SharePoint Interface

I just finished writing the conclusion for the SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide, so it’s safe to say that the marathon writing and revising sessions are nearing an end.  Book writing is one of those things that most people don’t do, so it’s hard to describe the feeling that comes when you truly internalize the realization that the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t another oncoming train.  To me, it means that I may once again have some free time to spend time with my family, play videogames, take care of some much-needed home network maintenance, and actually work on some cool SharePoint projects.

The end of the book couldn’t have come a moment sooner, either, because it seems that I’m about to launch into what I’m starting to jokingly call my “SharePoint Summer Whirlwind Tour.”

SharePoint Saturday New York

The first stop on my tour is the Big Apple.  SharePoint Saturday New York will be held on Saturday, July 31st, at the Microsoft office in Manhattan.  The event “sold-out” in almost no time at all, and it is currently wait-listed about 80 people deep based on what I saw from some recent tweets on Twitter.

The event is scheduled with a whopping nine concurrent tracks, so there will be plenty of SharePoint goodness for everyone in attendance.  I’ll be presenting on SharePoint disaster recovery for both SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 with “Saving SharePoint,” so stop in to see me if you want to talk about DR!

Since Idera is sponsoring the event, I’ll also be in and around the Idera booth answering questions, showing off our backup tools, and hopefully meeting some of the local SharePoint community.  It should be a lot of fun!

SharePoint Saturday Denver

The week after SharePoint Saturday New York is SharePoint Saturday Denver in (surprise) Denver, Colorado, on August 7th.  The folks organizing SharePoint Saturday Denver have planned for six tracks: two for architecture, two for development, one for admins/IT pros, and one for end users/decision makers.  I feel fortunate in that I’ll be delivering two presentations in the admin/IT pro track.  The first is “Saving SharePoint” (on SharePoint disaster recovery), and the second is titled “’Caching-In’ for SharePoint Performance.”

“’Caching-In for SharePoint Performance” is a relatively new session that I put together a while ago based on a lot of the experience I gained while consulting for a “particular” client, and it dives into the platform caching mechanisms that are built into SharePoint.  The abstract sums it up pretty well.

Caching is a critical variable in the SharePoint scalability and performance equation, but it’s one that’s oftentimes misunderstood or dismissed as being needed only in Internet-facing scenarios. In this session, we’ll build an understanding of the caching options that exist within the SharePoint platform and how they can be leveraged to inject some pep into most SharePoint sites. We’ll also cover some sample scenarios, caching pitfalls, and watch-outs that every administrator should know.

Quite a few folks from Idera will be present at the event, and since we’re a sponsor, we’ll have a booth.  In between sessions, I’m sure I’ll be milling around in and around the booth if I’m not in another session.

I’m particularly excited about the Denver event because it represents a chance to interact with a portion of the SharePoint community I don’t see or talk to very often.  The folks putting on the event are a top-notch group in my mind, and many of the speakers are folks I’ve wanted to meet for some time.

SharePoint Saturday Columbus

The SharePoint Saturday tour concludes for a while (for me, anyway) with SharePoint Saturday Columbus on August 14th, 2010, in Columbus, Ohio.  This particular SharePoint Saturday is special to me because I’m a member of the committee that is currently working to put the event together.

We have some fantastic sessions lined up, and I’ll be delivering “Saving SharePoint” in one of the IT pro session slots throughout the day.  For those of you who are in and around the Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland areas, I hope you’ll show up for a great day of SharePoint sessions and community connection building!  You can sign up for the event with this Eventbrite link.

Idera is a sponsor for the event and will have a booth.  I’m sure I’ll be in and around the booth, but being both a speaker and an organizer means that I’ll probably be doing quite a bit of extra running around, too.

Secrets of SharePoint Webcast

“But wait, there’s more!”  I’m imagining one of those old made-for-TV gadget commercials from many years ago as I typed that …

The Wednesday after SharePoint Saturday Columbus (August 18th), I’ll be delivering a webcast for Idera as part of their Secrets of SharePoint series.  Idera regularly seeks the help of SharePoint community members to give webcasts, and John Ferringer and I actually delivered one of these titled “SharePoint Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines” back in 2009.

