We were in a management meeting the other day and we were discussing the Documentum World blog. The Asia Pacific IIG Chief Architect, Chris Tolhurst, looked too relaxed for my liking so I decided that he needs a few more wrinkles…

As a result we’ll be getting regular contributions from Chris that are more technical in nature and I’m sure he’d be happy to post on any topic that you wish – just post a comment.

His first contribution follows…

Let’s start with a little history.

In the Beginning There Was Verity

For about as long as I can remember and up until Documentum 5.3, full text indexing and search was provided by the Verity FTE engine. It was tightly coupled to the product and was run on the content server.

This all changed, of course, with the introduction FAST as a replacement in Documentum 5.3. FAST InStream 4.3 was used for the integration and remains in current Documentum versions, albeit as 4.3.1.  This change was additionally significant because it externalised the index server and also brought about the introduction of a pluggable architecture for index and search. Simplistically, this looks like the following:

The original intent was to have a framework where a variety if full text engines could be used but really only realised the addition of one in the form of Apache Lucene for the OEM edition of Content Server.

So now it is time for FAST to be replaced (the Microsoft buyout had nothing to do with it, really….). Actually, the main reasons are FAST being moved away from the OEM business and InStream 4.3.1 not being supported beyond 2011. Why not upgrade to a newer version of FAST you say? Well that’s another story but my speculation is on platforms being phased out for FAST and the odd commercial consideration.

Along Came xPlore

You may have heard of ESS or DSS which were internal names for what is officially known as xPlore. EMC Documentum xPlore represents the next generation of search from Documentum. It is based on the open source Apache Lucene project but underpinned with the power of EMC’s XML database, xDB. It leverages the query and index plug-ins in the same manner as FAST.

The Controlled Release began in July 2010 and included participation from over 32 qualified customers. This is the highest ever for a Documentum Controlled Release program. Version 1.0 of Documentum xPlore went Generally Available (GA) in November 2010.

EMC Documentum xPlore introduces a number of benefits over the previous FAST implementation:

• Virtualisation support
• Additional support for storage – NAS now supported
• Integrated Documentum security
• Enhanced administration
• Native facet computation
• Improved performance and scaling
• Query and ingestion analytics
• Improved HA /DR support
• Easier deployment (especially with multi-node)

Many of these are topics in themselves so I won’t go into them now.

The current version of xPlore is 1.0. This version supports English, German & Chinese languages. Version 1.1 will be bundles with Documentum 6.7 and will add language support for French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

So How Long Do I Have?

As mentioned earlier in this post, Microsoft will cease support for InStream 4.3.1 at the end of 2011 – effectively on 12/31/2011. This means that FAST for Documentum will not be available for download from that date and it also means that there are no new features being added in the integration. It is basically in a holding pattern or “sustaining mode” to use internal speak.

Both FAST and xPlore are supported on 6.5 SP2, 6.5 SP3 and 6.6 so you have a choice with these versions but Documentum 6.7 will only use xPlore as will versions beyond that.

The official line from Powerlink is:

“Because of this change in support from Microsoft, FAST InStream server now has a different end-of-support cycle than the rest of the Documentum Platform. Documentum 6.5 SP2, 6.5 SP3, and 6.6 will be the last releases that will support FAST (up until the end of 2011). EMC recommends that customers who want to ensure full support of search functionality should upgrade to xPlore before the end of 2011.”

Migrating

This is another of those topics in themselves which I will leave to the next post. Let me leave it by saying that you have several options available when migrating from FAST to xPlore. In order of decreasing downtime the main approaches are:

1. A cold swap – replace FAST with xPlore and re-index
2. Straight migration – build xPlore indexes while FAST is running and cut over
3. Dual Mode Indexing – allows both FAST and xPlore to be available on the same repository

The next post will look at what is involved in these and the pros and cons of each.

Some follow up links

FAQs https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-10268

Support Statement https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-8933

 

xplore

Climate Change is a great topic of debate these days and it is scary stuff. This article will, as usual, link back to Content Management but you’ll need to stick with me for a while….

Man Made Climate Change – The Key Players

In the Red Corner

On one side of the debate we’ve got the scientists and the United Nations who actively promote the idea of man-made climate change on the basis of what some would argue are flimsy models, speculative science and poor peer reviews (all lured by the funding on offer).

In the Blue Corner

On the other side we have the ‘climate change deniers’ who have been likened by some pro-climate change politicians to ‘holocaust deniers’.

They are a varied bunch; they range from those with a vested interest (due to being funded by the organisations with most to lose) to people who suggest that the Iron Mountain Report is authentic (time to Google) and that the fear of Climate Change is the latest mechanism for controlling the population. Some also claim that the UN’s Agenda 21 is the way that climate change fear is being used to destroy private property rights and move towards a New World Order…

The Spectators

Sitting in the front row seats are Governments – always looking for a new and exciting tax (some may say) ‘believe’ that a carbon tax may be the best way to go, taxing ‘polluters’ (like us) and using the proceeds to compensate those who they believe will suffer the greatest hardship (be it big business or the low paid).

In reality it’s just another massive re-distribution of wealth allowing ‘the state’ to further control the post-tax income level of the middle to high income workers.

Then in the cheap seats are the rest of us…

The majority of people are worried and confused. On one hand they’re worried about the fate of the planet (and future generations) and on the other hand they’re worried about whether they can pay the rent or the power bill and the furthest thought from their collective mind is whether this is a diabolical plot to introduce global government with total control of the world’s population…

So the bout has begun – we’re a few rounds in, there’s been a lot of sparring but although the red corner appears to have the upper hand no clear winner is has yet emerged.

Despite the fact that there is a lot of content floating around but still there is no consensus.

