It’s all about Groove and SharePoint Workspace

SharePoint Summit will take place at Quebec, from April 11th to April 12th. About 30 speakers will be there to present technologies, products and use cases related to Microsoft SharePoint 2010. I will be involved on this event by animating a session dedicated to SharePoint Workspace 2010.

More details on: http://www.sharepointsummit.org

“SharePoint Workspace 2010″ book is now published! (in french).
More details are available on http://www.spw2010-lelivre.fr

I was informed on January, 1th that my MVP title was renewed. Thanks to everyone who – directly or indirectly – contributed to provide me with this award for a 4th consecutive year!

I wish you the best for 2011!
Success, Health & Serenity

I created this blog in July 2007. Initialy in french only, it became bilingual about 1 year later. Month after month, my goal is to provide you with a maximum of information about Groove and SharePoint Workspace, covering Use Case topics (usages, related products, …), technicals aspects (architecture, dev, …) and also providing you with breaking news (coference, press articles, resources, ….). Since its creation, I posted about 170 articles on this blog.

2011 will be for me a year of change with a set of new projects (I will provide you with more information about this topic later )  and also with the achievement of projects initiated during the last year (For example, the book dedicated to SharePoint Workspace 2010 that will be available - in french – in a few days : http://www.spw2010-lelivre.fr). A busy year… but I will continue to share on this blog (and also on the SharePoint Workspace Community blog : http://www.spw2010.fr) all information related to SharePoint Workspace!

I wish you again a happy new year with ideas, success and happyness!

I’m delighted to announce that my book dedicated to SharePoint Workspace 2010 will be available on 2011, Jan 10th. (At this stage, it will only be available in french). If you read french, feel free to visit  http://www.spw2010-lelivre.fr to get more information and participate to the contest. There are few books to win!

- 2. Use SharePoint Workspace
Learn how to use the product, and benefit from best practices and tips

- 3. Personalize SharePoint Workspace
Use SharePoint lists, SharePoint Workspace lists and Groove Forms to create custom tools

- 4. Integrate SharePoint Workspace
Learn more about data integration using SharePoint Business Connectivity Services and SharePoint Workspace Web Services

- 5. Deploy SharePoint Workspace :
Understand SharePoint Workspace architecture and learn how to deploy it or create custom installation packages

Sorry, this entry is only available in french.

Sorry, this entry is only available in french.

Hommes & Process announced today the availability of GrooveIT! Backup. 

A new product in the GrooveIT! line

Aligned on GrooveIT! line philosophy, Hommes & Process delivers a new application focused on Groove and SharePoint Workspace. This new one is focused on workspaces archiving: GrooveIT! Backup helps users to archive their Groove and Shared folder workspaces on both Groove 2007 and SharePoint Workspace 2010. 

Market was awaiting for such a solution since Groove DataBridge Server (and its embedded Backup Service) was removed(*) from Office V2010 line. GrooveIT! Backup is built as an application but manage workspaces archives the same way that the former Groove DataBridge Server did: Workspaces are periodically and automatically saved as compressed and encrypted files. 

The fact that GrooveIT! Backup is proposed as an application (and not a server) is an approach that allows small organizations (SMBs), that hadn’t means and resources to set up and support a dedicated server, to easily get access to workspaces backup capabilities. 

Why do we need a backup solution?

As you already know, Groove and Shared Folder workspaces contents are automatically synched between members. If a device crashed or is stolen, it’s quite easy to restore user’s account and then get workspace content from other members. In this context, if each workspace is shared at minimum by 2 members, there’s a simple efficient mean to get data back. 

So, why do we need a backup solution? 

The answer is that, if content is synched, involuntary deletions are also synched. Thus, if a member deletes a file, a tool or a workspace, there is no mean to restore it. SharePoint Workspace is designed to support hardware failure… but not, human failure! 

It’s why, GrooveIT! Backup was created.
By archiving workspaces, members have the ability to restore a former version of a workspace and get its content back. 

GrooveIT! Backup features

There are 2 ways to use GrooveIT! Backup:
- On-demand archiving lets user choose workspaces to backup and archive files location. Then, archiving is launched.
- In another hand, user can also create archiving rules: user chooses workspaces to backup, archive files location and also a frequency. Archiving is then automatically launched according to the chosen frequency. This second approach is particularly interesting because it allows to define backup scenarios based on workspace content criticality. 

In both cases, archive files can be locked with a password to avoid unauthorized restoration. 

2 GrooveIT! Backup versions are available based in targeted uses: GrooveIT! Backup – Personal Edition for individual usages and GrooveIT! Backup – Enterprise Edition for centralized archiving. 

To learn more

You would like to give a try, learn more or buy a license. Choose one of the 2 links below: 

GrooveIT Backup – Personal Edition 

GrooveIT Backup – Enterprise Edition 

(*) Groove Databridge Server 2007 is still available but do not support V2010 workspaces.

On Nov 6th, the first SharePoint Saturday France will take place! This free conference is dedicated to SharePoint and other related products or technologies. Sessions will be presented by some professionals and MVPs known as expert on each covered topics.

One of the advantages of this conference:  You do not have to move to attend: all is online!

A session dedicated to SharePoint Workspace is already planned.
Final agenda will be announced shortly.

To learn more:  http://www.sharepointsaturday.org/france/default.aspx

After few months without any news on this blog, here is finally a new article! I have to say I was particularly busy working on a project started more than 1 year ago: the writing of a book dedicated to Sharepoint Workspace 2010 (in french only at this stage)

More information will be available in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!