Category: Software

  • From the very first SharePoint to now

    From the very first SharePoint to now

    Here at iOra, we’ve been working with SharePoint ever since the first release of SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) and SharePoint Team Services (STS) in 2001. We thought you might like to look back on the history of iOra and SharePoint and how we support each update to SharePoint as it is launched by Microsoft.

    In 2001, SPS and STS, marketed under the same brand name but barely integrated in approach, were still very basic compared to today’s SharePoint. So we at iOra gave SharePoint users the ability to view their SharePoint sites offline via our “Mobile Intranet” product (now the Server-to-Laptop functionality of Geo-Replicator).

    In 2003, Microsoft released their second version of SharePoint: a much more integrated system, though built for full fat corporate networks. We recognised the need for enterprises to make their SharePoint server data available to offline users and there was also a growing need to make the data available to geographically remote users by providing local, replica SharePoint servers. Our compression and replication know-how could clearly benefit organisations by reducing the time required for those non-local users to access crucial information. It was a situation that was perfect for the use of our Epsilon engine: lots of data, often updated, needing to be sent from one bandwidth-limited location to another.

    When Microsoft released SharePoint 2007, the growth of SharePoint was phenomenal. Here at iOra, we upgraded both our Server-to-Laptop and Server-to-Server solutions, adding Server-to-Virtual Server for good measure. With Server-to-Server, we now not only replicated SharePoint documents and list items but the whole SharePoint structure that held the data.

    SharePoint 2010 improved the document management and CRM that SharePoint provides. We now replicate SharePoint 2007, 2010 and 2013 sites for organisations all over the world, to servers and laptops on both land and sea. We’ve been making SharePoint global for over a decade now, and we continue to innovate in the collaboration without the Cloud environment. Today, we’re working hard to add even more support for SharePoint replication, as well as thinking about the next version of SharePoint and beyond. We continue to work  with Microsoft updating and renewing our Gold Partner status.

    SharePoint is virtually in our DNA! More information here.

  • Big Data Over Challenging Networks

    Big Data Over Challenging Networks

    The management, analysis, storage and transfer of Big Data has become the focus of many enterprises as they struggle to find ways to control, and potentially benefit from the data that they are capturing at the operational end of the business.

    The data explosion has occurred as more and more devices and servers are being deployed to capture increasing quantities of data.

    These devices include tools that provide covert monitoring data, remote telemetry data, software logs, operational performance data, through to the human generated repositories of corporate portals, social networks and file shares. The distributed enterprise has the effect of scattering these Big Data repositories over the every continent, and to places where network connectivity has the effect of isolating the remote site where the networks are often disconnected and challenging . iOra has worked with many enterprises to remove the challenging network as a barrier for transferring Big Data back to the corporate hub for management and analysis.

    Not only does iOra have the capability to replicate installed and virtualised web portals e.g. Lotus Notes, Microsoft SharePoint, but also has the option of being able to replicate raw file sets and directories of data using the world leading Epsilon compression technology.

    Written by Lawrence Poynter, Product Manager