Authors: J. Peter Bruzzese and Ronald Barrett
Publisher: Sams Publishing (www.informit.com/sams)
Published: December 2007
ISBN-13: 978-0-672-32949-4
ISBN-10: 0-672-32949-2
Format: Soft cover, 576 pages
Price: $49.99
Understanding and assessing Microsoft Office 2007 servers
If you need a comprehensive text that covers a range of Microsoft Office 2007 servers, then I suggest that you take a look at the book with the rather lengthy title of the "Administrator’s Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers: Forms Server 2007, Groove Server 2007, Live Communications Server 2007, PerformancePoint Server 2007, Project Portfolio Server 2007, Project Server 2007, SharePoint Server 2007 for Search."
Despite that being something of a tongue twister, the usefulness of such a title is that it readily sums up perfectly the sorts of topics that are discussed within the book. Like the title, the book's purpose is straightforward too. It has been written to help IT professionals gain an overview of each of those different servers and then to assist in the installation of those servers. But just as important as that is, the real value of this book is that it can also help its readers to derive maximum benefit from those servers once they have been successfully installed and bedded down.
Before examining the contents of the book in more detail, here's a brief summary of the role of each of the different Microsoft Office 2007 servers.
Forms Server 2007 allows a company or an organization to streamline electronic forms processing. Capabilities are provided for the storage, management, and the accessing of business related forms via a Web browser or some type of mobile device with browser functionality.
Groove Server 2007 enhances secure collaboration amongst members of business teams, regardless of where those members may be located geographically.
With Live Communications Server 2007, the focus is on providing streamlined communications facilities, with functionality such as VoIP (voice over IP), Web conferencing, and enterprise-strength instant messaging.
PerformancePoint Server 2007 consists of a series of BI (business intelligence) tools that can be deployed for monitoring, analytics, and financial planning purposes.
Project Portfolio Server 2007 is a top-down driven, enterprise-wide portfolio management solution that assists in the identification, selection, and delivery of investments associated with a company's or an organization's unique business strategy. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of portfolio management, the "Administrator’s Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers" book provides the necessary background information including an explanation of the key differences between project and portfolio management systems as well as listing the major requirements for a portfolio management system.
The importance of competent project management cannot be overstated, whether your company or organization deals primarily in one-time projects or complex, ongoing projects in which every aspect of a project's life cycle has to be monitored, managed, and coordinated.
Examples of just some of the different sorts of project management functionalities provided in Project Server 2007 include budget tracking and cost resources; proposals capability for the management of plans and activities prior to project approval being given; the management of operations-related activities after a project has been completed; a host of business reporting capabilities; and the creation of portfolio analyzer cubes to undertake sophisticated analysis.
SharePoint Server 2007 for Search can be used to initiate searches of both an intranet (enterprise) and the Internet.
Within the "Administrator’s Guide to Microsoft Office 2007 Servers" book, each of the above servers is allocated a different number of chapters. Each of the servers is covered in a minimum of two chapters except for SharePoint Server 2007 for Search which is allocated only one. That arrangement of consecutive chapters centered around each server means that you don't have to read sequentially all the way through the book to obtain the information that is currently relevant to your IT/business needs.
To give you an immediate feel for the structure of the book, let's now explore together the contents of the first three chapters of the book which cover Forms Server 2007.
The first of these chapters provides an overview of the technology, and then proceeds to discuss installation requirements from both a hardware and software perspective. The next two sections of this chapter respectively look at the installation of Forms Server 2007 on a single system and in a server farm which is defined as being "a collection of two or more servers running the Forms Server application."
The next chapter is concerned with the configuration of the technology, with some advanced techniques with Forms Server 2007 introduced and discussed as well.
And the third chapter investigates using InfoPath to create online electronic forms – Microsoft Office InfoPath 2007 is described in the book as being the "new solution to e-forms."
The remaining six server technologies are then covered in a similar fashion in the ensuing chapters of the book.
For more information about each of the servers covered in the book, it is worthwhile consulting the dedicated Server pages that have been set up on the official Microsoft Office Online Web site (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/FX102473161033.aspx). By visiting there, you can, wherever provision has been made on the site, choose to watch an online demo of a server or to download a free trial of a particular server.
If reading this review has sparked an interest in this book, you can download the book's index, along with its introduction, plus the sixth chapter, titled "Groove Server 2007: Mastering the Groove", from the site of its publisher (http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0672329492). By doing so, you can read about the ten habits of highly successful groovers. And to learn more about groovers, and what can be achieved by becoming one, I recommend that you pay a visit to the "Global Groove User Group" (http://grooveuser.org) where membership is free.
Summing up, here are different aspects of the book that I personally found to be useful:
• The manner in which the content of the book has been laid out means that you can quickly located the information desired. And I agree with Bruzzese and Barrett, the book's authors, when they state that their book's "primary function is to explain what the servers are used for, which will essentially dispel confusion as to the purpose of these new servers, and explain how to implement them from a practical sense."
• The book represents a handy resource that becomes your guide to the seven different servers, giving you both an overview of the servers plus step by step instructions for installing and configuring each of them. In addition, any installation prerequisites and deployment considerations that need to be taken into account are also included.
• Notes, warnings, tips, and cautions are all provided in specially highlighted breakout boxes within the text to alert you to watch out for, and to be aware of, "out of the normal" conditions and considerations. For instance, one of the warnings presented in the chapter about installing Groove Server 2007 raises the point that "if you do not register the SQL server with your DNS server, you will never be able to get to the next step in the process. You can spend hours and hours trying to fix the problem (install and uninstall), but it won’t find the SQL server. To fix this, you can go back and configure DNS or you can type in the IP address of your SQL server."
• Because the book discusses each of the servers from both an overall point of view and an installation/configuration perspective, it will appeal to a large number of IT professionals, including IT managers, consultants, and database administrators. In fact, anyone who has the desire to utilize these servers to increase productivity in their environment should consider adding this book to their professional reading list for the upcoming year.
In conclusion, here's a snippet of what the book's authors, Bruzzese and Barrett, have to say about future directions: "The Office 2007 Server technologies have begun their maiden voyage. True, certain pieces have existed for a time, and we see an evolution of their framework in the 2007 release, but it's this first release under the 2007 banner that places them into the public eye in such a unified manner. They will grow and develop. Prices and licensing will change. Pieces will be snapped in or pulled out. We might even see one of these products cut from the lineup if there isn't enough demand for it, or if Microsoft yields to a competitor's strong grip. (Fat chance that will happen; Microsoft is quite the bulldog with showdowns.). But, it is an exciting thing to see so much new technology all in one year."
So regardless of what may actually happen in the future with this range of server technologies, reading this administrator's guide provides you with the ideal opportunity to capitalize on what each of the servers currently has to offer.
And I believe that's too good an opportunity to miss!