Stop mapping SharePoint Document Libraries as a network drive!

 see this happening over and over again. Companies purchase Office 365 subscription, create a single site in SharePoint with a single document library, migrate their whole file share into that single library, map it as a network drive and call the project complete. What usually follows is a dismal user experience from a performance standpoint and badmouthing of SharePoint and anyone who made a decision to migrate to Office 365. If this sounds familiar – keep reading.

I have written a post previously where I cautioned against using SharePoint as a file share. When you map a SharePoint document library, you essentially say:

“We want to collaborate the same way we did for the last 20 years”

If this is your wish, so be it, but I would argue against using SharePoint for this purpose. Because you will fail miserably. That’s not what SharePoint was designed for. Below I would like to present few reasons why, in my opinion, you should not create any mapped drives with SharePoint.

REASON 1: TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS

Sooner or later you will encounter SharePoint technical limitations.

• 5,000 item limit. Read here to learn more
• URL length. If you have a very deep folder hierarchy, you will encounter it one day. Click here to learn more.
• Performance. As your library grows in size, you will see degraded performance

REASON 2: USER EXPERIENCE

The best practice in SharePoint is to create many sites and many libraries as you split content by function and security. Even on a single site, you might have one, two, four document libraries. How will you handle this with mappings? Are you really looking to create like twenty mappings?  

REASON 3: SEARCH

As I have written previously, SharePoint search is quite robust. The new, modern search is just awesome! Search in SharePoint goes against content within the document as well as metadata. When you search a mapped drive, you are using the regular Windows Explorer search. Should I even say more here…

REASON 4: METADATA

If you map a drive in SharePoint, you are missing big time on metadata. There is no metadata in Windows Explorer. You have to access your files via SharePoint to be able to tag, search and filter based on metadata.

REASON 5: VERSIONING

Versioning, in my opinion, is one of SharePoint strongest features. Ability to see and track changes, ability to access and restore previous versions brings collaboration to a whole new level. That is if you use SharePoint. If you map a drive in SharePoint – you won’t have access to these features in Windows Explorer.

REASON 6: MODERN DOCUMENT LIBRARY

Classical library experience that we had with all the old versions of SharePoint was pretty boring and did not allow for trivial commands like Copy and Move. Now that we have Modern Library experience in SharePoint Online, you can do the same things like you used to in Windows Explorer. You can copy and move files, for example, between folders, sites, and libraries right in the browser. So all the reasons that prompted you to work in Windows Explorer are no longer relevant.

REASON 7: SAVE AS

One of the reasons for using mapped drives is the fact that it is easier to do Save As from MS Office documents to your C: Drive. With the recent update to MS Office, this limitation is no longer there, and you can easily save files from MS Office directly to SharePoint. Click here to learn more.

REASON 8:

“Intelligence is the ability

to adapt to change”

— Professor Stephen Hawking (1942 – 2018)

ALTERNATIVE TO MAPPING SHAREPOINT DOCUMENT LIBRARIES

If none of the above reasons convinced you and you truly want to work with files like in 1995, may I suggest the Sync option? You can always sync your files to your desktop using the new OneDrive for Business sync client. While I am not a huge fan of sync, it does the job and makes the library or certain files and folders available on your desktop if need be.

Hope you found these reasons convincing enough to drop the old habit and move yourself to the 21st century. You don’t use telegrams anymore because we have email, so I suggest that you also work with documents using SharePoint browser experience instead of the outdated file share approach by mapping SharePoint document libraries.

Wondering if you should buy a SharePoint book currently on the market or wait few more months for a better one?

The following list will allow you to get a sneak preview of some interesting SharePoint books coming out in the next few months and some of them just published. The authors links will point you to their LinkedIn profiles to connect with them and luckily get some additional questions answered related to the books.

I will try to keep this list as up-to-date as possible, so make sure you’re coming back regularly to see what’s new in the stores.

