It’s all about Groove and SharePoint Workspace

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

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!

I was speaker on a session dedicated to SharePoint Workspace 2010 during the last TechDays Conference that took place at Paris in february. The session was recorded : video (FR) is available here : http://www.microsoft.com/france/vision/mstechdays10/Webcast.aspx?EID=bb226c50-ad4f-4e59-80c9-0dd1195cf787

In the first days of 2010, the French Speaking Groove Community evolved to be aligned on the new name of Groove 2010. The User Group is now called “SharePoint Workspace Community“. A new name also means a new design. So, the logo and website were both redesigned. If the current URL (http://www.groovons.org) still perfectly works, a new one has also be choosen : http://www.spw2010.fr.

Feel free to visit it and let me know what you think about this new design

Office 2010 Beta was available for MSDN and TechNet members for few days.
Microsoft just annouced that Office 2010 beta is now public!

If you would like to give it a try, visit this website.

Microsoft WPC – Worlwide Partners Conference – starts today at New Orleans.  Several major announcements are expected.

At the same time, Microsoft publish several videos dedicated to Office 2010: each product is demoed with its set of new features and improvments. Word 2010, Excel 2010, Access 2010, PowerPoint 2010, Publisher 2010, OneNote 2010, … , and of course SharePoint Workspace 2010!

See What’s New in Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 2010 (Formerly Microsoft Off…

A new blog dedicated to Microsoft Wave 2010 has been launched by Microsoft France.
More information available here : http://www.groovons.org/2009/07/08/nouveau-blog-backstage-2010/

Officially published today on a Microsoft blog, Groove 2010 will be renamed SharePoint Workspace 2010 !
This new name confirms the direction that Groove will follow in this major version to come: an advanced integration with Office products and more precisely with SharePoint 2010.

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/groove_development_team/archive/2009/05/13/makeover-for-groove-sharepoint-workspace-2010.aspx