Category Archives: Microsoft

Events, Industry & Market Insights, Microsoft, PartnerNet, WPC

Technical enablement of Microsoft SMB cloud services is easy. Selling to SMBs is not. Parallels has the solution.

 

Starting a hosting or cloud business is easy. Whether you are a small hoster or web designer, infrastructure provider, managed service provider or telco, it just takes buying the right software to automate those services. Parallels has a whole portfolio for the small to the large business. That does not mean you will be successful.

 

Service providers fail because they think that putting a catalog up is sufficient. It is not. The most successful providers have an end to end marketing and sales enablement plan to go with the offer. They take into account up-sell and cross-sell scenarios. They have a strong feedback loop so that they can tune their offers.

 

We, at Parallels, believe that it is part of our responsibility to give you the tools you need to be successful. That is why we created PartnerNet. This is the location for our partners to get all the best practices and information needed to be successful.

 

We will be bringing a taste of PartnerNet to you at Microsoft WPC. Come meet with Birger Steen, our CEO, Mauro Meanti, SVP and GM SP Business and of course, yours truly while we present “Succeeding in the SMB Cloud with Microsoft and Parallels” on Monday, July 8 at 4:30 PM in the Hilton Americas. After that session, you will know what it takes to sell those Microsoft cloud services and more.  You can also come to the booth and drop off your business card for a chance to win a Surface!

 

See you there!

 

John Zanni, Vice President SP Marketing and Alliances

 

 

 

 

AvePoint, Collaboration, Content Management, DocAve File Share Navigator, Guest Post, Microsoft, Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint

File Shares & Microsoft SharePoint: Collaboration Without Limitations

Guest Post by Eric Burniche of AvePoint.

File Shares can be a blessing and a curse when it comes to storing large quantities of data for business use. Yes, you enable a large number of users to access the data as if it were on their local machines, without actually having the data stored where disc space may be at a premium. But native management capabilities of file shares aren’t always ideal, so a third-party solution is necessary to fully optimize your file shares.

The primary benefit of file shares is simple, quick, and easy access to large volumes of data for large volumes of users at marginal infrastructure cost. With little or no training required, users can easily access file shares that consist of individual documents to large files and rich media like videos, audio and other formats than can range up to gigabytes (GB) in size.

The Simple Truth: Organizations are quickly realizing native file share limitations, including notoriously poor content management capabilities for search, permissions, metadata, and remote access. As a result, many have turned to Microsoft SharePoint to manage and collaborate on their most business-critical information and valued data.

The Problem: Organizations have various types of unstructured content on their file servers, which is data characterized as non-relational data– e.g. Binary Large Objects (BLOBs) — that when uploaded into SharePoint, are stored by default with the platform’s Microsoft SQL Server database. Once file share content is uploaded, the overall time taken to remove unstructured content from a structured database is inefficient, resulting in poor performance for SharePoint end-users and exponential storage cost increases for IT administrators.

Difficulty often arises when determining what content is business critical and should be integrated with SharePoint as compared to what content should be left alone in file shares, decommissioned, or archived according to business need. File types and sizes also create difficulty when integrating file share content with SharePoint because SharePoint itself blocks content types like Microsoft Access project files, .exe, .msi, .chm help files, and file sizes exceeding 2 GB violate SharePoint software boundaries and limitations.

The Main Questions: How can my organization utilize SharePoint to retire our legacy file share networks while avoiding migration projects and performance issues? How can my organization utilize SharePoint’s full content management functionality if my business-critical assets are blocked file types or larger than Microsoft’s 2 GB support contracts?

One Solution: Enter DocAve File Share Navigator 3.0 from AvePoint. DocAve File Share Navigator 3.0 enables organizations to increase file share activity and take full advantage of SharePoint’s content management capabilities, all while avoiding costs and disruptions associated with migration plans.
With DocAve File Share Navigator, organizations can:

  • Expose large files, rich media via list links, including blocked files more than 2 GB, into SharePoint without violating Microsoft support contracts to truly consolidate access to all enterprise-wide content
  • Decrease costs associated with migrating file share content into SharePoint’s SQL Server content databases by accessing file share content through SharePoint
  • Allow remote users to view, access, and manage network files through SharePoint without requiring a VPN connection
  • Direct access for local file-servers through SharePoint without burden on web front end servers
  • Increase file share content discoverability by utilizing SharePoint’s full metadata-based search across multiple, distributed file servers
  •  Allow read-only previews of documents for read-only file servers

The native capabilities of file shares are unlikely to improve, but fortunately there are third-party solutions such as DocAve File Share Navigator that can help turn your file share from a headache to an asset, allowing you to continue to collaborate with confidence.