On August 18th, though, I’ll be delivering a new webcast titled “SharePoint 2010 and Your DR Plan: New Capabilities, New Possibilities!”  The webcast will focus on new and improved elements in the SharePoint 2010 platform that either simplify or extend disaster recovery planning and implementation options.  Here’s the abstract for the webcast:

SharePoint 2010 is here, and many organizations are hard at work building their implementation roadmap.  Some organizations are starting fresh with SharePoint 2010 while many others are contemplating a migration strategy from SharePoint 2007.  Regardless of how an organization arrives at SharePoint 2010, disaster recovery planning for their SharePoint environment is something that must be included to ensure the protection of their data and the continuity of business operations.

Microsoft made significant enhancements to the disaster recovery landscape with SharePoint 2010, and in this webcast we’ll be taking a good look at many of those of new features.  We’ll dive inside enhancements to the existing backup and restore capabilities that were present in the SharePoint 2007 platform to see what has changed and been enhanced.  We’ll also look at many of the exciting new capabilities that have been integrated into the SharePoint 2010 platform, such as unattended content database recoveries, SQL Server snapshot integration, and configuration-only backup and restore.  By the time we’re done, you will possess a solid understanding of how the disaster recovery landscape has changed for the better with SharePoint 2010.

If you’re free at 1pm EDT (12pm CDT) on August 18th, I encourage you to sign up and listen.  Just like the SharePoint Saturday events, there is no charge to attend the webcast.  Just sign up and you’re ready to go!

And After That?

After that, I’ll be cooling my jets for a while and taking a much-needed break to remind my kids of what their father looks like.  There are many backlogged blog posts I’ve been planning to write, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to start sharing more soon!

Additional Resources and References

1. Book: SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide
2. Event: SharePoint Saturday New York
3. Presentation: Saving SharePoint (at SPS NY)
4. Company: Idera
5. Event: SharePoint Saturday Denver
6. Event: SharePoint Saturday Columbus
7. Sign-up: Eventbrite link for SharePoint Saturday Columbus
8. Webcast: SharePoint Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines
9. Webcast: SharePoint 2010 and Your DR Plan: New Capabilities, New Possibilities!

The last couple of months have been exceptionally busy, so this blog hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves.  All of my time has been spent writing chapters for the SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide that John Ferringer and I are putting together.  The good news is that John and I have rounded the bend and are heading towards home on completion of the book, so I will be getting back to blogging about topics of greater substance towards the middle of the summer.

Announcing SharePoint Saturday Columbus!

Yesterday we (the planning committee) announced that SharePoint Saturday Columbus will be taking place at the Conference Center at OCLC in Dublin, Ohio on August 14th, 2010.  For those of you not familiar with the central Ohio region, Dublin is just a northern part of the Columbus area.

Brian Jackett, Jennifer Mason, Nicola Young, and I have been pulling the pieces together over the last several months, and we finally have enough done that we can announce the event.  We’re very excited to be bringing a SharePoint Saturday event to this region of the Midwest!

We are actively seeking both speakers and sponsors for the event.  If you or someone you know falls into either or both of these categories, please head out to the SharePoint Saturday Columbus site for sponsorship information, session submission forms, and other resources.  You can also follow @SPSColumbus on Twitter for more information and announcements in the time leading up to the event.

Speaking of SharePoint Saturdays …

SharePoint Saturday Ozarks

It’s funny to think that the whole SharePoint Saturday experience started about a year ago for me.  I’ll be going back to the scene of the crime this weekend when I head to Harrison, Arkansas, for SharePoint Saturday Ozarks.

Mark Rackley is reminding the SharePoint community that he is a force of nature by putting all the pieces together to make this event happen.  Most SharePoint Saturday events have an organizing committee, but Mark plays all the instruments in this band.  It’s simply amazing.

This time around, I’ll actually be delivering a session on something other than SharePoint disaster recovery.  The session is titled “’Caching-In’ for SharePoint Performance,” and it’s a new one for me.  I’m really looking forward to giving the talk, because caching within SharePoint is something I am both passionate about and have deep experience with.  Here’s the abstract for my session:

Caching is a critical variable in the SharePoint scalability and performance equation, but it’s one that’s oftentimes misunderstood or dismissed as being needed only in Internet-facing scenarios.  In this session, we’ll build an understanding of the caching options that exist within the SharePoint platform and how they can be leveraged to inject some pep into most SharePoint sites.  We’ll also cover some sample scenarios, caching pitfalls, and watch-outs that every administrator should know.

If you happen to be in the Harrison, AR region on Saturday, June 12th, swing by the North Arkansas College.  There will be one heck of a SharePoint party going on!

