Read more about the advantages, advice, and the do’s and don’ts that The University of Texas at Austin Information Technology Services (ITS) has published about their implementation.

SharePoint article from the University of Texas at Austin

Technical Advantages of DocAve Extender

Comprehensive Support:

DocAve Extender leverages Microsoft’s BLOB APIs to securely offload Binary Large Objects with full fidelity to tiered storage. No metadata is lost when content is transitioned to file-based storage.

Full-Featured Management of Content:

Content offloaded to file-based storage with DocAve Extender can be managed using all of SharePoint’s management and collaboration tools, including versioning, workflows, and alerts, all as if it was residing directly in SharePoint’s SQL database.

Administrator-defined Rules for Automatic Off-load Based Upon File Size:

Determine what BLOB files are transferred to file-based storage by file size. DocAve Extender will automatically analyze all content attempting upload and transfer it to the appropriate storage resource.

Transfer Content to any Network File Shares, FTP system, or Cloud Storage System:

Offload to any network addressable file share, File Transfer Protocol system, or cloud-based storage system (including Rackspace, Amazon, and Microsoft).

Seamless Integration with SharePoint Search:

All data residing in file-based storage is fully integrated with SharePoint’s native, full text search functionality, as well as all other search tools that leverage the standard SharePoint API.

Comprehensive Support for Custom Metadata and Column Types:

All content transferred to file-based storage via DocAve Extender can be associated with all of SharePoint’s standard and customized metadata fields, and appended with any variety of column types.

Integrated Permissions Management:

Securities and permissions for content residing in file-based storage are fully integrated with SharePoint’s permissions management. Both unique and inherited permissions can be delegated to extended content as if it were residing directly in SharePoint’s SQL database.

Total Interactivity with Client Office Applications and Third-party Tools:

Extended content can be presented and modified directly through Office applications, or acted upon by third-party tools, just as if the content resided in SharePoint’s SQL database.

How To Download the Free DocAve Extender

AvePoint’s DocAve Extender will be available for download free of charge from the AvePoint website (www.avepoint.com/download) on March 11, 2010. After downloading the free, fully enabled 30-day trial of the full DocAve Software Platform, North American based organizations that wish to continue using DocAve Extender can call AvePoint at 1-800-661-6588 or email Sales@avepoint.com to receive their perpetual license for DocAve Extender.

Fill out each worksheet in this workbook to get a complete understanding of the servers, services, Web applications, sites, and customizations in your environment. Some of this information is generated for you when you run the pre-upgrade checker tool and can be copied from the XML report that the tool generates. You can also gather information by using the Stsadm -o enumallwebs command. These tools have been updated to include additional functionality in the October 2009 Cumulative Update (such as which sites use a feature and information about large lists).

After running these tools, you will have a preliminary list of the components in your environment. When you perform a trial upgrade, you can verify that you have a complete list of the components.

When you perform your actual upgrade, you can use this workbook as a checklist to verify that you have upgraded all the components in your environment. You can also add to this workbook if you have additional post-upgrade tasks to perform (such as identifying missing server files or following up on sites that were not upgraded correctly).

Link to the .xls on the Microsoft Download Center

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140387312957

SharePoint Server 2007 messenger bag, Timbuk2 style with padded sleeve for a 15” notebook.

I won this bag at a Chicago user group over two years ago. It has been sitting in my closet and I have not used it. It is in very good condition.

I also include in the auction the SharePoint Server 2007 Administrators companion book.

Buy it now is only $25.00 including shipping.

It is rare to see universities offering classes on very current technologies not to mention offering college credit for a very current version and the future version of SharePoint.

http://www.cdm.depaul.edu/ipd/Programs/Pages/SharePointDeveloperProgram.aspx

Overview
A 10-week comprehensive program covering Microsoft SharePoint development. The program exposes students to SharePoint architecture and the use of SharePoint as a development platform for building customized solutions, focusing on SharePoint as a collaboration framework and content management system.

The program will begin with an overview of the various product editions and their features as well as a refresher of the .NET 2.0+ fundamentals that SharePoint is built upon. The program will then provide in-depth coverage of the core development constructs of SharePoint to enable the student to understand how the pieces fit together in common use cases. Finally, the program will expose the student to current development trends and how they will carry over into the next release of the product, SharePoint 2010.

Admission Requirements
Applicants must have a solid programming background (at least two years of professional experience is preferred), including some experience building dynamic websites using ASP.NET and C#, and knowledge of basic HTML/CSS.

Dates & Location: Spring Quarter 2010
Application deadline: Mar. 12, 2010
Tuition deadline: Mar. 18, 2010
Classes begin: Mar. 30, 2010 
Classes end: Jun. 3, 2010
Classes meet on Tuesday and Thursday evenings (5:45pm-9pm) at DePaul University’s Loop Campus at 243 South Wabash Avenue, Chicago, IL.

Online Section: Students may elect to register for an online section of the course. For more information about the online section, click here.
DePaul University reserves the right to cancel any program prior to that program’s first class meeting.

Course Credit
The SharePoint Developer Program is an accredited course of DePaul University, which follows the quarter system (as opposed to the semester system).
Course #: IPD 358
Credit hours: 10 undergraduate

For a complete program description, download the program brochure.

• A separate SSP website is no longer needed in your farm. Service applications are managed in Central Administration.
• You can pick and choose which services to use as opposed to associating an SSP to a web application and having to use everything (Search, Profiles, BDC, etc…)
• Ala carte association of service application. Again, you are not forced into using and administrating all the services such as with the SSP model.
• Reuse the same service applications across web applications.
• Use multiple instances of service applications. (Be sure to create unique names for each instance)
• SharePoint Foundation (WSS) can also use service applications. SSP’s in SharePoint 2007 is MOSS only.

Microsoft Video - Windows Media

One of the first places I looked to understand SharePoint 2007 was the farm topologies.

This information is great to learn basic terminology and the possible scalable infrastructure of SharePoint.

Some additions that are different from SharePoint 2007 is the inclusion of service applications and components.

Link to Microsoft Download Center