Most Active Speaker

Sean McDonough

Sean McDonough

Solutions Architect, Consultant, and Microsoft MVP

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Sean is a solutions architect and consultant with Akumina, an acknowledged market leader in the modern intranet and digital workplace solution space. Microsoft certified MCP, MCTS, and MCPD, Sean has 25+ years of experience developing software, building infrastructures, and solving technical problems. Unable to take anything except the deep dive into any role, Sean has acquired a diverse and expansive skill set as consultant, product manager, solution architect, team lead, administrator, technical delivery manager, and platform evangelist through the years. Some might label his passion for all things tech related as borderline 'obsession', but it is equal only to his desire to share those discoveries and experiences with others as author, blogger, and frequent speaker/instructor at technical conferences, user groups, and similar events all over North America. Sean is also a Microsoft MVP. He can be reached through his blog (https://SharePointInterface.com) or on Twitter (@spmcdonough)

Awards

Area of Expertise

  • Information & Communications Technology

Topics

  • SharePoint
  • SharePoint Online
  • Microsoft 365
  • Microsoft Office
  • Performance Tuning
  • Aspect Oriented Programming
  • AOP
  • .NET Development
  • Disaster Recovery
  • API Design
  • Akumina Architecture
  • Akumina Development
  • Akumina Solutions
  • Microsoft 365 Administration
  • Microsoft MVP
  • Microsoft TEALS
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • PowerShell
  • Caching
  • CDN

Troubleshooting Performance Issues in SharePoint Online Sites

Since its introduction, the growth in popularity and compelling value of Office 365 have resulted in many organizations adopting SharePoint Online rather than building an on-premises implementation. Building SharePoint Online sites shouldn’t be approached with the same mindset as on-premises site construction, though. In this session, we’ll explore some of the key differences between SharePoint Online and SharePoint on-premises that impact performance and affect site design. We’ll examine why developing for the cloud is different, identify common performance issues/concerns, and demonstrate some good (and not-so-good) site construction approaches. We’ll also look at some hands-on troubleshooting techniques that are available for diagnosing common SharePoint Online performance issues, as well as some solutions that can be applied. At the conclusion of this session, participants will have a greater understanding of SharePoint Online, how to build snappy sites in SharePoint Online, and how to conduct basic performance troubleshooting in the cloud.

Solid Foundations: Building Solutions in an Earthquake-Prone SharePoint Area

SharePoint Online (SPO) has been with us for a number of years now, and adoption of the platform continues on an upward trajectory. At the same time, Microsoft has committed to supply SharePoint in an on-premises server form for the foreseeable future. So what happens when you’re tasked with building your next SharePoint-centric solution and the selection of on-prem or cloud can’t be nailed down? Or worse, what if you’re told to build a solution that will start out on-prem and then go to the cloud sometime down the road? Would you be able design and build something that meets your users’ needs without unnecessary worry and the potential migration risks? Do you know enough about the options, benefits, and disadvantages of the various tools and approaches at your disposal to confidently make informed decisions and avoid instant obsolescence? In this session, we’ll look at what’s currently at your disposal, including full-blown development techniques and those that are friendlier to those who might consider themselves “citizen developers”. We’ll build an understanding of the decision points and criteria that might suggest or preclude the use of one or more tools/techniques, and we’ll take a look at some approaches to assembling and creating SharePoint solutions that you may not have considered or even been aware of. Attendees of this session will leave with the know-how and understanding to confidently design and assemble their next SharePoint-centric solution in an “earthquake-resistant” fashion

Reaching Airspeed Velocity to Get Your New Intranet Off the Ground

The creation of the first intranet happened in the latter part of the 20th century, but no one would recognize that as an intranet by today’s standards. Since then, intranet implementations and the platforms they’re built on have matured significantly and grown more complex.

In this session, we’ll be looking at the modern intranet through the lens of SharePoint. There are plenty of decisions to consider and points to deliberate even before you jump into action. We’ll discuss optimal team composition, roles that should be factored-in, technological considerations, stakeholder involvement/representation, project lifecycle needs, launch considerations, and more.

I’ll be sharing my experiences, highlights, triumphs, and painful lessons learned architecting intranets of varying sizes for the last decade or so.

In short: we will be covering all of the things I wish *I* had known before I ever started building intranets in the hopes they will spare you some of the pain I endured.

Helping Your New Intranet Reach Airspeed Velocity

The creation of the first intranet happened in the latter part of the 20th century, but no one would recognize that as an intranet by today’s standards. Since then, intranet implementations and the platforms they’re built on have matured significantly and grown in complexity. In this session, we’ll be looking at the modern intranet with a focus on SharePoint-based design and implementation. There are plenty of decisions to consider and points to deliberate even before you jump into action. We’ll discuss optimal team composition, roles that should be factored-in, technological considerations, stakeholder involvement/representation, project lifecycle needs, launch considerations, and more. I’ll be sharing my experiences, highlights, triumphs, and painful lessons learned architecting intranets of varying sizes for the last decade or so. In short: we will be covering the things I wish *I* had known before I ever started working on intranets in the hope that they will spare you some of the pain I endured.

Caching and SharePoint: What Works, What No Longer Works, and Where We Are Today

Caching is a critical variable in the SharePoint scalability and performance equation, but it’s one that is oftentimes misunderstood or dismissed as being needed only for large scale/large site scenarios. In this lively and fast-paced session, we’ll build an understanding of the caching options that exist within the SharePoint platform: object caching, BLOB caching, page output caching, and SharePoint’s Distributed Cache service. We’ll examine each option, discuss how it works, identify how it can be controlled, and cover common pitfalls that may impact its use. We’ll also clarify if and how each option works (or doesn’t) in SharePoint Online and the important implications that are carried. Those who attend this session will leave with the knowledge needed to understand and make the use of caching in their own SharePoint environments, whether those environments are on-premises or online.