Eric_Burniche

Eric Burniche is a Product Marketing Manager at AvePoint.

AvePoint, Microsoft, Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013, Social

AvePoint Releases SharePoint Meeting Organizer App

AvePoint today announced the launch of AvePoint Meetings, the latest addition to its line of Productivity Apps in the SharePoint 2013 App Store.

AvePoint Meetings, a free interactive SharePoint 2013 app, brings order and efficiency to an organization’s meetings by allowing business users to track notes, actions, and decisions made in meetings against agenda items. While conventional meeting tracking generally involves hand-written notes that must then be typed up and emailed to be shared, AvePoint Meetings enforces a more structured information tracking process that ensures all meeting information is readily available and organized for those that need it. AvePoint Meetings utilizes the “My Task” feature of SharePoint 2013 by creating “Actions” as SharePoint Tasks so your organization can discover all assignments, tasks and relevant statuses within SharePoint or Microsoft Outlook 2013.

AvePoint Meetings allows business users to collaborate with one another in real-time before, during, and after meetings by:

  • Creating single or reoccurring meetings
  • Allowing meeting attendees to adjust and update meeting agendas as well as discussion topics
  • Capturing meeting information and notes with multi-user support
  • Tracking meeting minutes with full auditing, allowing for historical search capabilities
  • Assigning, aggregating, and synchronizing tasks and actions

AvePoint, compliance, Document Management, Lotus Notes, Microsoft, Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft SharePoint, Office 365, SharePoint, SharePoint 2013

AvePoint’s DocAve 6 Service Pack 2 Enhances SharePoint, Office 365 Support

AvePoint today announced the general availability of DocAve 6 Service Pack (SP) 2, the next generation of the management platform for SharePoint governance, with expanded SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 support.

Designed to increase business productivity without sacrificing on security and compliance, DocAve 6 SP2 will support the migration, protection, and administration of data in your SharePoint 2013 environment, whether it’s on-premises, in the cloud, or a hybrid deployment. DocAve 6 SP2 supports migration into the latest online or on-premises SharePoint release from a variety of legacy sources, including previous versions of SharePoint, file shares, EMC Documentum, Lotus Notes, and Open Text (Livelink).

Making the move to SharePoint 2013 is just the beginning. DocAve 6 SP2 extends SharePoint’s native capabilities, enabling application development, scalable storage, compliance and records management, and geo-distributed collaboration with confidence. New SharePoint capabilities such as business intelligence, eDiscovery, mobile device support, and social computing are also focuses of DocAve 6 SP2, as AvePoint continues its quest to enable customers to take advantage of the latest platform releases that Microsoft has to offer.

“As with each previous release, AvePoint is focused on ensuring that our more than 10,000 customers worldwide have all of the tools necessary to realize the full potential of Microsoft SharePoint 2013,” said George Petrou, Chief Technology Officer at AvePoint. “The landscape of business collaboration is ever-changing, and now more than ever organizations need a trusted solution to help them overcome any challenges that may arise. With DocAve 6 SP2, our customers can remove the roadblocks to enterprise-wide collaboration.”

DocAve 6 is built upon all Microsoft technologies and standards, including .NET, WCF, and Silverlight, utilizing only fully supported Microsoft methodologies and APIs. With robust protection, management, optimization, integration, compliance, reporting, and migration capabilities for SharePoint, DocAve is the enterprise-class management platform for SharePoint governance.

DocAve 6 SP2 is generally available to customers today, February 20. For more information about all of the new features and functionality in DocAve 6 SP2, please visit http://www.avepoint.com/docave6/.

Microsoft, Office 365 Administration, Tools

365 Command Streamlines Office 365 Administration

MessageOps today launched 365 Command, a web-based portal that makes it simple and efficient for anyone to perform common Office 365 administrative tasks without complicated scripting.

A hosted service, 365 Command replaces the command line interface of Windows® PowerShell with a rich, HTML5 graphical user interface that is easy to navigate and makes quick, point-and-click work of changing mailbox settings, monitoring usage and reporting. 365 Command scales elegantly to support a virtually unlimited number of seats for easy administration of any size Office 365 environment.

