vital information.

                                                                  Image Source: static.pexels.com

Another accessibility feature that’s mentioned within the article is this idea of convenience through a single sign-on. Taken straight out from the official release blog:
“…a core focus of our web part is seamless integration with SharePoint Online to achieve a single sign-on experience. The web part works with new authentication features in SharePoint Online available now within the 365 First Release program. The new authentication capabilities enable the Power BI web part to use single sign-on – so by default users will not be prompted to sign-in to Power BI. Multi-factor authentication may require the user to sign-in again, if they didn’t use a security device when signing in to SharePoint.”
This is just frosting on the cake of simplicity. In addition, Microsoft has ensured that all security checks are applied to reports. This includes enforcing data security through Power BI itself, almost guaranteeing secure internal portals for the enterprise to show data. With highly sensitive information being displayed, it only makes sense that reports won’t be automatically available for everyone.
There is one drawback, however. According to Microsoft: “The Power BI report web part requires all the viewers to have a Power BI Pro license. If your users don’t have a Pro license, they’ll be directed to PowerBI.com where they can enroll or start a Pro trial.”
If this stays this way, it can mean fewer users who get to experience this new feature from Microsoft.

The Wrap Up

These latest SharePoint updates lead us to believe that Microsoft is attempting to make our lives simpler, one renovation at a time. If they can change the Pro license requirement, this web part can and will be an integral part of our data representation techniques.

Microsoft Launched Power BI Report Integration for SharePoint Online

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

                Image Source: powerbicdn.azureedge.net

As marketers, we love the idea of data discovery and presenting it in a way that can be easily understood. For the past year or so, Power BI has allowed us to effectively prepare data and turn it into interactive visualizations. However, for us SharePoint users it has been agonizing to integrate these Power BI reports… until now.
As per a Microsoft Blog posted in early February, “The new web part we are releasing today enables SharePoint authors to embed Power BI reports directly in SharePoint Online pages with no code required!”

What’s Power BI?

Released in July of 2015, Power BI is a dynamic cloud-based service that gives report analysts the ability to distribute insights from their business’s data through visualizations. It’s essentially Microsoft’s way of allowing users to transform information into graphs and other powerful ocular representations.

And Microsoft Did This Because...

Well, Microsoft did this because SharePoint Online is an essential managing platform for a large amount of enterprises. The fact that users couldn’t effortlessly consolidate visualizations from this software also persuaded Microsoft into realizing this may be something to explore. All of this in an attempt to continue making Microsoft SharePoint a simple yet powerful platform to work with.
With no further ado, let’s go over some of the key benefits from this update.

How is This Done?

Microsoft shares the exact process of embedding on their official blog post. For a quick run down, the procedure is pretty straightforward. It’s as effortless as publishing a report, adding the Power BI web part to your SharePoint Online page, and pasting the URL of your report when directed to do so.

To the Rescue

The ability to not only visualize data but to also share it with your organization in a seamless user experience is exactly what this integration is all about. Microsoft is giving every SharePoint-using corporation the insight it needs to strategically communicate and disseminate vital information.

                                                                  Image Source: static.pexels.com

Another accessibility feature that’s mentioned within the article is this idea of convenience through a single sign-on. Taken straight out from the official release blog:
“…a core focus of our web part is seamless integration with SharePoint Online to achieve a single sign-on experience. The web part works with new authentication features in SharePoint Online available now within the 365 First Release program. The new authentication capabilities enable the Power BI web part to use single sign-on – so by default users will not be prompted to sign-in to Power BI. Multi-factor authentication may require the user to sign-in again, if they didn’t use a security device when signing in to SharePoint.”
This is just frosting on the cake of simplicity. In addition, Microsoft has ensured that all security checks are applied to reports. This includes enforcing data security through Power BI itself, almost guaranteeing secure internal portals for the enterprise to show data. With highly sensitive information being displayed, it only makes sense that reports won’t be automatically available for everyone.
There is one drawback, however. According to Microsoft: “The Power BI report web part requires all the viewers to have a Power BI Pro license. If your users don’t have a Pro license, they’ll be directed to PowerBI.com where they can enroll or start a Pro trial.”
If this stays this way, it can mean fewer users who get to experience this new feature from Microsoft.

The Wrap Up

These latest SharePoint updates lead us to believe that Microsoft is attempting to make our lives simpler, one renovation at a time. If they can change the Pro license requirement, this web part can and will be an integral part of our data representation techniques.

The risks of SharePoint security mismanagement

How would you feel if that creep from the office had looked through your contract to find out what you earn? Would it bother you if anyone other than your direct manager could read your performance review? What would it look like if your company’s customer details or information about a merger were hacked?

SharePoint is an amazingly powerful tool which, when implemented correctly, is perfectly secure. However, that’s the catch: it has to be implemented correctly. We love SharePoint because it’s so amazingly flexible, and this flexibility basically allows you to deploy it in almost any way you want. However, this feature is a double-edged sword – people often implement SharePoint in a risky manner, and open their organizations to the danger of leaks and hacks.

Why you need to be aware of SharePoint risks

Not convinced that having a security policy is such a big deal? Think again. 