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Soon To Be Published

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Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches
By: Don Jones, Jeffery Hicks

Publication Date: December 1, 2016

PowerShell provides a single, unified administrative command line from which to control and automate virtually every aspect of a Windows system. It accepts and executes commands immediately, and scripts can be written to manage most Windows servers like Exchange, IIS, and SharePoint. This updated book covers PowerShell features that run on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and later. This edition is appropriate for PowerShell version 3 and later. There is coverage for new PowerShell version 5 features like PowerShellGet, however PowerShell fundamentals are unchanged.

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Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Step by Step
By: Olga Londer

Publication Date: December 3, 2016

Get productive fast with SharePoint 2016, and jump in wherever you need answers: brisk lessons and colorful screen shots show you exactly what to do, step by step – and practice files help you build your skills. Fully updated for today’s powerful new version of SharePoint, Microsoft SharePoint 2016 Step by Step shows you how to do all this:

• Customize your team site’s layout, features, and apps
• Manage and share ideas, documents, and data
• Capture and organize content into lists and libraries
• Automate business processes with built-in workflows
• Use social features to communicate and collaborate
• Work with SharePoint’s business intelligence features
• Publish content using enhanced web content management
• Use SharePoint with Excel, Access, Outlook, and Lync
• And much more…

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Recently Published

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Cloud Pro – The next step for IT pros
By: Ben Curry, Brian Laws

Publication Date: October 23, 2016

Cloud technologies are transforming the roles of experienced IT professionals. Cloud Pro – The Next Step for IT Pros brings together all the knowledge you need to smoothly transition from traditional roles to successful cloud administration in Microsoft or hybrid environments. It has been carefully crafted to reflect IT professionals’ real challenges in making the cloud transition, including maintaining full control when you’re a “tenant” on someone else’s servers, and maximizing your productivity through automation. You’ll find specific guidance on administering key Microsoft technologies including Office 365, Exchange Online, SharePoint, Azure, OneDrive, and more. Along the way, Ben Curry and Brian Laws identify new and changing job roles for cloud administrators, and offer practical guidance on migrating your skills to them.

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Exam Ref 70-339 Managing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2016
By: Troy Lanphier

Publication Date: October 7, 2016

Direct from Microsoft, this Exam Ref is the official study guide for the new Microsoft 70-339 Core Technologies of Microsoft SharePoint 2016 certification exam. It offers professional-level preparation that helps candidates maximize their exam performance and sharpen their skills on the job.

Microsoft Exam Ref publications stand apart from third-party study guides because they:

• Provide guidance from Microsoft, the creator of Microsoft certification exams
• Target IT professional-level exam candidates with content focused on their needs, not “one-size-fits-all content
• Streamline study by organizing material according to the exam’s objective domain (OD), covering one functional group and its objectives in each chapter
• Feature Thought Experiments to guide candidates through a set of “what if?” scenarios, and prepare them more effectively for Pro-level style exam questions
• Explore big picture thinking around the planning and design aspects of the IT pro’s job role

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Programming Microsoft Office 365: Covers Microsoft Graph, Office 365 applications, SharePoint Add-ins, Office 365 Groups, and more (Developer Reference)
By: Paolo Pialorsi

Publication Date: September 9, 2016

Every day, millions of people use Microsoft Office 365, the subscription version of the world’s most popular productivity platform. If you’re a developer, Programming Microsoft Office 365 will show you how to build custom solutions that access and interact with their Office 365 data right from within your apps, on practically any mobile, web, and desktop platform.

Leading Office solutions developer Paolo Pialorsi offers practical, code-rich, task-based coverage of every key aspect of Office 365 development. You’ll learn hands-on by building a complete, start-to-finish solution with the newest major release of Office 365.

You’ll master powerful techniques leveraging SharePoint Online, Microsoft Azure Active Directory and other Microsoft cloud services, Microsoft OneDrive for Business, Microsoft’s new REST APIs, and exciting new products such as Microsoft Delve and Office Graph.

