Why EMC is Your Partner of Choice for Microsoft SharePoint

1. You gain enterprise-scale capabilities to meet business-critical demands—from a cost-effective information infrastructureWith innovative storage and information management solutions from EMC, Microsoft’s suite of virtualization technologies maximizes server and storage utilization while significantly reducing TCO.

2. You need a proven source of expertise on SharePoint implementations and the underlying information infrastructureAs a long-time Microsoft strategic partner, EMC can help you plan, design, deploy, and manage a high-efficiency SharePoint infrastructure—from smaller-scale to enterprise-level. You can rely on us for deep application experience and a solid portfolio of industry-leading technologies, services, and EMC Proven® solutions.

3. Your business demands scalability and perfor-mance for physical or virtual environmentsWith consolidated tiered storage from EMC, you can meet service levels for a wide range of application requirements. Our scalable, dependable, cost effective solutions also quickly adapt to information growth, all while delivering the highest performance and availability with the capabilities you need to get the most from your SharePoint environment.

4. You must provide unified protection for your Microsoft SharePoint dataWith a range of proven backup and deduplication technologies from EMC and Data Domain®, an EMC company, you can count on a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective backup/recovery solution that’s right for you. You can deliver the granularity of recovery your users require—while ensuring consistent, coordinated recovery of an individual database or an entire farm.

5. You want to ensure non-stop operations and fast restores with business continuityGet strong business continuity and disaster recovery options for Microsoft SharePoint environments that align with your RPO and RTO requirements. Our advanced backup/recovery and business continuity solutions enable recovery for both local and remote sites. You also benefit from rollback and recovery to a specific point in time.

6. You need to extend SharePoint’s ECM capabilitiesEMC Information Intelligence solutions enhance and extend SharePoint’s native capabilities through physical document capture and records manage-ment; business process and transactional content management; and archival, compliance, and eDiscovery of SharePoint content.

7. You must ensure the security of your SharePoint dataTogether with RSA®, The Security Division of EMC, we provide a full suite of offerings that enable you to discover sensitive data at rest, automatically apply policy-based RMS protection, and proactively monitor and report on user access and activities, so you can be sure of your SharePoint data security.

8. You want to work with a vendor with proven, documented experience offering integrated solutions for SharePoint environmentsEMC has documented reference architectures and best practices to address a range of user workloads and business requirements—plus a comprehensive tiered storage portfolio to handle your current and future workload requirements. Deep integration testing through EMC E-Lab, along with a longstand-ing engineering relationship with Microsoft, also enables us to provide on-going product support for Microsoft Hyper-V.

9. You want to partner with an industry leader in SharePoint deploymentsSpecializing in user experience design, application development, business intelligence, workflow automation, and technical infrastructure, EMC Consulting helps you take Microsoft SharePoint from concept to reality with an experienced, award-winning team.

10. You need to accelerate the business value of your Microsoft SharePoint environmentWith over 10,000 consultants, EMC’s Global Services organization offers a broad portfolio of strategic consultation, planning, delivery, and support across the entire IT lifecycle—from initial requirements through day-to-day operations.

November 2010

The Essential Guide to

Successful

ImplementationSharePoint

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SharePointPro Connections

As with storage, virtualization should be part of the firm’s larger infrastructure picture.

Related to virtualization, many organizations are going one step further and building a private cloud. This is a holistic computing environment where security, governance and system services can be provisioned and managed. For many, this is built and maintained on-premise.

GovernanceSharePoint asks users to work differently, to create new habits. Without rules and structure, it’s very hard for users to use the system in a proper and effective way. Thus, governance can be defined as a set of standards, policies, and guidance which encourages desirable behavior. A governance solution provides answers to common questions such as “When should a new site be created? What files should be marked as records? How should content be secured?” Whether to use a strict or flexible approach depends somewhat on the existing culture and users’ tolerance. Where possible, be sure that it doesn’t place unnecessary burden on users.

Governance has ties into all considerations covered in this article. For example, governance policies dictate how to secure, audit, and archive content which affects an information architecture design. Thus, categorize content into high, medium, and low business impact areas. Any personally identifiable information (such as social security numbers) should be identified so that it’s managed appropriately.

In some cases, governance is a legal requirement. For example, legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley or HIPAA requires content be protected from tampering, and either archived or destroyed after a period of time. Be sure to check with compliance officers in the firm. Also be sure to determine the business requirements for eDiscovery and how to address those with SharePoint Server.

CroSS rEfErEnCESource One from EMC is a complete, enterprise-class information governance solution. For SharePoint, it addresses compliance, retention, and content externalization. For information, visit www.emc.com/sourceone)

TrainingGovernance and training go hand in hand. Training isn’t necessarily “How to use SharePoint,” but rather “How we will use SharePoint.” It is a big mistake to assume users will be able to “just figure it out.” Training has a big impact on the rate of adoption—if users don’t understand something, odds are they won’t use it. When putting together a training plan, and indeed, when planning the system, make

By Randy Williams

sure the emphasis is on how SharePoint saves time and makes tasks easier. Work to stamp out the perception that this is yet another system they must use. Training should involve specific scenarios that resonate with staff.

Where possible, SharePoint training should be role specific. Users performing site administration or content management functions will have different tasks than those using it for basic document management. For power users, consider having them take an introductory class followed by more advanced ones. For IT SharePoint administrators who will be installing and performing technical day-to-day maintenance, look into week-long training classes. Similar technical classes exist for developer and designer roles as well.

Despite the challenges and risks presented here, do not be daunted by SharePoint. It can be a very rewarding experience. In one situation, a user literally cried when she learned how much easier her job would become. Armed with a solid plan, the right partner, and the motivation of knowing improvements are just around the corner, your SharePoint deployment can be wildly successful.