A recent survey of 1000 SharePoint users found some pretty surprising results. 34% of respondents admitted that themselves or their colleagues had, at some point, looked at documents they weren’t supposed to read. Of those who had, 23% had looked into their colleagues’ salary information, 34% had looked at other personal details and 8% had discovered secret information about mergers and acquisitions. Respondents also shared information they weren’t supposed to, either by putting it on USB sticks or sharing it with themselves via email. 

Perhaps most worryingly, a lot of companies don’t have any kind of strategy for dealing with security. Research by Emedia revealed that a staggering 22% of organizations have NO information security policy:

As Emedia’s research shows, only 1/3 of organizations actually have a comprehensive and up-to-date security policy to protect themselves against data breaches.

Why is all of this a problem?

If you don’t have a comprehensive security strategy, you’re opening your company up to a lot of risks.

Privacy

It goes without saying, but most employees would feel violated if they knew anyone in the business would be able to see their personal information. Even if they had ‘nothing to hide’ the simple fact that their colleagues could discover private information without asking them directly would make many people feel uncomfortable.

Leaks

Another major risk for organizations without a strong security policy is that information may be leaked by employees with an agenda or who want to damage the organization in some way. While it’s true that SharePoint wasn’t at fault for the Edward Snowden leaks at the NSA (lax security was to blame), it does show how even a technically advanced organization can be vulnerable to internal attacks. Without a strong security policy, your organization’s plans, trade secrets and strategy could be shared with competitors and undermine your market position. 

Hacking

Almost any organization worth its salt is at risk of hacking. If a hacker is determined, they may well find a hole at some point in your company’s security – even if you have a well maintained firewall. However, those organizations who have developed ‘defense in depth’ will always be able to limit the impact of such attacks. Even if a hacker ‘gets in’ with a valid user name they’ve acquired, they’ll only ever be able to see what that user had access to. If your company doesn’t have a well maintained internal security policy and allows anyone to look at any document, you may as well fling the doors wide open. 

Compliance

You might still not be convinced that any of the above reasons are enough to make you improve your SharePoint security strategy. However, you never really had much of a choice anyway. There are a range of regulations around the world which, to some degree or another, will force you to treat and manage the data your company collects in a secure manner. 

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be coming into force over the next couple of years. It will basically affect any company that ever treats the Personably Identifiable Information (PII) of individuals from the EU – whether they’re customers, clients or employees. The rule will force companies to implement strict data management policies to reduce the chances of private data getting into the wrong hands. And if you don’t comply, expect a hefty fine – either 100 million Euros or 5% of annual turnover – whichever is greater. 

Get smart

SharePoint security needn’t be too hard, though. Fortunately, there is software out there, such as Sharegate, that makes SharePoint security management very simple. If you properly manage SharePoint’s security, you’ll massively reduce your chances of losing vital information, secrets and being fined by international organizations. Secure SharePoint management doesn’t require a HUGE effort, just a little planning and preparation. If you make up one of the two thirds of companies that don’t have a comprehensive strategy, ask yourself “why not?”.

The risks of SharePoint security mismanagement

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

How would you feel if that creep from the office had looked through your contract to find out what you earn? Would it bother you if anyone other than your direct manager could read your performance review? What would it look like if your company’s customer details or information about a merger were hacked?

SharePoint is an amazingly powerful tool which, when implemented correctly, is perfectly secure. However, that’s the catch: it has to be implemented correctly. We love SharePoint because it’s so amazingly flexible, and this flexibility basically allows you to deploy it in almost any way you want. However, this feature is a double-edged sword – people often implement SharePoint in a risky manner, and open their organizations to the danger of leaks and hacks.

Why you need to be aware of SharePoint risks

Not convinced that having a security policy is such a big deal? Think again. 

A recent survey of 1000 SharePoint users found some pretty surprising results. 34% of respondents admitted that themselves or their colleagues had, at some point, looked at documents they weren’t supposed to read. Of those who had, 23% had looked into their colleagues’ salary information, 34% had looked at other personal details and 8% had discovered secret information about mergers and acquisitions. Respondents also shared information they weren’t supposed to, either by putting it on USB sticks or sharing it with themselves via email. 

Perhaps most worryingly, a lot of companies don’t have any kind of strategy for dealing with security. Research by Emedia revealed that a staggering 22% of organizations have NO information security policy:

As Emedia’s research shows, only 1/3 of organizations actually have a comprehensive and up-to-date security policy to protect themselves against data breaches.

Why is all of this a problem?

If you don’t have a comprehensive security strategy, you’re opening your company up to a lot of risks.

Privacy

It goes without saying, but most employees would feel violated if they knew anyone in the business would be able to see their personal information. Even if they had ‘nothing to hide’ the simple fact that their colleagues could discover private information without asking them directly would make many people feel uncomfortable.

Leaks

Another major risk for organizations without a strong security policy is that information may be leaked by employees with an agenda or who want to damage the organization in some way. While it’s true that SharePoint wasn’t at fault for the Edward Snowden leaks at the NSA (lax security was to blame), it does show how even a technically advanced organization can be vulnerable to internal attacks. Without a strong security policy, your organization’s plans, trade secrets and strategy could be shared with competitors and undermine your market position. 