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Building a SharePoint 2016 Home Lab: A How-To Reference on Simulating a Realistic SharePoint Testing Environment
By: Stacy Simpkins

Publication Date: July 28, 2016

This book is a step-by-step guide to building your own SharePoint farm in a home lab setting. Learn how to build a windows domain and then join servers into the domain in order to create your own testing and learning environment. After you get the domain stood up, where you go from there is up to you. This book will help you learn how to spin up SharePoint in a least privileged fashion.

This isn’t strictly a SharePoint book, though. For example, if you’re not a SharePoint professional and are just looking to create a working windows domain for other purposes; the home-lab domain that you’ll create will work great for Exam preparation for non-SharePoint purposes. You could even use it for learning how to install Exchange Server. After all, it’s your Home Lab domain.

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SharePoint 2016 For Dummies
By: Ken Withee, Rosemarie Withee

Publication Date: July 25, 2016

Learn all the ins and outs of SharePoint, launch your site, collaborate with coworkers, and go mobile. There’s no doubt about it, SharePoint is a complex creature. But when broken down into easily digestible chunks, it’s not quite the beast it appears to be right out of the gate—that’s where SharePoint X For Dummies comes in! Written in plain English and free of intimidating jargon, this friendly, accessible guide starts out by showing you just what SharePoint X is, translating the terminology, and explaining the tools. Then it helps you create a site, work with apps, and master basic SharePoint administration. Next, you’ll learn to use SharePoint X to get social, go mobile, manage content, and connect with others through working with Office 365, archiving documents, developing workflows, and so much more.

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SharePoint 2016 Search Explained: SharePoint 2016 and Office 365 Search On-Premises, Cloud and Hybrid for Search Managers and Decision Makers
By: Agnes Molnar

Publication Date: June 30, 2016

SharePoint 2016 comes with major changes in how Search works, including a new and enhanced Hybrid Search model. Regardless of whether your organization is on-premises only or in the cloud with some content and/or applications, this book will help you create a search strategy when considering SharePoint 2016. World-renowned consultant and author Agnes Molnar helps you plan and implement a SharePoint 2016 / Office 365 search environment that meets the needs of your business. This must-have book covers the following SharePoint 2016 and Office 365 Search topics: Business Cases and Challenges Requirements Gathering Search Based Applications How the Search Engine works – Overview Search User Experience Metadata Search in Office 365 Office Graph and Delve Search Quality Management Tags: SharePoint 2016, Office 365, Search, Discovery, Findability, Cloud Search, Hybrid Search, Office Graph, Office Delve, Search Explained, Information Overload, Information Management, Knowledge Management, Search-Based Applications, Search-Driven Applications.

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Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 Customization – Second Edition
By: Nicolae Tarla

Publication Date: May 27, 2016

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a Microsoft solution to satisfy the various needs of customer relationship management and is already equipped to be flexible to meet the needs of businesses. With Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016, many new features were added for social, marketing, sales, and integration with other tools. These features add many dimensions to customization.

This book will not only showcase how CRM can be customized, but will also be your guide on how the latest advancements in Dynamics CRM 2016 can be used to benefit your business.

You will learn how to enhance the functionality of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016 and use it to serve different businesses of various scales. You will see how to get ready to customize CRM and then quickly move on to grasp the CRM app structure, which will help you customize Dynamics CRM better.

What are users searching for in your SharePoint Intranet?

Ever wondered what your employees are searching for in your SharePoint Intranet? What are the top queries, keywords and search terms? Having such information can yield some great tips on how to optimize your Intranet sites, which content to have available on main landing pages.

Say, for example, you determine that most users search for certain files, like Vacation Request Form or PO Order Form. It might be a good idea then to make the forms or links prominently displayed on the homepage to assist users with such frequent queries to assure they spend less time searching for the right document or template.

With this post, I would like to explain how to learn what kind of info your users are seeking for via keyword search. There are reports available to SharePoint Administrators.