Randy Williams is a senior solution architect and trainer for Synergy Corporate Technologies. He has 20 years of eclectic IT experience, and for the past 14 years has been architecting and developing Microsoft-based solutions. He has a master’s degree in Information Systems along with a number of certifications. For 2009 and 2010, he was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in SharePoint Server. Randy is currently based in Singapore and runs Synergy’s operations there.

Why EMC is Your Partner of Choice for Microsoft SharePoint

1. You gain enterprise-scale capabilities to meet business-critical demands—from a cost-effective information infrastructureWith innovative storage and information management solutions from EMC, Microsoft’s suite of virtualization technologies maximizes server and storage utilization while significantly reducing TCO.

2. You need a proven source of expertise on SharePoint implementations and the underlying information infrastructureAs a long-time Microsoft strategic partner, EMC can help you plan, design, deploy, and manage a high-efficiency SharePoint infrastructure—from smaller-scale to enterprise-level. You can rely on us for deep application experience and a solid portfolio of industry-leading technologies, services, and EMC Proven® solutions.

3. Your business demands scalability and perfor-mance for physical or virtual environmentsWith consolidated tiered storage from EMC, you can meet service levels for a wide range of application requirements. Our scalable, dependable, cost effective solutions also quickly adapt to information growth, all while delivering the highest performance and availability with the capabilities you need to get the most from your SharePoint environment.

4. You must provide unified protection for your Microsoft SharePoint dataWith a range of proven backup and deduplication technologies from EMC and Data Domain®, an EMC company, you can count on a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective backup/recovery solution that’s right for you. You can deliver the granularity of recovery your users require—while ensuring consistent, coordinated recovery of an individual database or an entire farm.

5. You want to ensure non-stop operations and fast restores with business continuityGet strong business continuity and disaster recovery options for Microsoft SharePoint environments that align with your RPO and RTO requirements. Our advanced backup/recovery and business continuity solutions enable recovery for both local and remote sites. You also benefit from rollback and recovery to a specific point in time.

6. You need to extend SharePoint’s ECM capabilitiesEMC Information Intelligence solutions enhance and extend SharePoint’s native capabilities through physical document capture and records manage-ment; business process and transactional content management; and archival, compliance, and eDiscovery of SharePoint content.

7. You must ensure the security of your SharePoint dataTogether with RSA®, The Security Division of EMC, we provide a full suite of offerings that enable you to discover sensitive data at rest, automatically apply policy-based RMS protection, and proactively monitor and report on user access and activities, so you can be sure of your SharePoint data security.

8. You want to work with a vendor with proven, documented experience offering integrated solutions for SharePoint environmentsEMC has documented reference architectures and best practices to address a range of user workloads and business requirements—plus a comprehensive tiered storage portfolio to handle your current and future workload requirements. Deep integration testing through EMC E-Lab, along with a longstand-ing engineering relationship with Microsoft, also enables us to provide on-going product support for Microsoft Hyper-V.

9. You want to partner with an industry leader in SharePoint deploymentsSpecializing in user experience design, application development, business intelligence, workflow automation, and technical infrastructure, EMC Consulting helps you take Microsoft SharePoint from concept to reality with an experienced, award-winning team.

10. You need to accelerate the business value of your Microsoft SharePoint environmentWith over 10,000 consultants, EMC’s Global Services organization offers a broad portfolio of strategic consultation, planning, delivery, and support across the entire IT lifecycle—from initial requirements through day-to-day operations.

November 2010

The Essential Guide to

Successful

ImplementationSharePoint

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SharePointPro Connections

As with storage, virtualization should be part of the firm’s larger infrastructure picture.

Related to virtualization, many organizations are going one step further and building a private cloud. This is a holistic computing environment where security, governance and system services can be provisioned and managed. For many, this is built and maintained on-premise.

GovernanceSharePoint asks users to work differently, to create new habits. Without rules and structure, it’s very hard for users to use the system in a proper and effective way. Thus, governance can be defined as a set of standards, policies, and guidance which encourages desirable behavior. A governance solution provides answers to common questions such as “When should a new site be created? What files should be marked as records? How should content be secured?” Whether to use a strict or flexible approach depends somewhat on the existing culture and users’ tolerance. Where possible, be sure that it doesn’t place unnecessary burden on users.

Governance has ties into all considerations covered in this article. For example, governance policies dictate how to secure, audit, and archive content which affects an information architecture design. Thus, categorize content into high, medium, and low business impact areas. Any personally identifiable information (such as social security numbers) should be identified so that it’s managed appropriately.

In some cases, governance is a legal requirement. For example, legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley or HIPAA requires content be protected from tampering, and either archived or destroyed after a period of time. Be sure to check with compliance officers in the firm. Also be sure to determine the business requirements for eDiscovery and how to address those with SharePoint Server.

CroSS rEfErEnCESource One from EMC is a complete, enterprise-class information governance solution. For SharePoint, it addresses compliance, retention, and content externalization. For information, visit www.emc.com/sourceone)

TrainingGovernance and training go hand in hand. Training isn’t necessarily “How to use SharePoint,” but rather “How we will use SharePoint.” It is a big mistake to assume users will be able to “just figure it out.” Training has a big impact on the rate of adoption—if users don’t understand something, odds are they won’t use it. When putting together a training plan, and indeed, when planning the system, make

By Randy Williams

sure the emphasis is on how SharePoint saves time and makes tasks easier. Work to stamp out the perception that this is yet another system they must use. Training should involve specific scenarios that resonate with staff.

Where possible, SharePoint training should be role specific. Users performing site administration or content management functions will have different tasks than those using it for basic document management. For power users, consider having them take an introductory class followed by more advanced ones. For IT SharePoint administrators who will be installing and performing technical day-to-day maintenance, look into week-long training classes. Similar technical classes exist for developer and designer roles as well.

Despite the challenges and risks presented here, do not be daunted by SharePoint. It can be a very rewarding experience. In one situation, a user literally cried when she learned how much easier her job would become. Armed with a solid plan, the right partner, and the motivation of knowing improvements are just around the corner, your SharePoint deployment can be wildly successful.