“Office 365 administration typically requires specialized skills and the use of time-consuming and complicated scripting,” said Chris Pyle with MessageOps. “365 Command offers point-and-click ease that makes Office 365 administration as simple as navigating any common website to perform routine tasks quickly and eliminate programming errors. Help desk staff can say goodbye to PowerShell scripts and now generating graphic-rich reports takes just a few clicks.”

Available on a per-seat subscription basis, 365 Command automatically populates the admin dashboard interface with Office 365 account data upon setup in minutes, with nothing to install, no special equipment and no user effort required. Once data integration is complete, 365 Command enables complete management of the Office 365 environment, including:

  • Graphical overview of user data, device access, total mailbox count and size;
  • Maps that show the specific datacenter location of mailboxes in the cloud, the number at each location, their total size, last log in and size over time;
  • Mailbox editing to easily set forwarding addresses, create shared mailboxes, change access permissions, create and set passwords, require password changes and set passwords to never expire; and
  • Report generation that illustrates hard-to-access data, such as devices by mailbox, in both graphic views and for download as Microsoft Excel or CSV data.

EIM, Enterprise Information Management, Microsoft, Mobile, OpenText, OpenText Corporation, Windows 8

OpenText Releases Windows 8 Apps

OpenText today announced that OpenText Tempo Box and OpenText eDOCS DM, two secure enterprise information management applications, are now available in the Windows Store for Windows 8.

OpenText has expanded its product roadmap to deliver Windows 8 solutions for OpenText Capture, OpenText Provision, Case360 and MBPM. Similarly, OpenText Content Server, Enterprise Connect, and Email Management are adding Windows 8 support along with Web Experience Management, Portal, Media Management and other products.

“Businesses today are increasingly asking for technology solutions that will provide them with the flexibility to access important documents on their PCs and mobile devices interchangeably. Windows 8 and Windows RT give them this access with the rich functionality, ease of use and a heightened level of security they’ve come to expect from the Windows operating systems,” said John Richards , Senior Director, Windows App Marketing for Microsoft Corp.

Tempo Box is a comprehensive offering that fulfills organizational needs for security, control and integration. Unlike other solutions, it provides enterprise-grade security features that help businesses ensure compliance with regulatory and organizational mandates. Tempo Box allows users to access, view and manage files from their Windows 8 device, as well as edit files in other apps installed on Windows 8. Direct integration with a user’s corporate LDAP or AD directory makes security-enhanced sharing with other Tempo Box users fast and easy.

Tempo Box, a simple, secure file transfer and synchronization service, and the newly developed eDOCS DM app, designed to support legal and mid-market businesses, support both Windows 8 and Windows RT on tablets and PCs, providing customers with the versatility of cloud-based data access – whether in the office or on the go.

“Our Tempo Box product and our eDOCS DM app will empower our business users to quickly take full advantage of all the innovative mobility features that Microsoft offers in these new operating systems,” said Muhi Majzoub, Senior Vice President of Engineering at OpenText. “These innovations demonstrate OpenText’s continued commitment to bringing leading-edge EIM solutions to customers and represent key parts of OpenText’s Enterprise Information Management (EIM) strategy, helping organizations to work more efficiently and drive better business outcomes.”

The newly developed OpenText eDOCS DM app also supports virtually anytime, anywhere access for Windows 8 users with an easy to use app that is consistent with the new Windows user experience. It supports Windows touch interactions and provides a consistent user experience when interacting with eDOCS DM content on any Windows 8 or Windows RT device regardless of form factor.

OpenText Tempo Box and eDOCS DM users can now take advantage of all the simplicity and elegance of Windows 8 – such as the new Start screen; touch screen capabilities; Cloud-connected access; improved performance and system reliability; as well as increased end-to-end enhanced security and manageability features. OpenText Tempo Box and eDOCS DM enables users to take full advantage of the new advanced mobility and usability features in Windows 8, while ensuring a consistent experience when interacting with EIM applications on different devices.

EIM helps organizations manage and exploit their enterprise information to drive innovation, create competitive advantage and make better decisions about their business without compromising their information governance and security.

All editions of Tempo Box including CS10, Express, and Cloud editions are available immediately. Tempo Box is also now available in the Windows Store