Applying AOP to Increase Solution Development Velocity

Despite having been around for the better part of two decades, most developers building compiled .NET and SharePoint solutions (including full-trust SharePoint customization and provider-hosted add-ins, or PHAs) aren’t familiar with Aspect-Oriented Programming, or AOP.

The goal of this session is to introduce developers to AOP, what it is, how it works, and the tools that enable the use of AOP in .NET and other solution development. We’ll work through a number of code samples that illustrate how AOP greatly simplifies the process of architecting and addressing cross-cutting development concerns like logging, security, exception handling, and more. If you’re looking for ways to streamline development and reduce boilerplate code in your solutions, this is the session to attend.

"Wait ... What?!" SharePoint Online (SPO) Edition

The SharePoint platform is over 20 years old and has more than its fair share of oddities, strange anomalies, unexpected limitations, and just plain-old weird behavior. To understand these SharePoint “intricacies” and why they exist in the first place, it helps to understand SharePoint’s Byzantine history, version compromises, and platform evolution since initial release.

In this session, we will investigate a selection of SPO behaviors and strangeness that everyone should be aware of.

We will build an understanding of the hazards they pose, highlight the potential factors that precipitate their appearance, and identify potential mitigations that can be applied to avoid (or at least lessen) the pain they bring when they do manifest in your SPO environment.

At the conclusion of this session, you’ll understand why SPO sometimes goes bump in the night – and how you can effectively deal with it.

Designing for Optimal Performance in SharePoint Online

In the last several years, the growth in popularity and compelling value of Office 365 have resulted in many organizations adopting SharePoint Online rather than building an on-premises implementation. Developing for SharePoint Online shouldn’t be approached with the same mindset as developing for SharePoint on-premises, though. In this session, we’ll take a look at how SharePoint Online is implemented and how it differs from a typical on-premises implementation. We’ll examine why developing for the cloud is different, identify common development concerns, and demonstrate some good (and bad) development approaches. We’ll also look at some hands-on troubleshooting techniques that are available for diagnosing common SharePoint Online performance problems, as well as some solutions that can be applied. At the conclusion of this session, participants will have a greater understanding of SharePoint Online, how to develop for it, and how to perform basic performance troubleshooting in the cloud.

Highlights
1. Build an understanding of how SharePoint Online is implemented
2. Identify common SharePoint Online development concerns and challenges
3. Demonstrate SharePoint Online troubleshooting tools, activities, and remediation steps

Code Solutions to Improve SharePoint Performance and Scalability via Caching

Caching is a critical variable in the SharePoint scalability and performance equation, but it’s one that’s oftentimes misunderstood or dismissed as being needed only in Internet-facing scenarios. In this session, we’ll discuss the reasons why developers need to be "cache aware" in order to sidestep common performance and responsiveness issues in SharePoint. We'll also investigate the array of programmatic options that are available to developers who wish to employ or extend SharePoint caching, including the ASP.NET Cache, distributed caching mechanisms, fragment caching, and post-cache substitution. By the end of this session, developers will have some new tricks to improve the performance and scalability of their SharePoint code using caching.

Highlights
1. Discussion of SharePoint-specific and ASP.NET caching mechanisms available to developers
2. Quantify performance and scalability improvements achieved with each mechanism
3. Walk-through and demonstrate code samples showing implementation of mechanisms

Tapping the Power in PowerShell

PowerShell has been around in some form since 2005, but it was only with SharePoint Server 2010 that PowerShell became an official part of the SharePoint administrative landscape. Nowadays, PowerShell is the preferred mechanism for administrative management of SharePoint farms, both on-premises and in the cloud with SharePoint Online. In this session, we’ll be taking a more advanced look at PowerShell and how it can be used to execute and script administrative actions for SharePoint. We’ll look at some common SharePoint activities that are carried-out through PowerShell, as well as some of the newer PowerShell capabilities like desired state configuration (DSC). We’ll also look at some PowerShell watch-outs including some behaviors that can sometimes cause trouble with SharePoint. Administrators and developers alike will leave this session with a variety of concepts and script samples that can be used to immediately improve operations within their own SharePoint environments.

Highlights
1. A review of baseline PowerShell operations, concepts, and SharePoint cmdlets
2. A look at advanced PowerShell capabilities (like DSC) and how they can be leveraged
3. Numerous script samples that can be adapted for use in most SharePoint environments

The Essentials of SharePoint Disaster Recovery Planning

“Are my nightly SQL Server backups good enough?” “Do I need an off-site disaster recovery facility?” “How do I even start the process of disaster recovery planning?” These are just a few of the more common questions that arise when the topic of SharePoint disaster recovery comes up. As with most things SharePoint, the real answer to each question is oftentimes “it depends.” In this business and process-centric session, we will be taking a look at the topic of SharePoint disaster recovery from multiple perspectives: business continuity planner, technical architect, platform owner, and others. Critical concepts and terms will be explained and defined, and an effective process for analyzing and formulating a disaster recovery plan will be discussed. We’ll also highlight some common mistakes that take place when working to build a disaster recovery strategy and how you can avoid them. By the end of this session, you will be armed with the knowledge needed to plan or review a disaster recovery strategy for your SharePoint environment.

Highlights
1. A “big picture” understanding of business continuity and disaster recovery for technical systems
2. Explanation of key terms and concepts that are needed for effective disaster recovery planning
3. Identification of specific disaster recovery watch-out areas for SharePoint

Sean McDonough

Solutions Architect, Consultant, and Microsoft MVP

Cincinnati, Ohio, United States