Additional Resources and References

1. Book: SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide
2. Blog: John Ferringer
3. Event: SharePoint Saturday Columbus
4. Location: The Conference Center at OCLC
5. Blog: Brian Jackett
6. Blog: Jenniffer Mason
7. Blog: Nicola Young
8. Twitter: @SPSColumbus
9. Event: SharePoint Saturday Ozarks
10. Blog: Mark Rackley

I’d normally have posted some information about this a bit earlier, but the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind given the new job.

This Saturday, May 1st, I’ll be speaking at SharePoint Saturday Houston.  I’m already here (in Houston) on business this week, and SharePoint Saturday Houston represents a great way to wrap up the week before heading back to Cincinnati!

I’ll be presenting “Saving SharePoint,” the talk that I’ve given (both solo and with my cohort in crime, John Ferringer) at a number of SharePoint Saturday events.  In the talk, I discuss SharePoint disaster recovery, key terms and concepts for speaking the “DR lingo,” and the tools that SharePoint comes with to help you protect your data.  A substantial portion of the talk also focuses on DR procedures and business practices that anyone tasked with DR responsibilities needs to understand to effectively carry out their duties.

I hope to see you this Saturday!

Additional Reading and References

1. Event: SharePoint Saturday Houston
2. People: John Ferringer

If you check this blog with any degree of regularity, then you know that I’ve been relatively quiet for the last couple of months.  I haven’t really posted anything new in some time, my tweets have been fewer in number (not that I’m a generator of high traffic on Twitter anyway), and I’ve generally been laying low.  This is due in part to writing for the upcoming SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide, but writing isn’t really the largest reason I’ve been “sparse” as of late.

For a few months now, I’ve been in a state of transition with regard to both my career and my employer.  Now that all of the discussions are over, the details have been finalized, and I’m on my way to Houston for a week, I’m excited to announce that I’ve joined Idera as their Product Manager for SharePoint Products!  The press release with some additional details can be found at this link.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the name, Idera is a software company that is based out of Houston, Texas.  Idera makes tools for SharePoint, SQL Server, and PowerShell.  In my new role with them, I’ll be part of the team that is working to craft the next generation of Idera’s backup and restore tools.  This excites me on so many levels!

I’ve actually had a relationship with Idera for the better part of a year now, and it has been nothing but positive.  John Ferringer (my DR Guide co-author) and I wrote a SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Overview whitepaper for Idera, and we also presented a webcast on SharePoint Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines through Idera.  On top of that, I was part of an “Ask the Experts” session at the SharePoint Conference 2009 that Idera sponsored, and I am also a member of Idera’s Technical Advisory Board for SharePoint Products.  When I had determined that I’d be moving on from my previous employer and mentioned my situation to Idera, elements in the SharePoint universe actually seemed to align in my favor for once.

Given the degree to which many of my “extracurricular” activities (that is, writing and speaking) have focused on disaster recovery and the SharePoint platform, I think the new position is going to be a great fit.  The match-up is wonderful in a number of ways:

• Though I worked with SharePoint as a consultant with my previous company, I was always one step removed from the platform.  With Idera, I’ll be working on products that specifically target SharePoint – a big win in my book.
• About a year and a half ago, I made it a goal to get more involved in the SharePoint community.  I wanted to participate more, give back some of what I had gotten, and host of other things.  I see this position as a great way to continue those efforts in a way that helps both me and the company I work for.
• When it comes to SharePoint, I’ve always had one foot in the development world and one foot in the infrastructure/IT pro world.  Most of the development work I’ve done for SharePoint has focused on core plumbing, interop with other systems, performance improvement, and general tools.  I’d be hard-pressed to find a better fit in this regard than Idera!

Though Idera is headquartered in Houston, I’ll still be staying in Cincinnati.  I will be in Texas all week, though, to meet with my team, discuss strategies, and get myself “into the game,” so to speak.

If you see me around at a conference, SharePoint Saturday event, or anywhere else, please stop me and let me know what you think of Idera’s products.  Make sure you share your thoughts on what you think should be done to make them better, too.  From now on, I’ll be in a unique position to do something with the feedback!

Additional Reading and References

1. Social Networking: Twitter
2. Book: SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide
3. Announcement: Sean McDonough joins Idera
4. Companies: Idera
5. People: John Ferringer
6. Whitepaper: Protect your SharePoint Content: An Overview of SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery
7. Webcast: SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines
8. Event: SPC 2009 “Ask the Experts” Session
9. Announcement: Idera’s SharePoint Technical Advisory Board

2010 is in full-swing, and there seems to be no shortage of activities for me to jump into!  If anything, I need more free time to take on some of the stuff I really want to sink my teeth into (such as a SharePoint 2010 CodePlex project I want to have ready for RTM).  Until I have something more tangible in hand, though, I’ll avoid talking about that topic any further.