Randy Williams is a senior solution architect and trainer for Synergy Corporate Technologies. He has 20 years of eclectic IT experience, and for the past 14 years has been architecting and developing Microsoft-based solutions. He has a master’s degree in Information Systems along with a number of certifications. For 2009 and 2010, he was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in SharePoint Server. Randy is currently based in Singapore and runs Synergy’s operations there.

User personasBecause SharePoint is about the business, make sure that you define the user personas. This means understanding the users, how they work and what they need. Avoid the trap of making assumptions here. Spend time with them and really understand their need. Some opt for field studies (e.g., surveys, shadowing, or focus groups) to develop use cases. While researching, don’t over-analyze the results. Because the full solution is deployed iteratively, it’s okay for some areas to be a bit off the mark—resolve it in a future update.

Setting the scopeThe scope defines the features and functions to be delivered. Any project manager will require that this is clearly defined. The scope helps ensure expectations are clear among all stakeholders. To help set the scope, prioritize the requirements by using a method such as MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have). This also helps determine which features and capabilities get pushed into future iterations (or phases).

Addressing the gapAs powerful as SharePoint is, there may be needs that are not met by SharePoint alone. This means that it may require additional custom solutions. If it’s a must-have requirement, options include building something custom or buying a third-party add-on. SharePoint is a development platform, and building a custom solution makes sense if there is a specialized need. If a third-party product already exists, it is usually cheaper to buy. Of course, also look at it from a cost-benefit standpoint. Why invest $100,000 in a solution if it only delivers $50,000 in value?

Architecting the SolutionWith a clear business solution articulated, the architecture begins. While this guide cannot detail every aspect, the following are many of the key areas that go into creating this blueprint.

Information architectureWith its column metadata, lists, libraries, and pages, SharePoint content comes in many types and sizes. This content needs to be organized into sites and site collections, yielding to the physical hierarchy of the SharePoint environment. Choices are to go with a classic functional design (e.g., by department), cross-functional (e.g., products that a manufacturer creates), geographical (e.g. by region), or hybrids of these. When choosing a hierarchy, security is an important consideration since a user’s permissions are, by default, inherited from higher to lower levels.

Navigation provides more logical structure, which acts as transparent bridges to span the hierarchies. Navigation in SharePoint is very customizable. Be sure to take advantage of features such as the

Content Query Web Part which gathers and summarizes content.

In addition to these physical and logical structures, a very important consideration is to define how data is classified in SharePoint. For example, how should accounting’s purchase orders be stored and organized? What metadata columns should be used? Should the purchase order number be required? Without answers to questions like these, content becomes disorganized, inconsistent, and hard to find.

When creating this classification scheme, take full advantage of content types and tagging found in the new Metadata Management Service (MMS) in SharePoint Server 2010. A content type is a reusable set of columns that can be applied to lists and libraries. The purchase order is a good example of a content type. MMS can even publish these content types across farms. Sets of hierarchical terms can also be defined to more easily tag content.

Server topologyChoosing the right number of servers and the roles of each is determined by addressing these three service level agreements (SLAs): performance, continuity, and scalability.• Performance:achieveacertainresponsetime.

For example, search requests must be returned within one second.

• Continuity:eliminatesinglepointsoffailuretoachieve a certain uptime percentage.

• Scalability:ensurethattheplatformcanscaleupandout to accommodate more users and more content.

When setting the topology, know that SharePoint has three primary server roles: web front ends (WFE), application servers, and SQL Servers. These roles can be shared on the same server or distributed among several, increasing performance, continuity and scalability. How many of each is needed depends on user counts, average usage, and SLAs. For example, Acme Corp uses SharePoint mainly for document management for its 500 users. While important, it is not a mission-critical system. A suitable farm might consist of just two servers: one shared WFE/application server and one SQL server.

For Big Oil’s 5,000 users, SharePoint is their intranet portal and enterprise search engine. It is a critical system with a 99.9% uptime requirement and all search response times must be sub-second. They need at least three WFEs with network load balancing (NLB), maybe four application servers running index crawlers, and query services. For the database tier, four SQL Servers (two online; two standby) either mirrored or clustered are needed. Of course, these counts depend heavily on hardware. (Note: it is not advised to share SQL Server on either a WFE or application server).

Define storage needsIn addition to servers and server roles, storage needs must be designed. In SharePoint 2010, the primary storage consumer is SQL Server, with query servers a distant second. Two types of storage exist, local and shared. Local simply means drives are directly attached to the server. With shared, a Storage Area Network (SAN) is used by allocating logical units (or LUNs) to servers using a Fibre Channel or iSCSI connection.

Choosing local or shared depends on many factors, including current infrastructure, budget, regulatory and performance requirements. If capacity exists on an existing SAN, consider using it for database servers. Keep in mind that clustering SQL Server requires shared storage. With shared storage, disk fault tolerance is built-in. A SAN offering, such as EMC’s Symmetrix®, delivers the best performance. This is an important consideration because SharePoint places a heavy load on SQL Server and storage is often the bottleneck.

To deliver high availability, consider booting servers from a SAN and replicating the storage to an offsite location. Products like EMC’s Replication Manager can create a SharePoint-consistent replica of all data (file system, plus configuration, service, and content databases) and store it in a secondary farm.

Another consideration is whether to externalize some content outside SQL Server. A common problem with SharePoint environments is in managing content database bloat. To reduce the size, choose to store very large files, such as AutoCAD drawings, or archive older files into separate and cheaper forms of storage.

CroSS rEfErEnCEEMC offers a number of shared storage options that are ideal for SharePoint environments. For information on EMC storage solutions, visit www.emc.com/products/category/storage.htm. For more information about EMC solutions for Sharepoint, see www.emc.com/sharepoint

Virtualization and hostingVirtualization has become a popular way to consolidate servers, cutting energy and maintenance costs. A virtual infrastructure can also simplify disaster recovery and address business continuity needs. Microsoft fully supports SharePoint environments where virtualization is used. Primary choices are VMware® (ESX®/vSphere™) or Microsoft (Hyper-V) and all are excellent products.

EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. © Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 2149

THE JOURNEY

TO THE PRIVATE CLOUD STARTS NOW

Before StartingMany try to deploy SharePoint using a grass-roots approach, and while this can work in some cases, it’s more risky. Thus, it’s best to get executive buy-in before starting. This puts the most important champions on your side. Executives also help articulate the project’s vision. Given that SharePoint is a long-term initiative, be sure this vision aligns with the firm’s strategic plan.

Having a planWhether you choose to pilot SharePoint in a business unit, or you aim for an enterprise-wide first release, make sure a solid project plan is created. Remember, even though SharePoint is unique don’t throw out the methodology—just be even more disciplined in applying it. Strongly consider having a project manager who is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) help plan and guide the effort.

When it comes to the project plan, avoid the temptation of doing a one-time, do-it-all project. SharePoint covers many workloads and there are many business problems it may address. Follow an iterative deployment model where the project starts small and incrementally add new features. This shortens delivery cycles and gives the users time to adjust to the changes that are coming their way.

Choosing the right partnerSuccessfully deploying SharePoint is a craft, an art, and a science that requires experienced professionals. The intent is not to just outsource the project, but to augment the internal team with those who understand the complete environment including the back-end infrastructure. Consider Microsoft partners who are Microsoft certified (both at the partner level and with SharePoint) and that specialize in SharePoint. Many consulting companies “do a little SharePoint” but haven’t developed a bona-fide practice. Partnering with a provider such as EMC Consulting Services brings a proven execution methodology, best practices, and project-delivery templates to assure quality and accelerate implementation.

Define the Business SolutionArmed with a plan and a partner, it’s time to define the business solution. A common approach is to map the opportunities and needs to key features of SharePoint. One reason for this is to validate that SharePoint is the right solution, and the other is to start building the bridge between the business and the technology SharePoint delivers. For example, if tracking and searching scanned documents is a need, identify the features of SharePoint that will work best. Of course, keep the project’s vision in mind as this is done.

In 2008, Microsoft announced that SharePoint had become its fastest growing product ever. A survey in July 2010 (http://bit.ly/dCmuEi)

suggests that 64 percent of firms use SharePoint organization-wide with another 22 percent using it departmentally. Now that SharePoint 2010 has been released, this growth is expected to continue. Despite this growth, deploying SharePoint and leveraging its rich set of features is not a trivial undertaking and challenges do exist. This essential guide discusses what challenges may arise and how to overcome them to successfully plan and architect a SharePoint implementation. Guidance on how to address governance and training to promote proper usage is also provided.

What are the Potential Challenges?First, SharePoint is far from a niche product—its capabilities cover a vast number of workloads from collaboration and content publishing to enterprise search and business intelligence. Utilizing SharePoint to its fullest potential in all these areas takes a team that is skilled in all aspects of the product.

CroSS rEfErEnCEFor more information on SharePoint, visit sharepoint.microsoft.com.

Another challenge is that SharePoint is not a product that is installed and immediately used. Underneath the visible product layer, it’s also a business technology platform—an evolved form of .NET—from which custom solutions can be created. This makes the product very malleable, and knowing how to mold it to provide the needed functionality takes great skill. In fact, SharePoint’s platform has created a new ecosystem of third-party add-ons, and understanding SharePoint often means knowing many of these additional solutions.

A classic mistake many IT groups make is to deploy SharePoint as a technology solution, expecting the business to figure it out. Unlike other Microsoft products, SharePoint directly touches nearly every information worker and becomes interwoven into their day-to-day tasks. Yes, SharePoint is a technology solution, but it’s also a business solution, and using SharePoint to solve the business needs is where the potential challenge resides.

Considering SharePoint from a business perspective inevitably involves solving the return on investment (ROI) riddle. While SharePoint can deliver many benefits, some of the intangible ones such as improved teamwork and higher employee satisfaction, cannot be easily quantified. Nonetheless, demonstrating positive ROI is one of the best ways to get executive support.

User personasBecause SharePoint is about the business, make sure that you define the user personas. This means understanding the users, how they work and what they need. Avoid the trap of making assumptions here. Spend time with them and really understand their need. Some opt for field studies (e.g., surveys, shadowing, or focus groups) to develop use cases. While researching, don’t over-analyze the results. Because the full solution is deployed iteratively, it’s okay for some areas to be a bit off the mark—resolve it in a future update.

Setting the scopeThe scope defines the features and functions to be delivered. Any project manager will require that this is clearly defined. The scope helps ensure expectations are clear among all stakeholders. To help set the scope, prioritize the requirements by using a method such as MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have). This also helps determine which features and capabilities get pushed into future iterations (or phases).

Addressing the gapAs powerful as SharePoint is, there may be needs that are not met by SharePoint alone. This means that it may require additional custom solutions. If it’s a must-have requirement, options include building something custom or buying a third-party add-on. SharePoint is a development platform, and building a custom solution makes sense if there is a specialized need. If a third-party product already exists, it is usually cheaper to buy. Of course, also look at it from a cost-benefit standpoint. Why invest $100,000 in a solution if it only delivers $50,000 in value?

Architecting the SolutionWith a clear business solution articulated, the architecture begins. While this guide cannot detail every aspect, the following are many of the key areas that go into creating this blueprint.

Information architectureWith its column metadata, lists, libraries, and pages, SharePoint content comes in many types and sizes. This content needs to be organized into sites and site collections, yielding to the physical hierarchy of the SharePoint environment. Choices are to go with a classic functional design (e.g., by department), cross-functional (e.g., products that a manufacturer creates), geographical (e.g. by region), or hybrids of these. When choosing a hierarchy, security is an important consideration since a user’s permissions are, by default, inherited from higher to lower levels.

