Microsoft SharePoint and Content Aggregation
Share More Than Just Desktop Documents

For example, let’s consider a “regional sales site” in which a site designer configures the main page with a hidden Web Part to automatically locate the six most recent monthly regional sales reports for the region of the user visiting the page. Another Web Part obtains the information and lists it on the site’s page. Finally, the designer specifies a third area of the page, with the content-viewing Web Part presenting the most recent sales report for that region. This approach offers unlimited flexibility:

• When a sales executive logs into this page, he automatically sees his latest sales report
• The page designer has tools to add value to the portal by automatically presenting content from non-SharePoint repositories; and
• There is no need for custom development or interfaces and there is no need to train users on two, three or more different user interfaces.

In this example, it is possible to combine documents, lists and other items from SharePoint, output from ERP systems, email, images and reports from non-SharePoint repositories on the same SharePoint page.

By automatically presenting SharePoint and non-SharePoint content in the context of a given page, or by allowing users to find information using focused searches (when they don’t even realize that they are conducting a federated search), adds value and dynamism to SharePoint portals and sites. The use of federated search and flexible Web Parts leveraging metadata from multiple sources facilitates reusability across multiple SharePoint sites.

Case 2: Collaboration, document management and document repository. SharePoint has also been used as the “next-generation replacement” of file shares; SharePoint has become a location where everyone can store files to share with coworkers and colleagues. SharePoint provides tight integration with Microsoft Office authoring tools, which streamlines the processes users employ for creating, editing, revising and saving documents to shared libraries. In addition, as organizations and work teams realize the benefits of using SharePoint’s native collaboration and document management features, it’s not uncommon to experience an explosion of sites, sub-sites, workspaces and multiple other forms of content association. The downside is that every new version of a document, any new workspace or copy of a document, etc. creates a new copy of the file (BLOB) in the database. Unfortunately, relational databases were designed to manage transactional and relational data, and not designed to facilitate very large repositories for large static objects.

This difference in design presents several challenges:

• As the database grows so does the time and cost associated with backup, restore, recovery and maintenance operations;
• Database fragmentation and growth due to the addition, replacement and editing of BLOBs degrades the database performance;
• Since the same database is used for metadata, transactional data, workflow and BLOBs, it must use a fast single type of storage, which is usually one of the most expensive storage options; and
• Large amounts of content files migrated from external systems further exacerbates database problems. Retaining those documents for long periods of time only contributes to additional database growth.

Microsoft has recognized limitations of its approach and has developed methods to externalize the storage associated with SharePoint content. Microsoft thereby leverages its partner ecosystem to provide “externalization solutions;” ASG is one such partner. The combined goal of Microsoft and its partners is to provide a transparent way of adding and using content in SharePoint, while minimizing any associated overhead.

SharePoint and Partners
The combined goal of Microsoft and its partners is to provide a transparent way of adding and using content in SharePoint, while minimizing any associated overhead.

As an example, the ASG-Total Content Integrator for MOSS solution extends beyond the straightforward migration of content from a database to an external repository. It adds SharePoint’s policy granularity regarding what content gets stored where; and can optionally pass metadata to the destination repository. Multiple operation modes such as archiving copies or moving the content out of SharePoint provide alternatives to the plain transparent mode to address different business and storage management criteria.

SharePoint has made great strides since its inception to provide organizations a unified content management platform. For many organizations, SharePoint as an information portal or a document repository works very well. For larger organizations that need to manage both desktop documents and transactional data in a unified manner with a single view while ensuring they meet governance and compliance requirements, Microsoft’s partner network can provide the additional pieces to create a true enterprisewide content management system.

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ASG provides a full range of practical software solutions that help organizations lower costs, save time and make proactive decisions that drive business success. Well known for its broad portfolio of best-value, results-driven technologies, ASG partners with 85% of the world’s largest companies to optimize information management and IT service delivery in both mainframe and distributed environments. Founded in 1986, ASG is a privately held global company based in Naples, FL, with more than 70 offices worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.asg.com or call 800-932-5536.