The reports can be obtained at either a site collection level (for searches done at the particular site collection), or at the tenant level (for searches in all site collections).

TO OBTAIN SEARCH REPORTS FOR A GIVEN SITE COLLECTION

1. Make sure you are a SharePoint Site Collection Administrator
2. Make sure you are at the root of a Site Collection (the most top-level site)
3. Click Gear Icon > Site Settings
4. Under Site Collection Administration, click on Popularity and Search Reports
5. Under Usage Reports page, you will be presented with a number of available search-related reports
6. The ones that you need are Top Queries by Day and Top Queries by Month
7. Here is a snapshot of the Top queries by Month Report (all reports will download in Excel)

TO OBTAIN SEARCH REPORTS FOR THE WHOLE TENANT

Above instructions gave you info on searches for a given site collection.  But what if you want to have info on searches for all site collections (your whole Intranet)? No problem, here is what you got to do.

1. Click on Office 365 App Launcher > Admin Tile
2. Under Admin Centers, choose SharePoint
3. Once in SharePoint Admin Center, click on Search on the left-hand-side
4. Under Search Administration, click on View Usage Reports
5. You will now see a list of reports, just like at the site collection level, but this time they will cover the whole tenant. Here is an example of such report.

NOTES:

1. These reports only have data on searches that users perform using classic search, not the modern (intelligent) search. To find out the difference between the two, check out this post.
2. Reports only capture the last 12 month of history.
3. There are also other reports available under Usage Reports above – feel free to check into some of the other ones you might find useful.

Qualities of Successful SharePoint Development

Since the launch of the product in 2001, SharePoint has been stereotypically connected with web content administration and document management systems. However, it’s actually a much powerful platform capable of being designed to suit a wide range of solution areas. Every large scale project like a SharePoint development isn’t something to tackle lightly. Sure, there are many approaches to take, but remember these three things to ensure a successful SharePoint development.

Preparation is Key

The key to a successful SharePoint development is a meticulous preparation work which includes business oriented, both organizational as well as functional, requirement analysis to establish entire SharePoint infrastructure. It is also highly recommended for developers to establish at least three SharePoint farm environments: development, test, and production. Solutions, principally custom-coded applications, need to move from the development environment in which they were created to testing, where they are being authenticated, and then to production where they will ultimately reside.

Clear Governance

At the beginning of the SharePoint development project, it is crucial to establish all policies about configuration, development, and maintenance of SharePoint solutions. Many organizations, especially those that are newbies to SharePoint, at least initially often elect to institute a no-code policy, meaning that no custom code solutions are allowed in any environment. Those policies may even go as far as limiting not only on what third-party tools can be installed, but what out of the box SharePoint functionalities are available for configuration. Developers must consider all of those limitations when determining how to create and deliver the solutions to end users.

Developer’s Knowledge

Generally speaking, none of the SharePoint developer skills are in-born. We all need to continuously educating ourselves on new things about this platform. Whether it’s training on general web development practices, .NET, debugging, design, or specific hands-on SharePoint training, developers should be intimately familiar with all of the ins and outs of SharePoint’s out-of-the-box capabilities, as well as other major components of the entire SharePoint platform. Every developer should possess the knowledge to decide if out-of-the-box features are insufficient and how to make progress before jumping to custom coding as a solution. Also, bear in mind that there are no two identical environments out there that a developer can identically configure using out-of-the-box components and capabilities, and there are always going to be some sort of restraints justified by the client’s business needs and processes.

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The success of a SharePoint development relies heavily on the effective use of best practice methodologies, as well as the developer’s ability to understand when to simply use out-of-the-box features, or take advantage of third-party add-ons and services, or a custom code to lower the effort required and simultaneously deliver the quality when developing full customized solutions.

SharePoint 2016 RTM and the Future of SharePoint event

Today marks Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of SharePoint Server 2016! This is an important milestone in the delivery of this significant release, which includes new capabilities for users, IT pros and administrators, as well as the next generation of hybrid capabilities for SharePoint. This also marks the general availability of cloud hybrid search for SharePoint Server 2013 and higher customers—allowing on-premises and Office 365 content to be surfaced in one search result.