Navigation provides more logical structure, which acts as transparent bridges to span the hierarchies. Navigation in SharePoint is very customizable. Be sure to take advantage of features such as the

Content Query Web Part which gathers and summarizes content.

In addition to these physical and logical structures, a very important consideration is to define how data is classified in SharePoint. For example, how should accounting’s purchase orders be stored and organized? What metadata columns should be used? Should the purchase order number be required? Without answers to questions like these, content becomes disorganized, inconsistent, and hard to find.

When creating this classification scheme, take full advantage of content types and tagging found in the new Metadata Management Service (MMS) in SharePoint Server 2010. A content type is a reusable set of columns that can be applied to lists and libraries. The purchase order is a good example of a content type. MMS can even publish these content types across farms. Sets of hierarchical terms can also be defined to more easily tag content.

Server topologyChoosing the right number of servers and the roles of each is determined by addressing these three service level agreements (SLAs): performance, continuity, and scalability.• Performance:achieveacertainresponsetime.

For example, search requests must be returned within one second.

• Continuity:eliminatesinglepointsoffailuretoachieve a certain uptime percentage.

• Scalability:ensurethattheplatformcanscaleupandout to accommodate more users and more content.

When setting the topology, know that SharePoint has three primary server roles: web front ends (WFE), application servers, and SQL Servers. These roles can be shared on the same server or distributed among several, increasing performance, continuity and scalability. How many of each is needed depends on user counts, average usage, and SLAs. For example, Acme Corp uses SharePoint mainly for document management for its 500 users. While important, it is not a mission-critical system. A suitable farm might consist of just two servers: one shared WFE/application server and one SQL server.

For Big Oil’s 5,000 users, SharePoint is their intranet portal and enterprise search engine. It is a critical system with a 99.9% uptime requirement and all search response times must be sub-second. They need at least three WFEs with network load balancing (NLB), maybe four application servers running index crawlers, and query services. For the database tier, four SQL Servers (two online; two standby) either mirrored or clustered are needed. Of course, these counts depend heavily on hardware. (Note: it is not advised to share SQL Server on either a WFE or application server).

Define storage needsIn addition to servers and server roles, storage needs must be designed. In SharePoint 2010, the primary storage consumer is SQL Server, with query servers a distant second. Two types of storage exist, local and shared. Local simply means drives are directly attached to the server. With shared, a Storage Area Network (SAN) is used by allocating logical units (or LUNs) to servers using a Fibre Channel or iSCSI connection.

Choosing local or shared depends on many factors, including current infrastructure, budget, regulatory and performance requirements. If capacity exists on an existing SAN, consider using it for database servers. Keep in mind that clustering SQL Server requires shared storage. With shared storage, disk fault tolerance is built-in. A SAN offering, such as EMC’s Symmetrix®, delivers the best performance. This is an important consideration because SharePoint places a heavy load on SQL Server and storage is often the bottleneck.

To deliver high availability, consider booting servers from a SAN and replicating the storage to an offsite location. Products like EMC’s Replication Manager can create a SharePoint-consistent replica of all data (file system, plus configuration, service, and content databases) and store it in a secondary farm.

Another consideration is whether to externalize some content outside SQL Server. A common problem with SharePoint environments is in managing content database bloat. To reduce the size, choose to store very large files, such as AutoCAD drawings, or archive older files into separate and cheaper forms of storage.

CroSS rEfErEnCEEMC offers a number of shared storage options that are ideal for SharePoint environments. For information on EMC storage solutions, visit www.emc.com/products/category/storage.htm. For more information about EMC solutions for Sharepoint, see www.emc.com/sharepoint

Virtualization and hostingVirtualization has become a popular way to consolidate servers, cutting energy and maintenance costs. A virtual infrastructure can also simplify disaster recovery and address business continuity needs. Microsoft fully supports SharePoint environments where virtualization is used. Primary choices are VMware® (ESX®/vSphere™) or Microsoft (Hyper-V) and all are excellent products.

EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. © Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 2149

THE JOURNEY

TO THE PRIVATE CLOUD STARTS NOW

Before StartingMany try to deploy SharePoint using a grass-roots approach, and while this can work in some cases, it’s more risky. Thus, it’s best to get executive buy-in before starting. This puts the most important champions on your side. Executives also help articulate the project’s vision. Given that SharePoint is a long-term initiative, be sure this vision aligns with the firm’s strategic plan.

Having a planWhether you choose to pilot SharePoint in a business unit, or you aim for an enterprise-wide first release, make sure a solid project plan is created. Remember, even though SharePoint is unique don’t throw out the methodology—just be even more disciplined in applying it. Strongly consider having a project manager who is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) help plan and guide the effort.

When it comes to the project plan, avoid the temptation of doing a one-time, do-it-all project. SharePoint covers many workloads and there are many business problems it may address. Follow an iterative deployment model where the project starts small and incrementally add new features. This shortens delivery cycles and gives the users time to adjust to the changes that are coming their way.

Choosing the right partnerSuccessfully deploying SharePoint is a craft, an art, and a science that requires experienced professionals. The intent is not to just outsource the project, but to augment the internal team with those who understand the complete environment including the back-end infrastructure. Consider Microsoft partners who are Microsoft certified (both at the partner level and with SharePoint) and that specialize in SharePoint. Many consulting companies “do a little SharePoint” but haven’t developed a bona-fide practice. Partnering with a provider such as EMC Consulting Services brings a proven execution methodology, best practices, and project-delivery templates to assure quality and accelerate implementation.

Define the Business SolutionArmed with a plan and a partner, it’s time to define the business solution. A common approach is to map the opportunities and needs to key features of SharePoint. One reason for this is to validate that SharePoint is the right solution, and the other is to start building the bridge between the business and the technology SharePoint delivers. For example, if tracking and searching scanned documents is a need, identify the features of SharePoint that will work best. Of course, keep the project’s vision in mind as this is done.

