This is the work part. Posts here relate to the craft of my career and profession.
Sometimes I miss the 90s. Search was so easy in ECM environments. Everyone used a bundled Verity and was happy.
Then things changed. People started to notice that if you actually used the system on an large scale, search performance degraded. There were many reasons for this. One was that vendors weren’t upgrading their bundled Verity engine. Another was that the engine was sitting on the same machine as the primary ECM server, so resources were being consumed at an increasing rate.
Earlier today, James McGovern asked how to create a user through code in Documentum using either the DFC or DFS. I responded to him directly as I didn’t want him to have to wait for me to write a blog post to get the answer. However, I decided to share my answer with everyone while I watch the big game.
I was browsing the EMC website the other day and ran across this document, “A 15-Minute Guide to Service-Oriented Architecture and ECM“. I was intrigued so I checked it out. This is one of a new series of documents that EMC is putting out around IT Management aimed at quickly educating the IT Professional. I am not their target as this is aimed at end-users.
Every now and then, I run into an instance where a database for Documentum has changed slightly, preventing an upgrade or even startup. There is nothing wrong with the database itself, just the way the database ownership is configured. There are several reasons why this could happen:
This is all fine and can be done properly. However, sometimes it is not done correctly because people rely too much on Documentum to create and update the security without actually paying attention to what is happening in the background. So here are a few tips in how changes in SQL Server need to be played out.
Now that I’ve reviewed Forrester’s Wave report on ECM, let’s tune into some specific criticism. Specifically Jeff Potts spoke up and took them to task on how they weight what they measure. Being a fan of Alfresco, his post is a little on the defensive side, but that doesn’t eliminate his points.
A few months ago, the Gartner report on ECM came out and I shared a few comments. Well, Forrester put their version out and I thought I comment on it as well. This is the first of two likely posts, focusing on the overall report this time around.
In general, no real news in the rankings as compared to Gartner. No surprise there. Why rock the boat?
There are a few key things to note.
Over the last few months, the EMC Developer Network has been starting the process of trying to build a community. They’ve recently added forums and are working at getting members of the Documentum community to not only write articles, but to comment upon them. Alan Zenreich, the main man behind the curtain at the Developer Network, is working to increase member involvement beyond just a few individuals.
As you may have noticed, there is no publicly available Sizing Spreadsheet for the newly released D6 yet. It is my understanding that they are still collecting data and refining it so that they have a high enough level of confidence to back it. However, I was able to get a draft copy recently and I wanted to share some observations.
So the other evening, I was out at a Web Content Mavens gathering, and someone asked me what I meant when I talked about ECM. This person had years of experience in Web Content Management and a few years working with a leading ECM provider before returning to their roots in WCM. His basic premise was that ECM was a marketing ploy cooked up by the vendors, analysts, and consultants out there and that there is no rational reason to force them all into one system.
This was, at the same time, one of the best, and most painful, conversations I have had in quite a while. On the one hand, it is good to have to occasional defend your convictions in order to make sure that they are still on solid ground. On the other hand, sometimes you want to hit your head into a wall when someone doesn’t get it. However, I can see why that opinion exists. The vendors and analysts are to blame.
As many of you may know, or recall, D6 does not support SQL Server 2000 anymore. This is fine and good. Most larger installations moved to Oracle years ago. However, there are a large number of Microsoft shops out there, a SQL Server is a quick to standup database for development, POC, and demo environments. So I thought I would share some tidbits on two different upgrades of SQL Server 2005. Neither were in a clustered environment, but that will happen soon and I’ll share then.
Word of Pie 