Here are some of the things occupying my free time in the short-to-mid term:

TechOlympics Expo 2010

The TechOlympics Expo is the type of event every adult geek wishes they had when they were in high school – a weekend lock-in featuring technical competitions, cool toys, games of every imaginable sort, and pretty much everything else that would get a teenage gearhead jazzed-up.  The underlying goal of the event is to get high school kids interested in technology, careers in technology, and technical opportunities in the Cincinnati area.

The event (on March 5-7) is being put on by the INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati, and my involvement in the event is kind of a curious thing.  My primary client of the past 2+ years is a big backer of (and heavily invested in) the INTERalliance, so naturally they kick-in help whenever events come up.  I helped the INTERalliance through a last-minute (and somewhat ugly) technical hurdle involving SMS voting for their PharaohFest event last October, and I suspect that played a part in my being asked to help out with the TechOlympics.

With the TechOlympics, I’m part of a team that’s working to make all the “technical stuff” (behind-the-scenes and otherwise) happen.  My responsibilities seem to shift a bit each day, but the bulk of what I’ve been working on is coordinating network logistics and services, translating “the vision” into technical infrastructure, providing some guidance on applications being written to support the event, and generally doing my best at “collision avoidance” to ensure that we don’t miss anything important for the event.

I’m confident that the event is going to be incredible, and it’s been a lot of fun doing the planning thus far.  Seeing everything come together is going to be neat – both for me and for everyone else who has been laboring to make the magic happen!

SharePoint Saturday Michigan

What would an “Upcoming Activities” post be without a SharePoint Saturday announcement!  The next one I’ll be attending is SharePoint Saturday Michigan in Ann Arbor on March 13th.  I’ll be presenting “Saving SharePoint,” the disaster recovery talk that John Ferringer and I have been delivering at various SharePoint Saturday events around the region.  I’ll be flying solo this time around, though, as John has some other things going on that weekend.

As always, SharePoint Saturday events are free and open to the public.  If you have any interest in learning more about SharePoint, getting some free training, or simply networking and meeting other professionals in the SharePoint space, please sign up!

SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide

This announcement is last, but it’s definitely not least.  Some of you are aware, but for those who aren’t: John and I have been working on the SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide for a while now.  I’m not going to lie – it’s slow going.  Personally, I’m a very slow writer, and the process itself is exceptionally labor-intensive.  Nevertheless, we’re making progress – one page at a time.

Our goal (and Cengage’s goal for us) is to have the book ready for SharePoint 2010 RTM.  I haven’t seen or heard anything official from Microsoft, but rumor has it that SharePoint 2010 will probably be out sometime in June.  If that’s the case, then John and I are on-track.

If you have suggestions for us, particularly if you read the first book, we would love to hear them.  We’re incorporating a few that we already received (for example, a chapter that covers some real world use-cases), but our ears are open and listening.  We know that DR isn’t a topic that gets everyone overly hot and bothered (unless they’ve lost everything at some point, of course), but our goal is to make the book as useful as possible.  We’d love your help!

Additional Reading and References

1. Site: CodePlex
2. Event: TechOlympics Expo 2010
3. Organization: The INTERalliance of Greater Cincinnati
4. Event: PharaohFest
5. Event: SharePoint Saturday Michigan
6. Partner In Crime: John Ferringer on Twitter
7. Book: SharePoint 2010 Disaster Recovery Guide

You can’t turn a corner these days without running into a SharePoint Saturday event!  At the end of this month, Indianapolis will be holding its SharePoint Saturday on January 30th.

My disaster recovery (DR) cohort-in-crime, John Ferringer, and I will be presenting “Saving SharePoint” within the event’s IT Pro track.  We’ve given the talk together a handful of times, and the session tries to communicate some of the more important concepts from our DR book, such as the importance of undertanding RPO/RTO, tools that are available for DR out-of-the-box, and more.  We’ll also be covering how the landscape will be changing a bit for DR in the upcoming SharePoint 2010 release.

