Why install Groove?

[Kyle Brand]

My company (roughly 1200 people inhouse, with remote sites across the us) is
looking to upgrade to Office 2007, and we are looking at all of the latest MS
Office applications (groove, onenote, infopath). I was wondering if I could
bother some people about their opinions of Groove. Why install it? What use
are the relay servers? Give me the plusses as you see them, but I need the
negatives, as well.

Thanks for any help. I would rather get the information from people using
it rather than the shoddy papers that microsoft has. I get a much clearer
picture from other users.

 

[Ina Koys]

My company (roughly 1200 people inhouse, with remote sites across the us) is
looking to upgrade to Office 2007, and we are looking at all of the latest MS
Office applications (groove, onenote, infopath). I was wondering if I could
bother some people about their opinions of Groove. Why install it? What use
are the relay servers?

The main plus about Groove is, that it does NOT need a server. It is a
P2P-Application designed to avoid small mailboxes, duplicate or outdated
files and the possibly restricted access to the sharepoint servers. In
Office Enterprise, it is part of the bundle, the price for a single
license is simply ridiculous.
Groove can be used with a server, but Microsoft itself marks, that case
was a really rare one.

Ina

 

[Jan Talens]

Hi Kyle,

Groove is a hybrid P2P application, meaning that it will use the P2P
protocol whenever possible, but that it will use the Groove servers
alternatively.

Our company having experience since 2001 with deploying all types of
Groove architectures, I listed hereunder 3 scenarii that might help you:


Scenario A - use the public "level 1" relay services that ship with your
Groove license.

++
Free of charge, no additional server or user management required. A
perfect solution for (very) small companies

--
No user management, no management of security rules, no integration with
Active Directory (LDAP), ...
A-synchronious synchronisation uses the Internet.


Scenario B - use the Groove Enterprise Services (available in the MSVL
SELECT you probably have in place)
A perfect solution for mid-sized companies.

++
No Groove servers to be put in place and to be managed in your company.
Possibility to manage users and security rules

--
No integration with Active Directory
A-synchronious synchronisation uses the Internet.


Scenario C - have your own Groove servers. (for 1200 users you will need
3 servers ; 1 Groove server manager, and 2 Groove server relay)

++
Manage users and security policies.
Synchronisation between employees will be within your LAN / WAN.
You control the servers. Possibility to configure a "closed network"
if required.
Integration with Active Directory, better monitoring (reporting)of user
activity
Lower costs compared to Groove Enterprise Services (based upon 1200
users you mentionned)

--
Groove servers to be put in place and managed.


Hope this gives you a better idea about when to deploy Groove servers or
not.
Feel free to drop me an e-mail or a line to further discuss


Best regards,

Jan Talens
Hommes & Process

(e-mail address removed)

http://www.hommesetprocess.com/
http://www.grooveit.biz/


Kyle Brand a écrit :

 

[Mark Smith]

Hi Kyle -

I think the best reasons for using Groove are those that come from people
actually using it. From our customers, the main benefits seem to be:

1: Getting things done: It is easy to create workspaces and invite people in
to work on specific tasks, You need a cross-departmental (or
cross-organizational) team pulled together, quickly? Groove works great for
this.

2: just works, and simply. We often Groove-enable teams and get them working
collaboratively in less than an hour.

3: The IT department doesn't seem too unhappy. Because there's
sufficient management control of Groove via the servers, and Groove now being
part of Office, IT departments are a lot less hostile to Groove.

If you're rolling out to 1200 users, you /will/ need to be running your own
servers. There are Groove partners here, and elsewhere who have experience,
and who can help you with that.

Hope this helps.