Of course, Content Management could help us to collect, collate and analyse the data but that’s not where I’m going with this….

Enter EPFM…

DocumentumWorld will soon be focusing on the Energy Sector and whether you wholeheartedly believe in Man-Made Climate Change, are a skeptic or an outright denier the fact is efficiency leads to conserving natural resources.

Also the switch to renewable energy generation is a huge programme of work for the energy sector and if it is done efficiently the time to value is not only accelerated in terms of the project itself but the time to value in terms of reducing CO₂ emissions and reducing our dependency on fossil fuels is also accelerated.

It doesn’t matter what side of the debate you are in there should be little debate that this is:

• Good for the environment
• Good for future generations
• Good for business
• Good for consumers

EPFM is EMC’s Engineering, Plant and Facilities Management solution and is a ‘best practice’ implementation of Documentum designed to optimise critical business processes within the engineering industry.

Where an energy company is looking building and commissioning new power stations, wind farms, solar power stations in northern Queensland or even nuclear power stations, EPFM can optimise the six phases of the plant lifecycle (feasibility, design, construct, operate, renew and decommission) by ensuring that the significant amount of content and processes that are shared between users, departments and external organisations is able to be accessed in a timely manner without duplication, at the correct version level and without potentially expensive data loss.

Not having a solution such as EPFM has the effect of delaying project completion, increasing overall project costs and ultimately delaying the switch to renewable sources of energy.

Having EPFM would allow the energy sector to not only derive all of the financial benefits of these efficiencies but would also allow it to report accurately on its progress towards the ‘green’ goals it sets (or has set for it).

The Golden Age

So I hope that this look at EPFM has demonstrated that the Energy Sector is in a unique position to make the switch towards sustainable energy, while demonstrating its progress towards achieving these goals. Solutions, such as Documentum EPFM, are a key tool in achieving these aims.

Maybe by assisting the Energy Sector with their move towards sustainable and renewable sources of energy, EMC can help save the planet, avoid a carbon tax, reduce power bills and halt the march towards Global Servitude – the New World Order will have to wait for another day

climate change · energy

First of all excuse me for not being PC – but our best ‘person’ behind the wheel doesn’t sound right to me

I was playing Gran Turismo 5 at the weekend and my excuse for buying it was “it’s a visual masterpiece” (the wife really bought that line). I like it because it gives me the opportunity to drive my car the way I would like to drive it – fast, without worrying about damage, on the open road and on a good road surface (the joys of motoring in Sydney!).

Anyway, I was racing around Trial Mountain against my 12 year old son and he chose something ridiculous to race in (I think it was the Pagani Zonda) and I chose the Mazda RX8 (an exact copy of the one that sits either in my garage gathering dust or in traffic on the Pacific Highway!). Now the Zonda is easily the more powerful car (by about 500 BHP) but I won the race with ease. Now I could say it’s because I’m technically a superior driver, but the fact is that I understand how to drive a car and what to expect from the technology (front mounted rotary engine, RWD, brakes, etc), as well as what to expect from the external environment (weather, road surface, physics, etc). In addition, I’m more experienced, I knew I could afford to pace myself, when to take risks and when to play safe and I knew my competition.

On the other hand, my son understood that the Zonda had more power but that was it…

Then today I came to work and read this article The State of ECM 2010.

This was a blog post regarding AIIM’s State of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) 2010 report and it was interesting in that it seems that many organisations are not putting their best man behind the wheel – in fact many of them seem to have bought the car, jammed down the accelerator and let it rip. No wonder many of these projects come off the road on the first corner….

The point is made that 47% of organisations do not have true executive support for ECM, despite 86% having an ECM ‘solution’.
The report also points at the reasons for having ECM. These are the ‘usual suspects’ of compliance and cost reduction – very little of gaining competitive advantage or delivering a better level of service to customers.

Information Management is key to an organisation’s success, yet it seems that it is still not taken seriously; it needs to be a key part of an organisation’s strategy and driven accordingly.

It’s no use giving the keys to the Zonda to the boy who cleans the windscreen and telling him to go and win the race… you need the best person behind the wheel

Case Management · Documentum · ECM · Enterprise Content Management

A colleague of mine pointed me at a New Scientist article recently entitled ‘Biosemiotics: Searching for Meanings in a Meadow’

Now, when I was younger, I loved New Scientist but I haven’t read it for years and it took me a long time to get around to reading this (sorry Geoffrey).

It was heavy going but the gist of it was that there is an emerging ‘science’ that, from what I can gather, is concerned with the link between natural signs and the resultant actions of biological, living systems. It may even go so far as to try to link this as genetic information stored for future generations and manifesting itself as instinct.

Now I’m sure that the Biosemiotic community out there will correct me in my vulgar interpretation (no-one said I was an expert) but it strikes me that there is a parallel between Biosemiotics and Content Management.

Instinct is designed to give us a basic sense of survival. Female mosquitoes need to suck on blood to reproduce. They have a tremendous array of chemical receptors but that doesn’t explain how they know to bite. The receptors sense carbon dioxide (the sign) and they bite, presumably instinctively.

While Biosemiotics may explain why we have the tools to survive in a primitive world, it cannot help us to survive in the corporate world and this is why (you guessed it) we increasingly need to live in the Documentum World….

All organisations we deal with have a need, it may be compliance, it may be collaboration, it may be business decision making/case management but it can also be self preservation.

The ‘law of the jungle’ is best summed up as survival of the fittest. Biosemiotics could explain how some weaker animals are better able to cope with this by recognising danger signs and acting instinctively to survive but the law of the jungle applies in the corporate world also. So how do organisations equip themselves for either self preservation or the ability to be effective predators? (more…)

Case Management · Documentum · ECM · Enterprise Content Management