In 2008, Microsoft announced that SharePoint had become its fastest growing product ever. A survey in July 2010 (http://bit.ly/dCmuEi)

suggests that 64 percent of firms use SharePoint organization-wide with another 22 percent using it departmentally. Now that SharePoint 2010 has been released, this growth is expected to continue. Despite this growth, deploying SharePoint and leveraging its rich set of features is not a trivial undertaking and challenges do exist. This essential guide discusses what challenges may arise and how to overcome them to successfully plan and architect a SharePoint implementation. Guidance on how to address governance and training to promote proper usage is also provided.

What are the Potential Challenges?First, SharePoint is far from a niche product—its capabilities cover a vast number of workloads from collaboration and content publishing to enterprise search and business intelligence. Utilizing SharePoint to its fullest potential in all these areas takes a team that is skilled in all aspects of the product.

CroSS rEfErEnCEFor more information on SharePoint, visit sharepoint.microsoft.com.

Another challenge is that SharePoint is not a product that is installed and immediately used. Underneath the visible product layer, it’s also a business technology platform—an evolved form of .NET—from which custom solutions can be created. This makes the product very malleable, and knowing how to mold it to provide the needed functionality takes great skill. In fact, SharePoint’s platform has created a new ecosystem of third-party add-ons, and understanding SharePoint often means knowing many of these additional solutions.

A classic mistake many IT groups make is to deploy SharePoint as a technology solution, expecting the business to figure it out. Unlike other Microsoft products, SharePoint directly touches nearly every information worker and becomes interwoven into their day-to-day tasks. Yes, SharePoint is a technology solution, but it’s also a business solution, and using SharePoint to solve the business needs is where the potential challenge resides.

Considering SharePoint from a business perspective inevitably involves solving the return on investment (ROI) riddle. While SharePoint can deliver many benefits, some of the intangible ones such as improved teamwork and higher employee satisfaction, cannot be easily quantified. Nonetheless, demonstrating positive ROI is one of the best ways to get executive support.

User personasBecause SharePoint is about the business, make sure that you define the user personas. This means understanding the users, how they work and what they need. Avoid the trap of making assumptions here. Spend time with them and really understand their need. Some opt for field studies (e.g., surveys, shadowing, or focus groups) to develop use cases. While researching, don’t over-analyze the results. Because the full solution is deployed iteratively, it’s okay for some areas to be a bit off the mark—resolve it in a future update.

Setting the scopeThe scope defines the features and functions to be delivered. Any project manager will require that this is clearly defined. The scope helps ensure expectations are clear among all stakeholders. To help set the scope, prioritize the requirements by using a method such as MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have). This also helps determine which features and capabilities get pushed into future iterations (or phases).

Addressing the gapAs powerful as SharePoint is, there may be needs that are not met by SharePoint alone. This means that it may require additional custom solutions. If it’s a must-have requirement, options include building something custom or buying a third-party add-on. SharePoint is a development platform, and building a custom solution makes sense if there is a specialized need. If a third-party product already exists, it is usually cheaper to buy. Of course, also look at it from a cost-benefit standpoint. Why invest $100,000 in a solution if it only delivers $50,000 in value?

Architecting the SolutionWith a clear business solution articulated, the architecture begins. While this guide cannot detail every aspect, the following are many of the key areas that go into creating this blueprint.

Information architectureWith its column metadata, lists, libraries, and pages, SharePoint content comes in many types and sizes. This content needs to be organized into sites and site collections, yielding to the physical hierarchy of the SharePoint environment. Choices are to go with a classic functional design (e.g., by department), cross-functional (e.g., products that a manufacturer creates), geographical (e.g. by region), or hybrids of these. When choosing a hierarchy, security is an important consideration since a user’s permissions are, by default, inherited from higher to lower levels.

Navigation provides more logical structure, which acts as transparent bridges to span the hierarchies. Navigation in SharePoint is very customizable. Be sure to take advantage of features such as the

Content Query Web Part which gathers and summarizes content.

In addition to these physical and logical structures, a very important consideration is to define how data is classified in SharePoint. For example, how should accounting’s purchase orders be stored and organized? What metadata columns should be used? Should the purchase order number be required? Without answers to questions like these, content becomes disorganized, inconsistent, and hard to find.

When creating this classification scheme, take full advantage of content types and tagging found in the new Metadata Management Service (MMS) in SharePoint Server 2010. A content type is a reusable set of columns that can be applied to lists and libraries. The purchase order is a good example of a content type. MMS can even publish these content types across farms. Sets of hierarchical terms can also be defined to more easily tag content.

Server topologyChoosing the right number of servers and the roles of each is determined by addressing these three service level agreements (SLAs): performance, continuity, and scalability.• Performance:achieveacertainresponsetime.

For example, search requests must be returned within one second.

• Continuity:eliminatesinglepointsoffailuretoachieve a certain uptime percentage.

• Scalability:ensurethattheplatformcanscaleupandout to accommodate more users and more content.

When setting the topology, know that SharePoint has three primary server roles: web front ends (WFE), application servers, and SQL Servers. These roles can be shared on the same server or distributed among several, increasing performance, continuity and scalability. How many of each is needed depends on user counts, average usage, and SLAs. For example, Acme Corp uses SharePoint mainly for document management for its 500 users. While important, it is not a mission-critical system. A suitable farm might consist of just two servers: one shared WFE/application server and one SQL server.

For Big Oil’s 5,000 users, SharePoint is their intranet portal and enterprise search engine. It is a critical system with a 99.9% uptime requirement and all search response times must be sub-second. They need at least three WFEs with network load balancing (NLB), maybe four application servers running index crawlers, and query services. For the database tier, four SQL Servers (two online; two standby) either mirrored or clustered are needed. Of course, these counts depend heavily on hardware. (Note: it is not advised to share SQL Server on either a WFE or application server).