We want to thank the thousands of users and IT pros who provided feedback through our UserVoice, our forums, social channels and our Technology Adoption Program (TAP). Your input—coupled with our learnings from running SharePoint at scale in Office 365—makes SharePoint Server 2016 the most reliable, scalable, secure and high-performing SharePoint Server release ever.
Learn more in the SharePoint Server 2016 reviewer’s guide or download a trial of the RTM version. SharePoint Server 2016 will be generally available in the Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Center in early May.
We are also excited to announce the RTM of Project Server 2016 that is distributed as part of SharePoint Server 2016. Learn more in the Project Server 2016 release notes.

What’s next for SharePoint

Billions of documents are stored on SharePoint sites—making it the center of content management and collaboration for over a decade. Whether enabling students to work together or helping a company transform its entire intranet, we have continually evolved SharePoint to meet the changing needs of the digital workplace.
As work teams become more dynamic and digital content growth continues to skyrocket, SharePoint will play an ever increasing role in enabling content collaboration for the new way of working. As a part of Microsoft’s broader ambition to reinvent productivity, we are on a mission to make SharePoint more simple, mobile, intelligent and secure to help customers unlock the value of having it as an integrated part of Office 365. This year, we will release significant new innovations spanning user experiences, document collaboration, mobile enhancements and platform improvements that will redefine modern content collaboration.

Upgrading to the new SharePoint Online

This article focuses on the coming upgrade experience for existing SharePoint Online customers. New customers will receive these features without any effort on their part.

What to expect during upgrade

• Office 365 customers will be notified approximately four weeks prior to their upgrade and will have the opportunity to postpone for a minimum of two months.
• Review What’s new in SharePoint Online-top 10 to start planning how your company will take advantage of the new SharePoint Online capabilities soon to be at your fingertips.
• Evaluate whether content and sites are old or unused, and if so, consider removing content or even whole site collections that are no longer necessary.

You can learn about all the Office 365 service upgrade options at the broader Office 365 Service Upgrade Center, including what you need to know about Exchange Online, Lync Online and Office client.

Test, upgrade, enjoy

The new SharePoint Online experience awaits you. Please take time to review the available documentation and the suggested steps to ensure a seamless transition for your company. Make sure you build in the right amount of time to test the new capabilities and look and feel before committing to it.

You are more in control than ever during your upgrade experience. With a little effort, existing customers will be able to quickly determine the method that provides the right level of testing, allowing you to quickly move to the latest Office 365 has to offer. Let us know via the Office 365 Community forums how you are doing and what we can do to help.

What’s new in SharePoint Server 2013 for IT professionals

In today’s volatile economic climate, organizations require collaboration, communication, and productivity solutions to be both cost-effective and flexible. SharePoint Server 2013 can help you achieve new levels of reliability and performance, delivering features and capabilities that simplify administration, protect communications and information, and empower users while meeting their demands for greater business mobility.

SharePoint Server is a preferred choice among organizations to enable rich, seamless, and productive collaboration. SharePoint Server 2013 builds on the investments of previous SharePoint releases to:

• Lower IT costs with a flexible and scalable collaboration platform.
• Better manage risk by safeguarding your business with secure and reliable capabilities.
• Increase productivity through cost-effective and efficient management.

Improvements

Changing software can be difficult, SharePoint Server 2013 simplifies the process, empowers the user, and improves resiliency and manageability through new features and capabilities designed to balance the needs of users with those of IT.
What’s new in SharePoint Server 2013:

• Improvements to Deferred Site Collection Upgrade
• Site Collection Health Checks
• Evaluation Site Collections

Deferred Site Collection Upgrade

A completely revised, backward-compatible experience is designed to balance the needs of users with those of IT. Because changing software is often challenging, SharePoint Server 2013 enables IT to upgrade SharePoint Server 2010 without having to upgrade users’ sites and content. These upgrades are deferred to the users, allowing them to choose when the time is right and new evaluation site collections allow users to request an evaluation of the update prior to changing production content. If they’re satisfied with the new experience, site collection administrators then can change their content to SharePoint Server 2013. It’s important to note that whether you have deployed SharePoint Server 2010 on-premises or subscribe to SharePoint Online in Office 365, the full upgrade capability is available.

