PRESENTED BY BRIAN M. OSBOURN & CORY FALLDINE THE EVOLUTION OF A TECHNICAL SERVICES PORTAL 1
WHAT IS TECHSITE? A central portal for delivery of technical services Uses SharePoint and basic webpages Combination of Public & Authenticated Sites Employees & Students IT Staff Starting point for every core service Does not replace our campus portal 2
WHERE DOES IT FIT IN? Cloud & Core Services Server Infrastructure Applications 3
WHERE DOES IT FIT IN? User Support & Helpdesk Cloud & Core Services Server Infrastructure Applications 4
IN THE BEGINNING PC Installation difficulty Basic Web Page with links to installers (IE 3.0) Only used internal to IT Department Core concept still used today 5
VERSION 2-4: WE’RE ON TO SOMETHING Useful for public, too Additional features New browser capabilities Flash No Code Hosted on NetWare 6
VERSION 7 & 9: INTRODUCING THE PORTAL All features of previous versions Authentication to eDirectory Written in PHP Custom content based on role (Employee or Student) Customized software install options Printer installer (iPrint) File Access (NetStorage) First to target students (StudentAccess) Asset Tracking 7
PROBLEMS AHEAD Continuous Improvement Broke My Own Rule Lost entire staff of developers The start of Novell’s Open Source Folly Where Do We Go From Here? 8
VERSION 10: SHAREPOINT Foundation Active Directory authentication Back to “No Code” Mentality Complete rebuild Current Features – Asset tracking, software installation, printer installation, Student web page and file access New Features - IT Departmental teams, Project Teams, Project Information Sites, license management and a Training Registration module 9
VERSION 11: ROLE-BASED SITES Sites customized to status and location (Employee vs. Student, On-Campus vs. At Home) No technical restriction (installers not available off campus) URL’s customized for single sign-on on campus Split architecture to have static introductory html public web pages Content split between 2 SharePoint servers, and 1 web server Completely virtual Team-based, projects wrapped up, IT Department moved to SharePoint Enterprise on its own server 10
VERSION 12: THE FEEDBACK EDITION Teams started working much closer together on changes, new features Feedback from technical staff and customers 11.5 was to include a few fixes from v.11, huge number of requests Architecture stayed the same Content and delivery, user experience 11
THE FEATURES OF V.12 InstallPoint TechDocs Forms Server Project & Team Sites PrintCenter Information Security Policies Windows 7 Support MacSite Helpdesk (informational) LaunchPoint Anti-Virus at Home Downloads for Home MyFiles 2.0 Communicator 12
MORE FEATURES OF V.12 PCInfo PrinterInfo ServerSite and ServerInfo LicenseCommander 13
THE ARCHITECTURE OF V. 12 Web Server – Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 2 x SharePoint Services 2007– Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Authenticates to AD Backed up with Data Protection Manager All virtual using Hyper-V R2 14
LESSONS LEARNED Control technologies used Feedback & Collaboration are key Adapt Don’t go overboard Continuous Improvement 15
TECHSITE.NEXT SharePoint 2010 Fewer servers Content Management MySite Team and Collaboration focus Social Networking Office Web Apps More focus on Internet functionality 16
QUESTIONS? 17
CONTACT INFO & DOWNLOAD 18 Full PowerPoint is available to download from TechSite ( Brian Osbourn, Cory Falldine,