Hacking

Almost any organization worth its salt is at risk of hacking. If a hacker is determined, they may well find a hole at some point in your company’s security – even if you have a well maintained firewall. However, those organizations who have developed ‘defense in depth’ will always be able to limit the impact of such attacks. Even if a hacker ‘gets in’ with a valid user name they’ve acquired, they’ll only ever be able to see what that user had access to. If your company doesn’t have a well maintained internal security policy and allows anyone to look at any document, you may as well fling the doors wide open. 

Compliance

You might still not be convinced that any of the above reasons are enough to make you improve your SharePoint security strategy. However, you never really had much of a choice anyway. There are a range of regulations around the world which, to some degree or another, will force you to treat and manage the data your company collects in a secure manner. 

The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be coming into force over the next couple of years. It will basically affect any company that ever treats the Personably Identifiable Information (PII) of individuals from the EU – whether they’re customers, clients or employees. The rule will force companies to implement strict data management policies to reduce the chances of private data getting into the wrong hands. And if you don’t comply, expect a hefty fine – either 100 million Euros or 5% of annual turnover – whichever is greater. 

Get smart

SharePoint security needn’t be too hard, though. Fortunately, there is software out there, such as Sharegate, that makes SharePoint security management very simple. If you properly manage SharePoint’s security, you’ll massively reduce your chances of losing vital information, secrets and being fined by international organizations. Secure SharePoint management doesn’t require a HUGE effort, just a little planning and preparation. If you make up one of the two thirds of companies that don’t have a comprehensive strategy, ask yourself “why not?”.

Facts about SharePoint 2016 Preview and What makes it Different from its Previous Version

Image Source: itunity.com

You might have read about the SharePoint 2016 updates in my previous blog, here I am back with some more important highlights and facts about the SharePoint 2016  such as its preview version, launch date, usage, advancement, applications, features as well as answers to some basic queries of the users.

As we know Microsoft has released SharePoint 2016 Preview on August 24, 2015 to test the features of original SharePoint 2016 which will become usually available in 2nd quarter of 2016. Let’s have brief look on SharePoint 2016 features and what makes it different from its previous version. SharePoint 2016 will focus more on better user experience, cloud hybrid infrastructure, compliance & monitoring and many others.

Better User Experience - SharePoint 2016 will be most likely  similar to  SharePoint 2013 but with more people centric feature. By improving the user experiences with the use of innovative technology such as, it will provide improved touch based experience across all the devices, mobiles, and tablets. While emphasising more on one drive for business, which means place where all the files you are working with are stored and accessible from anywhere. A personal online storage space just like “Dropbox”.

Cloud Hybrid Infrastructure - SharePoint server 2016 updates allow users to avail advantage of cloud hybrid capabilities. By providing all-in-one facility to all the users who are working in different environment. It means, with the help of a true hybrid index users can get search results from Office 365 and SharePoint 2016 as well as SQL Server together with cloud data commonly in a single index.

Compliance & Monitoring -With every new version, SharePoint provides better authentication and security features so that content can be shared securely and safely inside and outside of the organization. Same with the SharePoint Server 2016- It ensures better security and monitoring facility than the previous version and with investment in DLP (data loss prevention) information remains protected i.e. in earlier versions DLP was negotiable, schools and organization doesn’t pay much attention but now it’s compulsion for all to make sure that confidential information remains protected.

These are some SharePoint 2016 features, now let’s have a look on to solutions of some common questions of the users which arise in their minds before installation of SharePoint 2016 preview

Which  Browsers are Supported in SharePoint 2016?

SharePoint Server 2016 IT preview supports all the popular browsers like latest versions of Internet Explorer i.e. 11 & 10. All versions of Microsoft edge, latest versions of Google Chrome, previous to latest and most recent versions of Mozilla Firefox, latest released version of Apple Safari. But all the features do not work in all the above browsers and their different versions. 

What are the Minimum Specifications Required?

Hardware requirements are –

For single SQL server instance RAM 12 to 16 GB RAM, with 64-bit 4 Core processor, 80 GB space for drive and addition 100 GB for second drive.

Single farm server (separate server for the SQL DB) RAM 12 to 16 GB, 64-bit 4 Core processor, 80 GB for drive space.

Software Requirements are – 

You'll need to update some of the softwares like Server 2012 R2 at a minimum and .NET Framework 4.5.2. It can also run on Server 10 with only change in .Net Framework i.e. 4.5.6 instead of 4.5.2

Can SharePoint 2016 Preview  be Upgradable to RTM?

No, one cannot upgrade the SharePoint 2016 Preview to RTM.

Are Excel Services Removed from SharePoint 2016?

Following Excel Services in standalone SharePoint 2016 farm is deprecated-

View Excel Spreadsheet

Reliable data providers

Unattended service account 

Excel SOAP API & Webparts

But it is suggested to IT admins to use the Office Online Server to host Excel services.