Site collection health checks

Users have access to site collection health checks, which can be run prior to or during the site collection upgrade process to detect issues and provide solutions for resolving them. Guidance is available every step of the way to help to ensure a successful update. Even after changes are complete, site collection health checks remain available to help ensure the reliability and accessibility of site collections throughout their lifecycle.

Evaluation site collections

Site collection administrators can choose to perform an immediate upgrade through Site Settings or request an evaluation upgrade site collection.
SharePoint Server 2013 enables site collection administrators to request a preview of their site prior to committing their production site collection to upgrade. This enables the site collection administrator and users to validate the look, feel, and functionality of a site collection and establish a plan to address any issues without impacting their production content.
Evaluation site collections provide the same overall functionality that the production site collection on which it is based provides, including search, customizations, and any associated timer job definitions run on the web application or server farm.

System status notifications

System status notifications present important information about a SharePoint deployment and its availability, whether during upgrades, routine maintenance, or conversion to read-only. Users stay up to date on changes because they receive a prominent banner on their sites that provides insight into the activity being performed, which helps reduce calls to the help desk and subsequent burden on IT.

New and improved service applications

Machine Translation Service

SharePoint Server 2013 introduces several new service applications, including Machine Translation Service. Machine translation is the use of software to translate text from one natural language to another, substituting one word in one natural language to its corresponding word in another.

The service enables you to reach more people with new cloud-based translation services capable of translating not only sites, but also their content. These services have a comprehensive set of APIs, REST, and CSOM support, so content can be pre-translated when needed, or translated on the fly by users-asynchronously, synchronously, or streaming.

PowerPoint Automation Services

PowerPoint Automation Services is a new service application in SharePoint Server 2013 that provides automatic server-side conversion of PowerPoint Presentations from one format to another, for example, a PowerPoint Presentation in Open XML File Format (.pptx) can be converted into Portable Document Format (.pdf) for archival purposes, distribution to clients who do not have Microsoft PowerPoint installed, or to protect the presentation from editing.

PowerPoint Automation Services supports conversion of Open XML File Format (.pptx) and PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation format (.ppt) to .pptx, .pdf, .xps, .jpg, and .png.

User profile service

User profile properties drive a broad set of SharePoint features-from social collaboration to authorization. SharePoint Server 2013 simplifies access to user properties with new profile import options that range from a traditional Microsoft Forefront® Identity Manager-based approach, to new direct Active Directory® Domain Services synchronization, to choices for using an external identity manager. Overall, you should see significant improvements in performance while also having greater flexibility.

Work Management Service

Software should work together. With SharePoint Server 2013, you can gain a 360-degree view of workplace activities and improve communication across your organization through connected systems. A new Work Management Service provides support for action-based event aggregation across Microsoft server products, including Microsoft Exchange Server, Lync® Server, Project Server, and SharePoint Server 2013. For example, users can edit tasks from Microsoft Exchange Server on a mobile phone, and the Work Management Service aggregates tasks from Exchange Server in the My Tasks SharePoint list.

Office Web Apps

Office Web Apps has evolved into a separate server product, Office Web Apps Server, which can serve multiple SharePoint farms for viewing and editing documents. In addition, a server or farm that runs Office Web Apps can be used to view files that are stored across data stores, including the following:

• Microsoft server products, especially SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, and Lync Server.
• File servers (URL accessible).

