SharePoint in the Cloud: Migration and Operations in a Hosted Environment

Presented by Ken PriceManaging Partner and Principal Consultant,

PointLogix LLC

Agenda• Introduction• Overview of Hosted Solutions• Scenarios to Consider• Which Services Do You Need?• On-premise, Standard and Dedicated• Manage Your Environment• Governance• Deploying to the Cloud• Support in the Cloud• Service Level Agreements• “Practice Like You Play”• Real-World Case Study• What’s Ahead in 2010• Points to Remember• Questions

Introduction

• Ken Price• Founder and Principal SharePoint Consultant at

PointLogix LLC. Specialize in strategy, architecture, and business process improvements.

• 13 years of IT experience, 3+ years with MOSS and WSS• Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist • Blog: www.thesharepointblog.com• Email: kenprice@pointlogix.com• Twitter: @kennethprice

Overview of Hosted SharePoint

• What is it?– Fully architected and secure SharePoint farm at a

off-site data center– Offers High-Availability and Disaster Recovery*– 99.9% up-time*– Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007*– Ties into your Active Directory, Exchange,

Communicator, and Live Meeting*– It’s SharePoint!

* Each service provider has different service offerings and Service Level Agreements

Scenarios to Consider

• Moving from on-premise hosted environment– Internally hosted

• Hybrid (Cloud and On-premise hosting)– SharePoint in Cloud– Exchange, Live Meeting or Communicator, or other service

on-premise• Acquisition of new business

– Bringing in legacy systems from newly acquired enterprise• Moving from Cloud to On-premise hosting

– Migrate away from service provider to on-premise architecture

Which Services Do You Need?

• Collaboration• Portal• Search• Web Content Management• Business Intelligence

On-Premise Vs. Standard Vs. Dedicated

Standard

5+ usersReliableStarter-Kit (browser customization only)Few add-onsLower costSharePoint-focused staff

Dedicated

5000+ usersMore flexibilityMore functionalityScalable to > 100K usersInternet “front door”Evergreen platformSharePoint-focused staff

On-Premise

•Internally/Service Provider Hosted, Staffed and Supported•Control governance•Manage uptime•Front-line responsibility•Pay fully-burdened server/software costs

Managing Your Environment

Managing Your Environment (Cont’d)

• No Central Administration• Site Collection Administrator privileges• Service provider support• Know your available space• Manage templates• Security groups• Build internal best practices

Governance• Pre-deployment

– Break large databases up– Determine if you want to have each Site as a Site Collection– Move sites/site collections into ideal Information Architecture– Understand what you can create in the hosted space– Train your business users and technical staff– Document and communicate– Licensing

• Post-deployment– Adding new web apps, site collections as needed– Understand the product roadmap– Document and communicate– Adjust the governance plan as needed– Establish Governance committee and continue to get executive buy-in

Deploying to Cloud

• Verify application development requirements (Customizations, Custom Authentication Providers, and data access)

• Re-design your Information Architecture before you move to the new environment

• Understand what is needed to complete the move.– Backup?– Content Databases?

• Understand your network– Do you need WAN Acceleration?– What are your primary and secondary locations latency?

Support in the Cloud

• Email / phone-based• Non-emergency request can take 24-48 hours• No access to Central Administration• What is Sev 1, 2, 3?• Deploying code• Service Agreements

Service Level Agreements

• Ask before you sign• Make sure service levels are clear and

measurable• Understand hosting provider’s responsibilities• Understand your organization’s responsibilities• Meet your assigned Service Delivery Manager• Understand your escalation path

“Practice Like You Play”

• Build a pre-production test environment• Build based off of tools allowed and know

what parts of SharePoint can be modified• Test based off of documented SharePoint

architecture in your hosted environment• If you do not have one, implement a formal

change control methodology• Communicate your move to vendors

Real-World Case Study• Global deployment• South Korean parent company• Independent company from parent• Moved to new facility in Charlotte • 3 dedicated SharePoint resources, 10 HQ IT Staff • 6,300 employees, which were divested from Ingersoll Rand• New Active Directory, Exchange, and multiple existing

SharePoint farms• Deployed Web Content Management system to another

hosted provider• Portal implementation• Deadline: December 31, 2008

What’s Ahead for 2010…

• Completely virtualized environments• Shorter RTO and RPO for disaster recovery• Coding environments by using Sandbox

Solutions feature• More metrics• Customization Deployment Framework• Claims based authentication• Remote Storage using Azure

Source: Microsoft

Points to Remember…

• Know services you want and know your provider can support effectively

• Ask• Build a Governance Plan• Know how your organization is supported• Plan to scale

Questions?Please remember to complete your evals for the drawing