What are the Extra new Features that are Coming in SharePoint 2016?

Speedily Site Creation – The site collection process became easy now, it will totally rely on copying collection of existing site which increases the speed.

Link Durability – Links whose file name changed and moved to different site collection still it will work properly.

Hybrid Result – Now in SharePoint 2016 search results are shown from cloud and on-premises farms i.e. hybrid results are shown, no matter from where you search.

Launch of SharePoint 2016 is still a year away but you may install its preview version. It will give you a closer view about its working, features, specifications and more.

Keep in tune I will keep on updating you with more facts about  SharePoint 2016  and its release date.

Contact here for your SharePoint application development services. Our expertise on Microsoft SharePoint will help you

Facts about SharePoint 2016 Preview and What makes it Different from its Previous Version

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

Image Source: itunity.com

You might have read about the SharePoint 2016 updates in my previous blog, here I am back with some more important highlights and facts about the SharePoint 2016  such as its preview version, launch date, usage, advancement, applications, features as well as answers to some basic queries of the users.

As we know Microsoft has released SharePoint 2016 Preview on August 24, 2015 to test the features of original SharePoint 2016 which will become usually available in 2nd quarter of 2016. Let’s have brief look on SharePoint 2016 features and what makes it different from its previous version. SharePoint 2016 will focus more on better user experience, cloud hybrid infrastructure, compliance & monitoring and many others.

Better User Experience - SharePoint 2016 will be most likely  similar to  SharePoint 2013 but with more people centric feature. By improving the user experiences with the use of innovative technology such as, it will provide improved touch based experience across all the devices, mobiles, and tablets. While emphasising more on one drive for business, which means place where all the files you are working with are stored and accessible from anywhere. A personal online storage space just like “Dropbox”.

Cloud Hybrid Infrastructure - SharePoint server 2016 updates allow users to avail advantage of cloud hybrid capabilities. By providing all-in-one facility to all the users who are working in different environment. It means, with the help of a true hybrid index users can get search results from Office 365 and SharePoint 2016 as well as SQL Server together with cloud data commonly in a single index.

Compliance & Monitoring -With every new version, SharePoint provides better authentication and security features so that content can be shared securely and safely inside and outside of the organization. Same with the SharePoint Server 2016- It ensures better security and monitoring facility than the previous version and with investment in DLP (data loss prevention) information remains protected i.e. in earlier versions DLP was negotiable, schools and organization doesn’t pay much attention but now it’s compulsion for all to make sure that confidential information remains protected.

These are some SharePoint 2016 features, now let’s have a look on to solutions of some common questions of the users which arise in their minds before installation of SharePoint 2016 preview

Which  Browsers are Supported in SharePoint 2016?

SharePoint Server 2016 IT preview supports all the popular browsers like latest versions of Internet Explorer i.e. 11 & 10. All versions of Microsoft edge, latest versions of Google Chrome, previous to latest and most recent versions of Mozilla Firefox, latest released version of Apple Safari. But all the features do not work in all the above browsers and their different versions. 

What are the Minimum Specifications Required?

Hardware requirements are –

For single SQL server instance RAM 12 to 16 GB RAM, with 64-bit 4 Core processor, 80 GB space for drive and addition 100 GB for second drive.

Single farm server (separate server for the SQL DB) RAM 12 to 16 GB, 64-bit 4 Core processor, 80 GB for drive space.

Software Requirements are – 

You'll need to update some of the softwares like Server 2012 R2 at a minimum and .NET Framework 4.5.2. It can also run on Server 10 with only change in .Net Framework i.e. 4.5.6 instead of 4.5.2

Can SharePoint 2016 Preview  be Upgradable to RTM?

No, one cannot upgrade the SharePoint 2016 Preview to RTM.

Are Excel Services Removed from SharePoint 2016?

Following Excel Services in standalone SharePoint 2016 farm is deprecated-

View Excel Spreadsheet

Reliable data providers

Unattended service account 

Excel SOAP API & Webparts

But it is suggested to IT admins to use the Office Online Server to host Excel services.

What are the Extra new Features that are Coming in SharePoint 2016?

Speedily Site Creation – The site collection process became easy now, it will totally rely on copying collection of existing site which increases the speed.

Link Durability – Links whose file name changed and moved to different site collection still it will work properly.

Hybrid Result – Now in SharePoint 2016 search results are shown from cloud and on-premises farms i.e. hybrid results are shown, no matter from where you search.

Launch of SharePoint 2016 is still a year away but you may install its preview version. It will give you a closer view about its working, features, specifications and more.

Keep in tune I will keep on updating you with more facts about  SharePoint 2016  and its release date.

Contact here for your SharePoint application development services. Our expertise on Microsoft SharePoint will help you

Significance of Using SharePoint for Public Facing Websites

Public facing websites are not password-protected or in other words are not blocked from the general Internet. It is freely accessible by all internet users. It has all the information about the company's business, their products and services, contact information, company history and even may have links to other related web sites of their company. It is an information source about a company for its customers and its partners.