Define storage needsIn addition to servers and server roles, storage needs must be designed. In SharePoint 2010, the primary storage consumer is SQL Server, with query servers a distant second. Two types of storage exist, local and shared. Local simply means drives are directly attached to the server. With shared, a Storage Area Network (SAN) is used by allocating logical units (or LUNs) to servers using a Fibre Channel or iSCSI connection.

Choosing local or shared depends on many factors, including current infrastructure, budget, regulatory and performance requirements. If capacity exists on an existing SAN, consider using it for database servers. Keep in mind that clustering SQL Server requires shared storage. With shared storage, disk fault tolerance is built-in. A SAN offering, such as EMC’s Symmetrix®, delivers the best performance. This is an important consideration because SharePoint places a heavy load on SQL Server and storage is often the bottleneck.

To deliver high availability, consider booting servers from a SAN and replicating the storage to an offsite location. Products like EMC’s Replication Manager can create a SharePoint-consistent replica of all data (file system, plus configuration, service, and content databases) and store it in a secondary farm.

Another consideration is whether to externalize some content outside SQL Server. A common problem with SharePoint environments is in managing content database bloat. To reduce the size, choose to store very large files, such as AutoCAD drawings, or archive older files into separate and cheaper forms of storage.

CroSS rEfErEnCEEMC offers a number of shared storage options that are ideal for SharePoint environments. For information on EMC storage solutions, visit www.emc.com/products/category/storage.htm. For more information about EMC solutions for Sharepoint, see www.emc.com/sharepoint

Virtualization and hostingVirtualization has become a popular way to consolidate servers, cutting energy and maintenance costs. A virtual infrastructure can also simplify disaster recovery and address business continuity needs. Microsoft fully supports SharePoint environments where virtualization is used. Primary choices are VMware® (ESX®/vSphere™) or Microsoft (Hyper-V) and all are excellent products.

EMC2, EMC, the EMC logo, and where information lives are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and other countries. © Copyright 2010 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. 2149

THE JOURNEY

TO THE PRIVATE CLOUD STARTS NOW

Before StartingMany try to deploy SharePoint using a grass-roots approach, and while this can work in some cases, it’s more risky. Thus, it’s best to get executive buy-in before starting. This puts the most important champions on your side. Executives also help articulate the project’s vision. Given that SharePoint is a long-term initiative, be sure this vision aligns with the firm’s strategic plan.

Having a planWhether you choose to pilot SharePoint in a business unit, or you aim for an enterprise-wide first release, make sure a solid project plan is created. Remember, even though SharePoint is unique don’t throw out the methodology—just be even more disciplined in applying it. Strongly consider having a project manager who is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP) help plan and guide the effort.

When it comes to the project plan, avoid the temptation of doing a one-time, do-it-all project. SharePoint covers many workloads and there are many business problems it may address. Follow an iterative deployment model where the project starts small and incrementally add new features. This shortens delivery cycles and gives the users time to adjust to the changes that are coming their way.

Choosing the right partnerSuccessfully deploying SharePoint is a craft, an art, and a science that requires experienced professionals. The intent is not to just outsource the project, but to augment the internal team with those who understand the complete environment including the back-end infrastructure. Consider Microsoft partners who are Microsoft certified (both at the partner level and with SharePoint) and that specialize in SharePoint. Many consulting companies “do a little SharePoint” but haven’t developed a bona-fide practice. Partnering with a provider such as EMC Consulting Services brings a proven execution methodology, best practices, and project-delivery templates to assure quality and accelerate implementation.

Define the Business SolutionArmed with a plan and a partner, it’s time to define the business solution. A common approach is to map the opportunities and needs to key features of SharePoint. One reason for this is to validate that SharePoint is the right solution, and the other is to start building the bridge between the business and the technology SharePoint delivers. For example, if tracking and searching scanned documents is a need, identify the features of SharePoint that will work best. Of course, keep the project’s vision in mind as this is done.

In 2008, Microsoft announced that SharePoint had become its fastest growing product ever. A survey in July 2010 (http://bit.ly/dCmuEi)

suggests that 64 percent of firms use SharePoint organization-wide with another 22 percent using it departmentally. Now that SharePoint 2010 has been released, this growth is expected to continue. Despite this growth, deploying SharePoint and leveraging its rich set of features is not a trivial undertaking and challenges do exist. This essential guide discusses what challenges may arise and how to overcome them to successfully plan and architect a SharePoint implementation. Guidance on how to address governance and training to promote proper usage is also provided.

What are the Potential Challenges?First, SharePoint is far from a niche product—its capabilities cover a vast number of workloads from collaboration and content publishing to enterprise search and business intelligence. Utilizing SharePoint to its fullest potential in all these areas takes a team that is skilled in all aspects of the product.

CroSS rEfErEnCEFor more information on SharePoint, visit sharepoint.microsoft.com.

Another challenge is that SharePoint is not a product that is installed and immediately used. Underneath the visible product layer, it’s also a business technology platform—an evolved form of .NET—from which custom solutions can be created. This makes the product very malleable, and knowing how to mold it to provide the needed functionality takes great skill. In fact, SharePoint’s platform has created a new ecosystem of third-party add-ons, and understanding SharePoint often means knowing many of these additional solutions.

A classic mistake many IT groups make is to deploy SharePoint as a technology solution, expecting the business to figure it out. Unlike other Microsoft products, SharePoint directly touches nearly every information worker and becomes interwoven into their day-to-day tasks. Yes, SharePoint is a technology solution, but it’s also a business solution, and using SharePoint to solve the business needs is where the potential challenge resides.

Considering SharePoint from a business perspective inevitably involves solving the return on investment (ROI) riddle. While SharePoint can deliver many benefits, some of the intangible ones such as improved teamwork and higher employee satisfaction, cannot be easily quantified. Nonetheless, demonstrating positive ROI is one of the best ways to get executive support.

Why EMC is Your Partner of Choice for Microsoft SharePoint

1. You gain enterprise-scale capabilities to meet business-critical demands—from a cost-effective information infrastructureWith innovative storage and information management solutions from EMC, Microsoft’s suite of virtualization technologies maximizes server and storage utilization while significantly reducing TCO.