One of my team members, Steve Pietrek, will also be presenting his new SharePoint and Silverlight presentation – one that I am very anxious to see.  Steve’s been doing an exceptional amount of work in “constrained” SharePoint environments recently, and he’s found all sorts of ways to bend Silverlight to his will.  I’m sure developers will walk away with some novel ideas.

As always, SharePoint Saturday events are free to the public; all they’ll cost you is some time.  Sign up today!

Additional Reading and References

1. Event: SharePoint Saturday Indianapolis
2. Twitter: John Ferringer
3. Book: SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide
4. Blog: Steve Pietrek – Everything SharePoint/Silverlight
5. Site: SharePoint Saturday Indianapolis sign-up on Eventbrite

November was looking like a pretty busy month for me before this year’s SharePoint Conference (SPC) in Las Vegas, but the excitement about SharePoint 2010 both in and around the conference seems to have ratcheted things up a notch.  Here’s where I’ll be and what I’ll be doing (in “order of appearance”) in the month of November:

Microsoft “Best of SPC 2009” Event

Many of the folks who wanted to attend the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas this year weren’t able to so for a variety of reasons.  To “share the love” a bit, Microsoft is holding a series of one-day events that brings select sessions from the SPC to cities around the country … or at least around the state of Ohio.  Yes, I’m extrapolating a bit with “around the country,” but it’s an educated guess :-)

In any case, I’ll be delivering a session titled What’s New for SharePoint 2010 Administration and Governance to the crowd that will be attending the event at the Microsoft office in Columbus, Ohio, on November 10th.  The abstract for the session reads as follows:

SharePoint 2010 includes many new and improved tools for providing a flexible and controlled environment and this session will provide an overview of those innovations.

I caught this session while I was at the SPC, and I found it to be good, solid information for IT professionals.  I’m very much looking forward to delivering the content myself!

SharePoint Saturday Cleveland

SharePoint Saturday finally makes its way to Ohio!  SharePoint Saturday Cleveland will be held on Saturday, November 14th, at the Embassy Suites on Rockside Woods Blvd. in Independence, Ohio.

John Ferringer and I will be delivering our SharePoint disaster recovery (DR) talk titled “Saving SharePoint.”  It will differ a bit from previous presentations on the topic in that we can now include SharePoint 2010 content.  After the talk, I’ll be sure to post our slide deck here on my blog.

SPS Cleveland is less than two weeks away, but there are still seats open.  As with all SPS events, there’s no charge for those in attendance – all you need to do is show up and take it all in!

“SharePoint Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines” Webcast

The “week of whirlwind activity” (roughly speaking) will conclude with a webcast for Idera.  John and I will be presenting SharePoint Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines on Wednesday, November 18th, and it will be similar to the SharePoint Saturday presentation we’ve given in the past (and will have given a few days earlier at SPS Cleveland).

Todd Klindt recently presented a DR webcast with Idera; if you saw it, you might be asking “do I really need another DR webcast?”  Probably the biggest differences between Todd’s webcast and ours are scope and target audience.  I caught Todd’s presentation, and his webcast was aimed more at the solidly SharePoint admin/IT pro crowd.  John and I include some of the same content and focus, but our webcast is packaged with more of a lean towards classic DR concepts (RTO, RPO, BCPs, etc.).  I would also say that our webcast targets IT decision makers and DR planners as much as it does IT pros, though I feel that both groups will find something of interest in what we have to say.

If our webcast sounds like it would be of interest to you, hop over to Idera’s site and sign up!

Additional Reading and References

1. Events: Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009
2. Events: SharePoint Saturday Cleveland
3. Company: Idera
4. Blog: Todd Klindt’s SharePoint Admin Blog
5. Events: SharePoint Disaster Recovery Essential Guidelines webcast

As most folks who work with SharePoint know, Microsoft’s SharePoint Conference 2009 (SPC09) is coming up in just a couple of weeks.  This conference is the premier gathering for SharePoint professionals from all over the world, and this year’s conference promises to be chock-full of exciting sessions and announcements.  Many of the announcements will undoubtedly revolve around SharePoint Server 2010, its capabilities, and (hopefully) some better information regarding its release timeline.