Microsoft is still claiming SharePoint Server as the fastest growing product in company history; they have claimed there are so many fortune 500 companies that have built their public facing websites on SharePoint. SharePoint usage is widely spread due to its complex collaboration structure and its flexibility. From enterprise search, enterprise content management (ECM), Business Process Management, business intelligence, records management, archiving, Intranet/Extranet, file sharing to public-facing websites etc. list of few companies using SharePoint for public facing websites are – ConocoPhillips, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Valero Energy, Dell, Kraft Foods, Viacom, and more.

Significance of Using SharePoint for Public Facing Websites

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

Public facing websites are not password-protected or in other words are not blocked from the general Internet. It is freely accessible by all internet users. It has all the information about the company's business, their products and services, contact information, company history and even may have links to other related web sites of their company. It is an information source about a company for its customers and its partners.

Microsoft is still claiming SharePoint Server as the fastest growing product in company history; they have claimed there are so many fortune 500 companies that have built their public facing websites on SharePoint. SharePoint usage is widely spread due to its complex collaboration structure and its flexibility. From enterprise search, enterprise content management (ECM), Business Process Management, business intelligence, records management, archiving, Intranet/Extranet, file sharing to public-facing websites etc. list of few companies using SharePoint for public facing websites are – ConocoPhillips, Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Valero Energy, Dell, Kraft Foods, Viacom, and more.

Significance of SharePoint 2013 in Providing Organization 2.0

The previous versions of Microsoft SharePoint were launched so that they could expedite content search via content web query, however there was a constraint to it as searches could not be found on site collections. Now the latest version, SharePoint 2013 by using third party connectors can easily index site content from various sources such as websites, file shares, lotus notes. SharePoint 2013 has been developed by Microsoft to build up a single warehouse or source of index. It provides single enterprise search center experience to the user preventing need to visit different applications to search similar information and hence saves time.Nowadays there is demand for enterprise application development as it helps various organizations to run a smooth setup.

Significance of SharePoint 2013 in Providing Organization 2.0

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

The previous versions of Microsoft SharePoint were launched so that they could expedite content search via content web query, however there was a constraint to it as searches could not be found on site collections. Now the latest version, SharePoint 2013 by using third party connectors can easily index site content from various sources such as websites, file shares, lotus notes. SharePoint 2013 has been developed by Microsoft to build up a single warehouse or source of index. It provides single enterprise search center experience to the user preventing need to visit different applications to search similar information and hence saves time.Nowadays there is demand for enterprise application development as it helps various organizations to run a smooth setup.

Feature Enhancements and Improvements in SharePoint 2013

And yet again, we have a Guest blogger on our blog - All About SharePoint. Today's blogger is - Mansi Khurana and she is a technical writer with more than 3 years of experience. She has written various articles on SharePoint database recovery software and various other technologies. And Today's Topic is - Feature Enhancements and Improvements in SharePoint 2013.

Rapid SharePoint adoption accentuates the requirement of improvements and enhancements. Microsoft has added many new features and improved the existing ones in SharePoint 2013, let's read on to know.

Business Connectivity Services

Enhancements in Business Connectivity Services enable Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 clients to get access to the data stored outside of the SharePoint environment, which is possible because of the support for OData. The SharePoint 2013 event listener features an event subscriber that enables custom code and SharePoint users to get notified when events occur in external storage system. SharePoint 2013 also supports apps that are designed for SharePoint. This support allows you to add relevant apps that do not affect the code of the system on which SharePoint server is running, resulting in enhanced security and easy installation and un-installation. Moreover, external list improvements enable users to sort, filter, or export other SharePoint lists.

Feature Enhancements and Improvements in SharePoint 2013

Posted by Sophina Dillard 1 comment

And yet again, we have a Guest blogger on our blog - All About SharePoint. Today's blogger is - Mansi Khurana and she is a technical writer with more than 3 years of experience. She has written various articles on SharePoint database recovery software and various other technologies. And Today's Topic is - Feature Enhancements and Improvements in SharePoint 2013.

Rapid SharePoint adoption accentuates the requirement of improvements and enhancements. Microsoft has added many new features and improved the existing ones in SharePoint 2013, let's read on to know.

Business Connectivity Services

Enhancements in Business Connectivity Services enable Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 clients to get access to the data stored outside of the SharePoint environment, which is possible because of the support for OData. The SharePoint 2013 event listener features an event subscriber that enables custom code and SharePoint users to get notified when events occur in external storage system. SharePoint 2013 also supports apps that are designed for SharePoint. This support allows you to add relevant apps that do not affect the code of the system on which SharePoint server is running, resulting in enhanced security and easy installation and un-installation. Moreover, external list improvements enable users to sort, filter, or export other SharePoint lists.

SharePoint: What is this, Its Feature Areas and How it Works?

In Today's I have decided to talk about a very general topic of SharePoint i.e. What SharePoint is all about and how it works etc. It will beneficial for who are looking for the basic information about. I would really appreciate if you could all suggest your views and thought over this topic. You can ask question and even give answers in order to keep the post alive and communicative. I would really appreciate the efforts. Nevertheless let's begin with today's post. 