Third parties also can integrate with the service and provide access to documents in their stores, such as EMC Documentum, IBM FileNet, OpenText, and Oracle.
By separating Office Web Apps from the SharePoint farm, administrators can update servers more frequently, if desired. Administrators in large organizations can manage the scale and performance of Office Web Apps independent of the SharePoint environment. They also can serve multiple SharePoint farms, as well as Exchange Server and Lync Server, from one Office Web Apps Server environment.

App Management Service

Applications are core to the SharePoint Server 2013 experience. A SharePoint application is a secure, focused solution that is easy to develop, deploy to a marketplace, monitor, and retire. Moreover, managing applications should be easy. SharePoint Server 2013 includes a new App Management Service designed to take the guesswork out of managing applications, permissions, and licensing, whether installed from the SharePoint Marketplace or Internal App Directory.

Rendering

Minimal Download Strategy

Minimal Download Strategy in SharePoint 2013 improves rendering performance when browsing content where large parts of the page do not change, which provides a more fluid navigation experience. For example, when navigating between a site’s home page and Shared Documents page, only the content that has changed between the source and destination page (controls and placeholders in the content area) are downloaded and the URL subsequently updated where the chrome is persisted.

In a typical AJAX scenario, controls interface with the server individually. Controls on the chrome in SharePoint are implemented with the URL at their core. Minimal Download Strategy implements a new download manager that interfaces between the client and server and retrieves the data as needed depending the initiating request. Each control on the page uses the download manager to update itself when necessary.

Operations and management

Windows PowerShell 3.0

SharePoint Server 2013 includes native support for Windows PowerShell 3.0 to help IT get more done in less time. Windows PowerShell 3.0 provides a comprehensive management platform for all aspects of the data center: servers, network, and storage. In this newest version of Windows PowerShell, sessions to remote servers are more resilient and can withstand various types of interruptions.
Learning Windows PowerShell is easier because of simplified, consistent syntax that resembles natural language. New Windows PowerShell commands are comprehensive and support the diverse tasks required at a data center, so IT professionals can automate basic and complex data center tasks with ease.

Distributed Cache Service

Data-driven applications have become increasingly prevalent as data is consumed from more diverse sources, such as business applications, syndicated feeds, and social contexts. SharePoint Server 2013 includes a new Distributed Cache Service built on the reliability of Windows Server® AppFabric® Caching. Distributed caching helps to ensure that no request takes too long.

Request Management

Request Management in SharePoint Server 2013 enables IT to prioritize and route incoming requests through a rules engine that applies logic to determine the nature of the request and the appropriate response. Request Management can be used to:

• Route requests to servers with good health characteristics based on a new weighting schema.
• Identify and block known bad requests such as web robot.
• Prioritize requests by throttling lower priority requests to preserve resources for those of higher priority.
• Route specific request types to other servers, either within or outside of the farm handling the request.

Storage and data platform

Shredded Storage

Shredded Storage is designed to reduce an organization’s storage footprint, minimize bandwidth, and improve performance through a new file save algorithm that ensures all write costs for file update operations are proportional to the size of the change being made to the file (and not the size of the file itself). Shredded Storage enables the storage of incremental updates to files in SharePoint Server by breaking a file into pieces and storing those pieces in Microsoft SQL Server®.

Disk I/O

With an increased need for larger quotas, storage costs remain a concern in many SharePoint environments, and there is generally very little room in IT budgets to multiply storage capacity by two, three, or even four times. In parallel, industry shifts and advancements have led to more high-capacity, low-cost commodity storage options. SharePoint Server 2013 can be deployed to a variety of storage architectures without sacrificing availability. Building on the performance improvements in SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2013 delivers a significant reduction in disk input/output (I/O), lowering the bar for minimum disk performance. In addition, smoother I/O patterns reduce contention, making more storage options available to support a SharePoint Server 2013 infrastructure.

Resources

These improvements only scratch the surface of what’s new in SharePoint Server 2013 for IT Professionals.  Learn about more new features and capabilities through the resources below and let us know in the comments what your favorite new features of SharePoint are.