Book Signing

For me personally, the conference includes a couple of very special events.  First, the great folks at Idera are sponsoring a book signing session for John Ferringer and me on Wednesday, October 21st, at 6pm.  If you’re one of the first 50 people to come by the Idera booths (#811 and #813), you’ll get a free copy of the book … and it’ll be signed by John and me.  What more could you ask for?!?!  (and yes, I say that tongue-in-cheek)

Ask the Experts Session

On Monday, October 19th, from 6pm until 7:30pm, Idera will also be sponsoring an “Ask the Experts” session for SPC09 conference participants.  Eric Shupps, Errin O’Connor, John Ferringer, Shane Young, Todd Klindt, and I will be taking (and hopefully answering) questions pertaining to the SharePoint platform, including SharePoint Server 2010.

Each of us on the panel has an “area of expertise.”  For John and me, it probably comes as no surprise to learn that we’ll be fielding questions pertaining to SharePoint DR and backup/recovery.  If you’re going to be at the conference and are interested in attending the session, swing by Idera’s booths (again, #811 and #813) for more information!

Additional Reading and References

1. Event: Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009
2. Company: Idera
3. Event: “SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide” book signing
4. Event: “Ask the Experts” session

In addition to the more formalized blog posts I’ve been assembling, I wanted to start detailing and informing readers about some of the upcoming SharePoint activities I’ll be involved in.  With the SharePoint Conference 2009 (SPC09) taking place in just a few weeks, there will actually be quite a bit for me to announce.

Unfortunately, I’m not yet able to announce a few specific items on the horizon due to certain “restrictions” … so, in the absence of news on upcoming events, I figured I’d recap some of this summer’s activities.  Hey, even “old news” is still news!

SharePoint Saturday Ozarks

SPS Ozarks was held in Harrison, Arkansas on July 18, 2009.  The event was put together and coordinated by Mark Rackley, an all-around great guy who invested a tremendous amount of time and energy to ensure that everything was successful.

For those who aren’t familiar with SharePoint Saturdays: these events have been popping up all over the country and abroad.  The SharePoint Saturday concept is the work of Michael Lotter of B&R Business Solutions, and the SPS events serve to educate and inform anyone willing to spend a Saturday learning about SharePoint.  SharePoint Saturdays are free to attendees, and in addition to being highly informative, the events are a great way to meet and interact with members of the SharePoint community.

John Ferringer (my co-author on the SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide) and I presented “Saving SharePoint.”  A picture of us getting set to present appears above and was taken by the lovely Lori Gowin (Thanks, Lori, for allowing me to use your shot!)

Here’s the description that was published for our “Saving SharePoint” session:

A look at the options available for preserving your SharePoint environment and why disaster recovery is so much more than using a tool or running regular back ups. John Ferringer and Sean McDonough, co-authors of the “SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide,” will be discussing the benefits, limitations, and potential scenarios for the many tools Microsoft makes available to backup and restore SharePoint, with a focus on finding the right fit for a variety of situations and environments. They will also cover disaster recovery concepts and strategies, explaining terms such as recovery time objectives and recovery point objects and why DR is so much more than just backing up your SharePoint sites.

“Saving SharePoint” was well-received, and both John and I had fun presenting together (a first for us).  It was also great to meet and spend some time with so many of the folks (other presenters) with whom we interact in the SharePoint space!

The slides we used during the delivery of out presentation can be found here.

SharePoint Disaster Recovery Whitepaper

John and I were also approached by Idera over the summer to write a whitepaper on SharePoint disaster recovery.  Idera produces a number of very useful tools for SQL Server, SharePoint, and PowerShell.  Given that they’ve made backup/recovery one of their focuses in the SharePoint space, the whitepaper seemed like a good fit.

Titled “Protect Your SharePoint Content: An Overview of SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery,” the whitepaper can be freely downloaded from Idera’s site.  In the eight page paper, John and I walk through a number of the high-level considerations one should bear in mind when beginning the process of developing a SharePoint disaster recovery (DR) strategy.  The whitepaper target audience is IT decision makers and those relatively unfamiliar to DR – not administrators and other technical personnel looking for DR “how to’s” or tools recommendations.  Quite simply, DR is far too big a topic to cover in eight pages; that is, after all, why we wrote a 400 page book on the topic.

If you’re interested in SharePoint DR or tasked with assembling a strategy, have a look at the whitepaper.  After all, it’s free!

Additional Reading and References

1. Event: Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009
2. Event: SharePoint Saturday Ozarks 
3. Blog: Mark Rackley
4. Blog: John Ferringer
5. Book: SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery Guide
6. Blog: Lori Gowin
7. Slides: Saving SharePoint
8. Company: Idera
9. Whitepaper: Protect Your SharePoint Content: An Overview of SharePoint 2007 Disaster Recovery