Managing those data and critical information sometimes create chaos in an organization. Those digital data and web pages are sometimes difficult to manage even using those external portals, and other automated tools. Then how to get rid of it? With the demand of advanced computer technology and complexities it’s important to look for a solution which can handle such situations.

SharePoint: What is this, Its Feature Areas and How it Works?

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

In Today's I have decided to talk about a very general topic of SharePoint i.e. What SharePoint is all about and how it works etc. It will beneficial for who are looking for the basic information about. I would really appreciate if you could all suggest your views and thought over this topic. You can ask question and even give answers in order to keep the post alive and communicative. I would really appreciate the efforts. Nevertheless let's begin with today's post. 

Managing those data and critical information sometimes create chaos in an organization. Those digital data and web pages are sometimes difficult to manage even using those external portals, and other automated tools. Then how to get rid of it? With the demand of advanced computer technology and complexities it’s important to look for a solution which can handle such situations.

Using SharePoint 2010 Development Services for Better ROI

Today's topic is discussed by our guest blogger, D R Sampath. He has written various articles related to technology and on software industry. Today he would like to tell us about SharePoint development and what all factors are responsible for its better growth and development. Lets read what he want to share with us - 

Several factors are responsible for making a business productive, successful and efficient. For successful achievement of the project goals and well-timed delivery of solutions, a concerned team needs to work strongly on each aspect. They need to make an effective collaborative or communication system with the aim to maintain the complete panel updated about every improvement according to the current market scenario and business needs. For this purpose, most of the organizations are looking to hire SharePoint 2010 development services of a professional body. Moreover, they want to use latest technologies and methods to make a business process more effective.

Professional developers are always ready to adopt essential changes in technology, trends, requirements, development methods, and business models. Usually, they need to communicate at every step and keep updated about modifications. Better co-ordination among team members can make a project work successful and generate better ROI (Return on Investment) for their clients. Expert developers or designers of a top IT company have knowledge and capability in creating different SharePoint solutions like interactive rich internet apps, intranet solutions, student management portal, HR solutions, extranet solutions, vendor management portal, enterprise content management solutions, distant learning solutions, data migration solutions, custom solution and many more.

SharePoint 2010 development framework provides a single web-based platform and a collaborative work team environment to the users. As well as, with built-in search capabilities, it helps users to find valuable data or information more successfully compared to the traditional file sharing system. Using feature-rich SharePoint 2010 version, many IT companies are offering excellent SharePoint software development services and a reliable platform to the business people.

Nowadays, most of the small and big organizations are relying on highly secure, cost-effective, customized and scalable SharePoint solutions for optimum business performance. Indeed, SharePoint services and solutions ensure the better ROI with a great user experience. It offers a lot of possibilities and opportunities for a successful industrial process. Using this platform, users can easily manage content or data throughout the information life cycle. On the other hand, it allows business organizations to quickly respond to varying market condition as well as customer needs by building data-driven decisions and deploying customized solutions securely and fast.

Besides, it is very important for you to hire an experienced and professional SharePoint development company for top-quality business results by increasing profits. A top IT company has a team of skilled and highly qualified developers to build secure, robust and exclusive applications. They have a vast knowledge of all critical technologies (Silverlight, Dot Net, SQL Server, DirectX(r) and so on), innovative development methods and utilization of different SharePoint versions. Using latest SharePoint version, most of the IT companies have become successful by creating best possible business results and revenue for different clients.

Using SharePoint 2010 Development Services for Better ROI

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

Today's topic is discussed by our guest blogger, D R Sampath. He has written various articles related to technology and on software industry. Today he would like to tell us about SharePoint development and what all factors are responsible for its better growth and development. Lets read what he want to share with us - 

Several factors are responsible for making a business productive, successful and efficient. For successful achievement of the project goals and well-timed delivery of solutions, a concerned team needs to work strongly on each aspect. They need to make an effective collaborative or communication system with the aim to maintain the complete panel updated about every improvement according to the current market scenario and business needs. For this purpose, most of the organizations are looking to hire SharePoint 2010 development services of a professional body. Moreover, they want to use latest technologies and methods to make a business process more effective.

Professional developers are always ready to adopt essential changes in technology, trends, requirements, development methods, and business models. Usually, they need to communicate at every step and keep updated about modifications. Better co-ordination among team members can make a project work successful and generate better ROI (Return on Investment) for their clients. Expert developers or designers of a top IT company have knowledge and capability in creating different SharePoint solutions like interactive rich internet apps, intranet solutions, student management portal, HR solutions, extranet solutions, vendor management portal, enterprise content management solutions, distant learning solutions, data migration solutions, custom solution and many more.

SharePoint 2010 development framework provides a single web-based platform and a collaborative work team environment to the users. As well as, with built-in search capabilities, it helps users to find valuable data or information more successfully compared to the traditional file sharing system. Using feature-rich SharePoint 2010 version, many IT companies are offering excellent SharePoint software development services and a reliable platform to the business people.

