Fortifying the Pillars of Governance

The ability to discover and modify SharePoint securities is similarly limited, as native SharePoint tools do not allow administrators to discover the deployment-wide access/modification rights for a particular end-user or group without manually searching each element within the entire deployment. Furthermore, in more complex environments with complex inheritance, administrators cannot discover and modify securities changes for an end-user or group without accessing the settings interface of each SharePoint element or object for which that user has prescribed permissions. There is really no native way to search, view or modify all elements and objects for which a specific end-user or group has permissions, leading to inefficient use of an administrator’s time, and a poorly governed information security strategy.

SharePoint’s native capabilities with regard to the protection, access and lifecycle management of content and data are also limited. SharePoint cannot natively backup and restore data and content at the item-level with full fidelity, nor can it ensure total farm backup of all SharePoint components, including the GAC, IIS, the SharePoint Hive, and other front-end customizations. There is no native functionality enabling organizations to optimize the performance of their SharePoint deployment via business-rule-aware archiving, or any way to ensure all geographically distributed end-users accessing offline or satellite SharePoint farms have access to the same, up-to-date information as those accessing the central, or main, farm.

Additionally, out-of-the-box reporting, auditing and archiving features for the sake of meeting compliance obligations are not robust enough for organizations crafting a comprehensive governance strategy. SharePoint cannot perform full data-capture archive snapshots—including securities, metadata and audit trail—retain them in an immutable form, or maintain them outside of SharePoint’s SQL storage. Targeted audit retrieval or reporting by user, object and activity is also lacking in out-of-the-box SharePoint deployments. Executing automated data pruning—based on globally defined retention policies—is not possible natively, nor is tracking and reporting upon all SharePoint activities from the object, user or event perspective.

SharePoint provides the foundation for governance, but additional technical tools are required—in conjunction with appropriate procedural protocols—to ensure truly effective and efficient management of site and information architecture, securities and policies, operational procedures and compliance adherence.

Two Platforms, One Comprehensive Governance Solution
True IT governance requires the leadership, organizational structures and processes that ensure information technology systems—such as SharePoint—sustain and extend the organization’s strategies and objectives. Remember that governance is not simply an internal administrative task, nor can it succeed without having executive sponsorship and clear business planning executed before deploying any technology. This ever-evolving puzzle includes site and information architecture, securities and policies, operational procedures and compliance. To successfully satisfy all four of these pillars, key stakeholders must implement the appropriate tools. Anything short of this, and effective governance is simply unachievable.

SharePoint’s distinctive capabilities and architecture provide unique governance challenges, and consequently dedicated SharePoint governance tools are required. The platform’s native tools do not provide the breadth of functionality of the agility necessary to efficiently deliver governance in today’s competitive and regulatory landscape.

DocAve and SharePoint: Closing the Governance Gap
The key is to adopt the technical tools that empower the IT administrator to satisfy his or her governance operations efficiently. This is what AvePoint’s flagship solution, the DocAve Software Platform, was designed for. Comprised of more than 25 independently deployable modules, all piloted via a unified, browser-based interface and built upon a fully distributed architecture, DocAve delivers the software solutions organizations need to ensure its SharePoint deployment meets all IT governance standards, including:

• Administration—DocAve enables organizations to unify the management of all SharePoint permissions, users, objects and content from a single interface for multiple SharePoint environments and instances;
• Storage optimization—DocAve allows companies to keep their Microsoft SQL Server resources optimized with intelligent archiving, automated, real-time binary large object (BLOB) offloading via the EBS/RBS providers, and migration-free SharePoint connectivity to network and file-share content;
• Reporting and testing—DocAve arms administrators with a fully customizable dashboard to access all mission-critical analytics regarding SharePoint infrastructure, health and activity; build comprehensive audit and analytics reports for legal/regulatory review; and create fully customizable SharePoint testing environments to ensure optimal system architecture and enable informed strategic planning;
• Replication and integration—DocAve offers real-time one-way, two-way and one-to-many synchronization of SharePoint content and configurations, within or across farms, so all end-users have access to the most up-to-date information;
• Data protection—DocAve delivers comprehensive SharePoint data protection, with support for granular, item-level through platform-level backup, and swift, full-fidelity recovery of SharePoint content and architecture;
• Regulatory compliance—DocAve delivers the comprehensive auditing, flexible reporting and automated lifecycle management tools organizations require to meet all regulatory obligations and best-practice protocols, in addition to enabling and supporting a culture of proactive compliance for SharePoint deployments; and
• Migration—DocAve ensures that companies using prior versions of SharePoint (including Windows SharePoint Services v2 and v3, SharePoint Portal Server 2003, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007) or a variety of legacy platforms, including Lotus Notes and Documentum, can perform a secure and lossless migration to Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010.

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For more information, visit www.avepoint.com/sharepoint-solutions/governance-and-compliance/ or send an email to an AvePoint specialist at: sales@avepoint.com.