Documentum

Documentum and the Search for Search

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Those of you that follow Documentum’s products know that search has been a bug-a-boo the last few years. When 5.3 was rolled-out, there was much promised around faster search.  It is here, but at a price.  Additional hardware is needed and the version of FAST used by Documentum isn’t VMWare safe. To be fair, dedicating a server to search is part of the reason we have better performance, but it hasn’t been the panacea that we wanted.

In 7.0, we are looking at the prospect of Lucene support for the more plug-and-play repositories, while the larger ones will still be able to leverage a larger, multi-node, FAST installation. (Works great! Seriously, I mean it.)  This is fine, but supporting two search engines, neither of which you actually own, is an issue for any vendor.

So what is the solution? Last week I read an article speculating on the prospect of EMC looking for a search company to add to their portfolio. Now the article was pure speculation, but that is what makes it fun.  Let’s see if it makes sense and who could EMC acquire.

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My Journey from DocApp to DAR

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A year ago, I tried Composer when my first project began to upgrade to D6. Without going into too much detail, it sucked. I loaded my DocApp and Composer completely rejected it.  After a couple of days, I gave up. If I had been creating a new application, maybe it would have been fine, but I wasn’t. After talking to David Louie, I sent the DocApp in question to EMC and got the report, “it works in the new version”. Well, it was too late and I wasn’t changing my developer’s environment mid-process.

Now that project is progressing down the D6.5 path. I thought I would try again, and document the process for everyone.

I’m writing this post “live”.  Which means I won’t post it live, but I won’t edit the post to disguise steps and my thoughts as I try things.

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License Audits…Enforcing Ethics

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Ethics.  In the consulting business, the perception of your level of ethics can break you.  I haven’t seen a lot people gain work because of their perceived ethics, but I have seen several lose work.  We all like to assume that the person across the table, phone, or email will act in a fair and ethical manner.  The more “real” the social interaction, the stronger the assumption.

Well, recently it appears EMC has been checking on the usage of Documentum in some clients.  Specifically, they have been conducting audits to check that licensing agreements are being followed.  This revelation just screams for comment on the event and the underlying culture.

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EMC World and Momentum

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Love YouTube sometimes.  I cached videos in the browser yesterday so I could watch it while I sit in a Starbucks getting my morning kick of caffeine (and watching the falling snow).  The caching does tend to limit my desire to actually shutdown my laptop.  Silly Windows Update keeps pinging me to restart (as if on cue, I click on Restart Later and typing continues).

Which videos am I looking at???  The keynotes from Momentum 2008 in Prague. I have been making plans to attend EMC World in May and I was looking back to see any changes from the last EMC World to that Momentum.  More on EMC World later, but if you aren’t already making plans to attend, you need to get on the ball.

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Answering James on CMIS

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Back in December, James asked a few good questions regarding CMIS.  I thought I would take a minute to answer them as best I could, with apologies for the delay.  Any insight into making my answers more complete are welcome.  I am only on the outside looking into the process.

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CMIS and SharePoint

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This is a critical subject.  As I said when the CMIS standard was released, the key to its success will be vendor adoption.  This means more than just signing off on the standard.  The vendors have to incorporate it into their message and start to show clients, partners, and analysts how they plan to support and implement CMIS.  Based on how the ECM marketplace has begun to revolve around SharePoint, I consider Microsoft’s support a major component for success.  CMIS can succeed without them at first, but it will be a much steeper hill to climb without Microsoft.

Well, Microsoft appears to be doing things right so far.  In addition to showing a desire to participate in the AIIM effort (along with EMC, Alfresco, IBM, and Nuxeo), they hosted the first OASIS CMIS Technical Committee meeting out in Redmond, WA.  More important than either of those actions is the implications of this MSDN article, Integrating External Document Repositories with SharePoint Server 2007.

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SharePoint and Documentum, The Need for Therapy

A while back, I talked about how Patience is a Virtue while waiting for the proper integration of SharePoint and Documentum.  Andrew Chapman and the team at EMC have been working hard, and we will have what we need, at least the first step, before too much longer.  In the meantime, we have choices to make, and consequences to deal with, on a daily basis.

The biggest problem right now isn’t that EMC’s solution is behind the curve.  The current solution from EMC is comparable to their competitor’s offerings.  The problem is that the solution is inherently inadequate.  EMC knows this (which is a good thing), but until they, or anyone, gives us a better option, what do we do?

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Documentum’s High Volume Server, 6.5sp1 Edition

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One of the highlights of the D6.5 release was the new features around enabling high volumes of content in the repository.  There are two standard problems around storing lots and lots of content in an ECM system.

  1. Every object in an ECM system has overhead.  In Documentum, it is takes 2-3K in database storage per object.  That can add up quick.  Just think of the emails in your organization or the images that a financial institution might generate from scanned documents.
  2. The very act of adding content into the Content Server takes several round trips to the database.  Is this a valid ACL to assign?  Does the containing folder exist?  Those are just two of the questions asked during the process.

After learning about these features in more detail, in discussions with Victor (See a recording of his presentation on the Developer Network) and Ed, at EMC World 2008, I started making plans to use it on one of my projects.  I later learned that there is a catch.  Before we get to the catch, let’s review the highlights.

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Tony Byrne Visits the Web Content Mavens

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Happy New Year Everyone!  It has been a while since my last post.  Things have been returning to normal and I took some time off during the holiday season to hang out with my wife and boys.  Upon returning to work, there was the normal small post-holiday backlog accompanied by the chaos that is the Presidential Inauguration.  I understand that it is an important event in American history, but the loss in productivity for what is essentially Obama’s first day of work is staggering.

Maybe I should request a parade on my first day of work the next time I decide to start interviewing for a job.

In the midst of all this, on Wednesday evening I had quite an enjoyable evening at the monthly Web Content Mavens event here in DC.  It was, as always, a fun time talking to various people about their challenges implementing WCM and ECM systems.  I even ran into a few Documentum people.  The highlight of the night was listening to, and talking with, Tony Byrne, founder of CMS Watch.

I like Tony, and not just because he has bought me a beverage or two in the past.  Tony doesn’t mince words.  He tells his honest opinion in his drive to educate people on the world of ECM.  Previously, he had spoken to the Mavens on Social Media, but tonight was focused on the Web Content Management (WCM) marketplace as it stands right now.

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Gleanings from Momentum 2008 Europe

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I didn’t attend Momentum 2008 Europe, which makes the umpteenth time in row that I haven’t attended, the inverse of my streak in the States.  There were several people that did attend and I thought I would provide some basic thoughts and links for people.  I will be asking questions, so if you know the answers, please leave a comment.

[Edit 19 Nov. 2008: Be sure to read the comments for more links and commentary.]

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