Nowadays, most of the small and big organizations are relying on highly secure, cost-effective, customized and scalable SharePoint solutions for optimum business performance. Indeed, SharePoint services and solutions ensure the better ROI with a great user experience. It offers a lot of possibilities and opportunities for a successful industrial process. Using this platform, users can easily manage content or data throughout the information life cycle. On the other hand, it allows business organizations to quickly respond to varying market condition as well as customer needs by building data-driven decisions and deploying customized solutions securely and fast.

Besides, it is very important for you to hire an experienced and professional SharePoint development company for top-quality business results by increasing profits. A top IT company has a team of skilled and highly qualified developers to build secure, robust and exclusive applications. They have a vast knowledge of all critical technologies (Silverlight, Dot Net, SQL Server, DirectX(r) and so on), innovative development methods and utilization of different SharePoint versions. Using latest SharePoint version, most of the IT companies have become successful by creating best possible business results and revenue for different clients.

How to manage Microsoft SharePoint efficiently: Tips for IT managers

SharePoint helps you to collaborate, share documents, construct internal and external websites of any enterprise platform and the most importantly ensures the ideal communication within the organization using it. While there are so many free and low cost tools and applications available in the market – such as Google Apps, Box.net and Hyper Office etc. Microsoft’s Share Point offers the improved security, feature set, advanced user interface and integration with Microsoft Office that is quite essential tool for many organization functional needs.

For small businesses, who want the familiarity of Microsoft can check out Microsoft Office 365. Still there are some points or tips that need to be considered for the optimal use of SharePoint in a company. They are:

1. Proper Planning: Planning is really important to take the further steps. It is important for better performance, delivering results and authentication etc. After deployment, it is most important step for building and maintaining SharePoint 2010.  It becomes misleadingly and complex when there is a lack of planning in the initial stages as well as in the long term planning which can cause pain points.

2.  Use site quota: It is one of the most underused features in SharePoint yet it is critical to maintain it for the proper functioning environment. It gives you an opportunity to ask the right set of queries in order to keep the content stored in SharePoint organized and new, while maintaining a supportable database. 

3.  Recycle bins consumed space outside the site: In this point, it has 2 categories for the recycle bins. In the first stage, it is used by user-recoverable contents; this uses space against the site collection quota. In the second one, it is used by the site collection administrator and/support staff to recover the content that may have been deleted and/or expired from the first stage recycle bin.

4. Understand its limitations: No doubt, it is extremely scalable and flexible depending on the deployment architecture, but it does have limitations. It comes with guidelines around limits and boundaries for SharePoint. A good rule of thumb is to stay within 50% of Microsoft’s suggested limits and boundaries.

5. Sizing Issues: When it comes to sizing disputes, then the consumed space and resources are need to be taken under consideration in the SharePoint environment. Especially for Searching, User Profiles allocation, Web Analytics and Usage and Health Services etc.

These are just few main pain-points that you face at downtime. If you follow these basic tips it will definitely ensure you to have low downtime and inactivity and will require minimal administrative resources for better performance.

How to manage Microsoft SharePoint efficiently: Tips for IT managers

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

SharePoint helps you to collaborate, share documents, construct internal and external websites of any enterprise platform and the most importantly ensures the ideal communication within the organization using it. While there are so many free and low cost tools and applications available in the market – such as Google Apps, Box.net and Hyper Office etc. Microsoft’s Share Point offers the improved security, feature set, advanced user interface and integration with Microsoft Office that is quite essential tool for many organization functional needs.

For small businesses, who want the familiarity of Microsoft can check out Microsoft Office 365. Still there are some points or tips that need to be considered for the optimal use of SharePoint in a company. They are:

1. Proper Planning: Planning is really important to take the further steps. It is important for better performance, delivering results and authentication etc. After deployment, it is most important step for building and maintaining SharePoint 2010.  It becomes misleadingly and complex when there is a lack of planning in the initial stages as well as in the long term planning which can cause pain points.

2.  Use site quota: It is one of the most underused features in SharePoint yet it is critical to maintain it for the proper functioning environment. It gives you an opportunity to ask the right set of queries in order to keep the content stored in SharePoint organized and new, while maintaining a supportable database. 

3.  Recycle bins consumed space outside the site: In this point, it has 2 categories for the recycle bins. In the first stage, it is used by user-recoverable contents; this uses space against the site collection quota. In the second one, it is used by the site collection administrator and/support staff to recover the content that may have been deleted and/or expired from the first stage recycle bin.

4. Understand its limitations: No doubt, it is extremely scalable and flexible depending on the deployment architecture, but it does have limitations. It comes with guidelines around limits and boundaries for SharePoint. A good rule of thumb is to stay within 50% of Microsoft’s suggested limits and boundaries.

5. Sizing Issues: When it comes to sizing disputes, then the consumed space and resources are need to be taken under consideration in the SharePoint environment. Especially for Searching, User Profiles allocation, Web Analytics and Usage and Health Services etc.

These are just few main pain-points that you face at downtime. If you follow these basic tips it will definitely ensure you to have low downtime and inactivity and will require minimal administrative resources for better performance.

