Ed Alexander Consulting

EMC Documentum and Microsoft SharePoint reveal a vast divide in both resolve and vision.

EMC will tell you that Documentum is the obvious choice for enterprise implementations managing very large data and content inventories. EMC begins in the basement (with disk and server) and provides infrastructure that content-able implementations can exploit for the end-users benefit. Documentum is first and foremost a server backend, independent of any given UI framework and can be viewed as a content aware RDBMS layer above the traditional data layer.

Microsoft developed SharePoint from the user back to the server. SharePoint is indeed an interface first and provides platform architecture designed to support the experience. Not surprisingly, the nuts and bolts of SharePoint rely on other Microsoft technology to perform. SQL server with the addition of file streams is somewhat equivalent to the EMC Documentum Content Server role. SharePoint however achieves the functionality in a single scalable layer as opposed to two in the Documentum world.

Business Logic

A few years ago EMC Documentum held the crown for providing best in class business logic integration via the Business Object Framework that allows integrators (consultants) to write and register specific Java classes to execute business specific (non-Documentum) logic triggered by library services events (save, write, lock, view, etc…). The BOF capability allowed implementations to directly extend the Documentum DFC API and is quite efficient.

SharePoint business logic is largely workflow driven and much more asynchronous in nature than the EMC BOF layer. Lately improvements in .Net and Microsoft SharePoint’s best friend K2 has begun to fully exploit the SharePoint vision and much more synchronous “composition” based business logic can be applied to event triggers specific to content type items, lists and webs in a fashion that does NOT require a heads-down programmer to create or maintain. Again, the implementation starts with the experience and the time a user spends extending SharePoint functionality is largely spent working through the consumption tool (Browser).

Documentum’s answer lies in the newish Process Engine and UI. Process Engine introduces the ability to perform no-code workflows (aka K2) that are (or at least can be) event driven and defined visually through a thick windows client. Future releases will be optimized to provide a more synchronous execution of successive automatic workflow activities and in time the functional offering will be a competitive K2 alternative. Due to the close relationship between K2 and Microsoft I don’t think we will ever see a Documentum compatible offering although this would provide great benefit to many clients.

Cloud Capability

Without doubt Microsoft SharePoint, especially 2010, is the clear leader with regard to “cloud-ability”. There is no shortage of hosting partners providing both SharePoint and Exchange in a multi-tenant environment for extremely low customer investment levels. Microsoft itself is hosting Exchange, SharePoint, Live Meeting, Communicator, and Dynamics CRM at incredible monthly per-user rates. From experience trying to offer Documentum Services in an operational model (no capital expense) to clients is an impossible challenge with regard to turning a profit. The largest stumbling block is not the sales model either (although change is needed). But rather the server architecture is not written with the cloud in mind. Microsoft on the other hand is now releasing Office/SharePoint 2010 expressly to improve (if not completely mature) the cloud model.

Virtualization is the Foggy Future

Only time will tell, but if history is a reliable forecast, EMC needs to be thinking complete rewrite. It’s time to reorganize the very good server and client functionality into a softer cloud focused architecture. As customers continue to strive to reduce operating costs the current trend to virtualize server infrastructures with VMWare and Hyper-V will move to a more cloud like implementation when we will finally let go of the server mentality. Within 3 years I would be surprised to see large companies accept new software that must be provisioned at a server layer.

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