2. You need a proven source of expertise on SharePoint implementations and the underlying information infrastructureAs a long-time Microsoft strategic partner, EMC can help you plan, design, deploy, and manage a high-efficiency SharePoint infrastructure—from smaller-scale to enterprise-level. You can rely on us for deep application experience and a solid portfolio of industry-leading technologies, services, and EMC Proven® solutions.

3. Your business demands scalability and perfor-mance for physical or virtual environmentsWith consolidated tiered storage from EMC, you can meet service levels for a wide range of application requirements. Our scalable, dependable, cost effective solutions also quickly adapt to information growth, all while delivering the highest performance and availability with the capabilities you need to get the most from your SharePoint environment.

4. You must provide unified protection for your Microsoft SharePoint dataWith a range of proven backup and deduplication technologies from EMC and Data Domain®, an EMC company, you can count on a reliable, efficient, and cost-effective backup/recovery solution that’s right for you. You can deliver the granularity of recovery your users require—while ensuring consistent, coordinated recovery of an individual database or an entire farm.

5. You want to ensure non-stop operations and fast restores with business continuityGet strong business continuity and disaster recovery options for Microsoft SharePoint environments that align with your RPO and RTO requirements. Our advanced backup/recovery and business continuity solutions enable recovery for both local and remote sites. You also benefit from rollback and recovery to a specific point in time.

6. You need to extend SharePoint’s ECM capabilitiesEMC Information Intelligence solutions enhance and extend SharePoint’s native capabilities through physical document capture and records manage-ment; business process and transactional content management; and archival, compliance, and eDiscovery of SharePoint content.

7. You must ensure the security of your SharePoint dataTogether with RSA®, The Security Division of EMC, we provide a full suite of offerings that enable you to discover sensitive data at rest, automatically apply policy-based RMS protection, and proactively monitor and report on user access and activities, so you can be sure of your SharePoint data security.

8. You want to work with a vendor with proven, documented experience offering integrated solutions for SharePoint environmentsEMC has documented reference architectures and best practices to address a range of user workloads and business requirements—plus a comprehensive tiered storage portfolio to handle your current and future workload requirements. Deep integration testing through EMC E-Lab, along with a longstand-ing engineering relationship with Microsoft, also enables us to provide on-going product support for Microsoft Hyper-V.

9. You want to partner with an industry leader in SharePoint deploymentsSpecializing in user experience design, application development, business intelligence, workflow automation, and technical infrastructure, EMC Consulting helps you take Microsoft SharePoint from concept to reality with an experienced, award-winning team.

10. You need to accelerate the business value of your Microsoft SharePoint environmentWith over 10,000 consultants, EMC’s Global Services organization offers a broad portfolio of strategic consultation, planning, delivery, and support across the entire IT lifecycle—from initial requirements through day-to-day operations.

November 2010

The Essential Guide to

Successful

ImplementationSharePoint

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT TO SharePointPro Connections

As with storage, virtualization should be part of the firm’s larger infrastructure picture.

Related to virtualization, many organizations are going one step further and building a private cloud. This is a holistic computing environment where security, governance and system services can be provisioned and managed. For many, this is built and maintained on-premise.

GovernanceSharePoint asks users to work differently, to create new habits. Without rules and structure, it’s very hard for users to use the system in a proper and effective way. Thus, governance can be defined as a set of standards, policies, and guidance which encourages desirable behavior. A governance solution provides answers to common questions such as “When should a new site be created? What files should be marked as records? How should content be secured?” Whether to use a strict or flexible approach depends somewhat on the existing culture and users’ tolerance. Where possible, be sure that it doesn’t place unnecessary burden on users.

Governance has ties into all considerations covered in this article. For example, governance policies dictate how to secure, audit, and archive content which affects an information architecture design. Thus, categorize content into high, medium, and low business impact areas. Any personally identifiable information (such as social security numbers) should be identified so that it’s managed appropriately.

In some cases, governance is a legal requirement. For example, legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley or HIPAA requires content be protected from tampering, and either archived or destroyed after a period of time. Be sure to check with compliance officers in the firm. Also be sure to determine the business requirements for eDiscovery and how to address those with SharePoint Server.

CroSS rEfErEnCESource One from EMC is a complete, enterprise-class information governance solution. For SharePoint, it addresses compliance, retention, and content externalization. For information, visit www.emc.com/sourceone)

TrainingGovernance and training go hand in hand. Training isn’t necessarily “How to use SharePoint,” but rather “How we will use SharePoint.” It is a big mistake to assume users will be able to “just figure it out.” Training has a big impact on the rate of adoption—if users don’t understand something, odds are they won’t use it. When putting together a training plan, and indeed, when planning the system, make

By Randy Williams

sure the emphasis is on how SharePoint saves time and makes tasks easier. Work to stamp out the perception that this is yet another system they must use. Training should involve specific scenarios that resonate with staff.

Where possible, SharePoint training should be role specific. Users performing site administration or content management functions will have different tasks than those using it for basic document management. For power users, consider having them take an introductory class followed by more advanced ones. For IT SharePoint administrators who will be installing and performing technical day-to-day maintenance, look into week-long training classes. Similar technical classes exist for developer and designer roles as well.

Despite the challenges and risks presented here, do not be daunted by SharePoint. It can be a very rewarding experience. In one situation, a user literally cried when she learned how much easier her job would become. Armed with a solid plan, the right partner, and the motivation of knowing improvements are just around the corner, your SharePoint deployment can be wildly successful.

Randy Williams is a senior solution architect and trainer for Synergy Corporate Technologies. He has 20 years of eclectic IT experience, and for the past 14 years has been architecting and developing Microsoft-based solutions. He has a master’s degree in Information Systems along with a number of certifications. For 2009 and 2010, he was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in SharePoint Server. Randy is currently based in Singapore and runs Synergy’s operations there.