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Commentary on a Video Training Course on Installing SharePoint Server 2013

In February, 2013, there is much interest in SharePoint 2013.

Per a recent study sponsored by Metalogix, approximately 60% of the survey respondents expressed an interest in migrating to SharePoint 2013. There are, of course, quite a number of reasons for this level of interest, not the least of which is the fact that the well publicized “App” development platform promises better support for today’s hybrid enterprise computing environments. These environments are now an amalgam of smart phones, tablets, desktop computers, lap tops, mainframes and servers.

But SharePoint 2013 also promises to deliver more features of the application through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, and therefore, is reputed to offer even better support for browser-based computing than either SharePoint 2007 or even 2010. In a recent study published by Forrester Research, the point was made that even SharePoint 2010 did not incorporate the thoroughly modern computing assumptions that have finally been incorporated into SharePoint 2013.

With all this said, it therefore makes sense for businesses with a keen interest in SharePoint 2013 to first test the server in a test environment. Planning on an initial test phase is likely to be a very reasonable assumption for technical staff, but, perhaps, elusive for business users. After all, from a technical perspective (and with end user support in mind) SharePoint 2013 operations differ rather substantially from comparable operations for SharePoint 2010, or SharePoint 2007. Therefore, technical staff who will have the responsibility to gracefully transition end users from one of the earlier computing platforms to SharePoint 2013 will need to plan the migration well in advance of any planned date to go live.

By building a test server environment for SharePoint 2013, organizations that are committed to a migration will have an opportunity design just such a migration plan, meaning one that anticipates the challenges that end users will have to face, while solving their needs. Of course, it makes sense to include in such a design a training program to introduce these users to the new set of procedures they will need to adopt to continue to work successfully within a SharePoint computing environment. Finally, and with particular regard to organizations with a commitment to no-code developmentm, there will certainly be some level of challenge in working with a redesigned SharePoint Designer 2013.

For all of the above reasons it makes sense for business users who are also SharePoint stakeholders to appreciate the importance of development a working plan for SharePoint 2013 through a prototyping phase, otherwise referred to as a “sandbox”.

In the next post to this blog we will start looking at a video training course on SharePoint-Videos.com that presents the steps required for SharePoint administrators to install the SharePoint 2013 preview.

Ira Michael Blonder

© Rehmani Consulting, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2013 All Rights Reserved