Introduction to the SharePoint

Today with this increasing data-centric business climate, fear of data loss and data tampering, assigning the access to mission critical information to the specific users and with increasing complexities and data handling issues, etc. all we are looking for a robust, cost-effective, reliable and customized solution which can increase the productivity, enhance flexibility and improve control over the system and give us the desired results in the least possible time. All I can say answer to all these problems – Microsoft SharePoint. It integrates content management, social computing and search, enhances the user experience and easy adoption for them.

It is really important to have an effective custom application development for your organization. Microsoft SharePoint gives you a single, integrated location where your employees can easily find organizational resources, access corporate knowledge, and control the business insight so that they can take the better decisions. It offers an existing framework for publishing the content with an out-of-the-box administration. It also offers a complete search engine to search content and a portal for a user including single sign on. It has workflows to support business processes and a possibility to have insights into third application data.

SharePoint Pie: Let’s understand the pie chart of SharePoint which describes it services and features:

Why you need a SharePoint? 

If you want to find out whether you need a SharePoint service or not, just answer the following questions in yes or no –

• Having trouble managing projects and are considering buying an expensive project management solution?
• Do you keep all your emails in Outlook and wish you had a better place to store and archive them?
• Do you collaborate a lot on documents with others and find it difficult to know who has done what, and wish you could easily see earlier versions maybe even restore to earlier versions. Wouldn't it be great to tie documents to the projects they are associated with?
• Does your company deals with a lot of events, so you need a place to stay organized and it would be great if it would integrate with Outlook?
• Would you like to have more control over the company’s documents that are posted to a central location and something that has a content approval feature would be perfect?
• Would you like to have a secure place to share documents and other information with clients and/or partners, just as long as it's secure and private?
• Would you like to start offering training material to your teams, clients, and/or partners in a password-protected website that can be accessed anywhere in the world?
• Do you've seriously thought that your company could use some sort of document management system that uses a check-in / check-out feature?

OK, now if mostly your answers were “yes” then you surely need SharePoint Solutions.

Benefits:

SharePoint offers you “out of the box” features. Its main benefits are –
• A robust development platform to rapidly build solutions and respond to business needs
• Organizational Efficiency
• Information Sharing Across Geographical Boundaries
• Comprehensive Content Management and Enterprise Search Features
• Enhancements to drive productivity, a salable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment etc.

It majorly enhances: 

 Here, I am sharing a video which explains about the SharePoint working in a very simple way.

Next time I will discuss upon the new release of SharePoint i.e. SharePoint 2013. Its features, benefits and how and where we can implement it to get more benefits in our organization.

Introduction to the SharePoint

Posted by Sophina Dillard No comments

Today with this increasing data-centric business climate, fear of data loss and data tampering, assigning the access to mission critical information to the specific users and with increasing complexities and data handling issues, etc. all we are looking for a robust, cost-effective, reliable and customized solution which can increase the productivity, enhance flexibility and improve control over the system and give us the desired results in the least possible time. All I can say answer to all these problems – Microsoft SharePoint. It integrates content management, social computing and search, enhances the user experience and easy adoption for them.

It is really important to have an effective custom application development for your organization. Microsoft SharePoint gives you a single, integrated location where your employees can easily find organizational resources, access corporate knowledge, and control the business insight so that they can take the better decisions. It offers an existing framework for publishing the content with an out-of-the-box administration. It also offers a complete search engine to search content and a portal for a user including single sign on. It has workflows to support business processes and a possibility to have insights into third application data.

SharePoint Pie: Let’s understand the pie chart of SharePoint which describes it services and features:

Why you need a SharePoint? 

If you want to find out whether you need a SharePoint service or not, just answer the following questions in yes or no –

• Having trouble managing projects and are considering buying an expensive project management solution?
• Do you keep all your emails in Outlook and wish you had a better place to store and archive them?
• Do you collaborate a lot on documents with others and find it difficult to know who has done what, and wish you could easily see earlier versions maybe even restore to earlier versions. Wouldn't it be great to tie documents to the projects they are associated with?
• Does your company deals with a lot of events, so you need a place to stay organized and it would be great if it would integrate with Outlook?
• Would you like to have more control over the company’s documents that are posted to a central location and something that has a content approval feature would be perfect?
• Would you like to have a secure place to share documents and other information with clients and/or partners, just as long as it's secure and private?
• Would you like to start offering training material to your teams, clients, and/or partners in a password-protected website that can be accessed anywhere in the world?
• Do you've seriously thought that your company could use some sort of document management system that uses a check-in / check-out feature?

OK, now if mostly your answers were “yes” then you surely need SharePoint Solutions.

Benefits:

SharePoint offers you “out of the box” features. Its main benefits are –
• A robust development platform to rapidly build solutions and respond to business needs
• Organizational Efficiency
• Information Sharing Across Geographical Boundaries
• Comprehensive Content Management and Enterprise Search Features
• Enhancements to drive productivity, a salable unified infrastructure, and flexible deployment etc.

It majorly enhances: 

 Here, I am sharing a video which explains about the SharePoint working in a very simple way.

Next time I will discuss upon the new release of SharePoint i.e. SharePoint 2013. Its features, benefits and how and where we can implement it to get more benefits in our organization.