QUESTION: Re: IT resources, would you agree that IaaS can [often] be a cost effective way to manage a SharePoint implementation?
ANSWER: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is certainly a method to manage the total cost of ownership of a SharePoint environment. This method also allows you to gain the strengths of having an on-premise SharePoint environment, but without the additional costs of maintenance. This can allow you to manage the security of your environment and content, while still allowing the ability to develop against SharePoint, for example create a business intelligence center.
QUESTION: So, the hosted model might be on Azure or another cloud infrastructure?
ANSWER: Yes, Azure is one example of a hosting facility for your SharePoint farm. Another example could be Amazon Web Services.
QUESTION: Of course, the BA should understand and be able to have a conversation w/the .Net developer and Windows Server admin.
ANSWER: Certainly, a great BA will have the ability to communicate effectively with business stakeholders and customers, as well as with developers, DBAs, and server administrators. Additionally, the BA should also be very knowledgeable on SharePoint configuration of functional elements. I.e. Building sites, managing the term store, building lists and libraries, creating and managing workflows.
QUESTION: Completely agree with regard to the importance of having a skilled business analyst involved, in all hosting models [on-premise, cloud, and Office 365]. However, I often see job postings that appear to combine the BA role with the developer and server admin roles. To me, a business analyst should not require .Net development and Windows Server admin experience. Your thoughts?
ANSWER: It can often be very difficult to find someone with the combined skills sets of BA, .NET Developer, Windows Server Admin, and SharePoint Administration knowledge. That’s a lot to know and be good at. It is a lot more reasonable to find a BA with SharePoint content management, configuration, and administration experience. SharePoint is shifting to be more a platform that requires configuration of its parts and less so dependent on the ability to develop against it. A functional BA who can communicate with internal and external clients and configure functional elements within SharePoint can be extremely valuable to your organization and help ensure return on SharePoint investments. This resource can be just as valuable, if not more in assisting users in adopting SharePoint, leveraging all the components SharePoint has to offer out of the box, and fits in line with an Office365 or cloud hosted platform.
QUESTION: Yammer has been referred to a few times. At its core, Yammer is a cloud-based capability. How does Yammer play across the three deployment options?
ANSWER: There are two approaches to this question. The first is to ask; with the OOTB social features in 2013 do we need to implement a social enterprise solution? The features that are included within SharePoint 2013 solve a lot of issues that organizations are trying to solve with interactive elements. The newsfeed and community site for example provide the foundation for unstructured conversations and brainstorming that other tools support.
If these features aren’t enough for your organizations Social appetite, great, now it’s time to look at advanced tools like Yammer. As was mentioned, Yammer is 100% cloud so the first obstacle is connecting your authentication and user profiles, which can be done across all scenarios. Once your users can easily log in, the way that they interact with the site is different across the separate options. With the Enterprise Yammer license you can add a yammer web-part to your on-premise or hosted sites. In Office 365 there are no web parts, however with a new agreement in 2013 you receive Yammer Enterprises Licenses free and Microsoft is promising deeper integration of the systems before the end of the year.
QUESTION: How SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Server License is upgraded in SharePoint 2013?
ANSWER: Licensing can be different for many organizations. If you have an Enterprise Agreement for SharePoint, or all Microsoft Products, you have most likely purchased (or pre-paid) for the ability to upgrade to the next version of Microsoft software. In the simplest case that 2010 Enterprise Licenses have been paid for individually you would then buy new 2013 Server Licenses. The best way to resolve Licensing issues is to speak directly to your Microsoft representative.
