Tron Legacy Movie SharePoint SEO Bing Search TLA and other Acronyms....

Inoun what does this mean (yada yada)?

I am glad you asked. But first the disclaimer. All product names, all acronyms, and all trademarks, unless otherwise noted, are trademarks and/or trade dress their respective companies. The names of actual companies and products mentioned in materials appearing on this stupid blog, may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Ha! In my line of work with SharePoint Search, FAST Search, FSIS, FSIA, FIS-E, FIS-A, ESP, CTS, IMS, Bing and other search engines, one of the linguistical magic tools of the trades is, you guessed it, TRON. Well, not really, kind of. Let me explain it this way. Acronyms. "You can always tell the new employees by their lack of brains in the Three Letter Acronym(TLA) department." The other day, I was absolutely stunned buy (yes I know) how bad the acronym alphabet soup at work really is, and I was contrasting this (in my own very tiny little brain), with how interesting they have made TLA's in movies like the original TRON and TRON Legacy. And it is pervasive (at work and in TRON.) Acronyms are, well, like the black plague (or depending on your PoV, pc pen vk (this one you are going to have to look it up)), laying dormant ready to pounce on you, hunt you down and make you go green (as in soylent green). Basically, if you don't understand acronyms as a search consultant, you are well, green (multiple meanings).

Acronyms and synonyms will either make you a super hero, or turn you green (even more meanings). So kids, today's adventure is in acronyms bordering on the absurd. I will give you many, many examples. These are quoted directly and right out of the FAST License Grants document. I have put "...."'s throughout the quoted text to help shorten the text (as well as for comedic effect. It is just something we DAH(Do around here)...), but I haven't not modified the following originally not "quoted" text.

Ok, so I dare you. No, I quintuple hot dog dare you that you can't not actually be able to not understand it and articulate a coherent thought about it or of it or after reading it to me or anyone else SEFB(Stupid Enough For Brains) to read it and understand it for and to me (so there):

Microsoft is soon to release new search products based on FAST search technology .... demonstrate our commitment to game-changing innovation by delivering new choices in search providing highly-capable yet easy-to-manage solutions that go well beyond the search box [ed. wow is that a marketing filled mouthful]. We have been working hard to ensure that FAST customers who continue to invest in FAST search .... eligible FAST customers will receive license rights to one or more 2010 Wave (aka “Wave 14”) search products based on FAST technology. These license grants are intended to enable qualified FAST customers ...., Wave 14 search deployments ...., products are ESP, ESP for SharePoint, FDS, Impulse, mSearch, ProPublish, or AdVisor. Perpetual license. Only perpetual licenses are eligible for license grants through this program. Term licenses are not. Current on M&S. Customer must be current on FAST M&S at the time of availability of the Wave 14 product ... The FAQ is available below. FAST License Grants FAQ's .... Wave 14 search products based on FAST technology .... enable qualified FAST customers .... to equivalent Wave 14-based search deployments.

[ed. Okay. Maybe you got this far. Don't cheat. If you did cheat, go back and read it again. All of it. You won't understand the next part if you don't.]

.... Current on M&S. Customer must be current on FAST M&S at the time of availability of the Wave 14 product .... What search solutions based on FAST technology will be offered in the upcoming release cycle?

.... (referenced as “FS4SP” in this document).
.... (“FSIA”).
.... ("FSIS").
.... Enterprise (“FIS-E”).  This product includes rights to Microsoft® FAST™ Search Server 2010 for SharePoint® Internet Sites (“FS4FIS”). [ed. No I really am not making this up.]

.... sold through Microsoft Volume Licensing (VL) or through FAST licensing?
FSIS and FSIA must be purchased from FAST or FAST resellers. They are offered only from the FAST price list, under a FAST EULA, and FAST maintenance and support options are available. FS4SP and FIS-E will be available through Microsoft VL only. FAST maintenance and support are not available for these VL products, but Microsoft support and SA are available.

5: Which products will eligible customers receive license grants to?
Qualified ESP for SharePoint customers will receive server licenses to FS4SP. Other customers eligible for license grants will receive licenses to FSIA for business productivity and/or FSIS for Internet search. Any customer receiving FSIA or FSIS grants can choose to opt-in to exchange their grants for FS4SP or FIS-E, respectively. This is an exclusive OR, not an AND: it does not allow customers to ‘double’ their deployment. Once a customer has made the choice to swap their FSIA or FSIS licenses for FS4SP or FIS-E on Microsoft VL, they may not swap back. [ed. Wow! Even I don't not quite write that way! On purpose anyway.]
6: What are the important dates and deadlines to keep in mind?
License grants. Letters conferring FSIS or FSIA license grants, or FS4SP license grants for qualified ESP for SharePoint customers, will be mailed soon after availability.
Requesting an exchange. Customers have until December 31, 2010 to opt-in to exchange their FSIA or FSIS license grants for FS4SP or FIS-E, respectively. FIS-E includes rights to FS4FIS.
Signing up for SA. If customers have requested an exchange to FS4SP or FIS-E, they will have a grace period to add SA to some, all, or none of these licenses.
Licensing and pricing

[ed. Cereal? Really, I am not making this up! Notice, I didn't even have any "...."'s in there.

7: What is the license model for the new FAST-based search products?
The licensing model will simplify [ed. ARE YOU SURE?] the way customers buy and consume enterprise search technology, making it easier to understand what they are buying and allowing them to plan and budget more appropriately:
FS4SP will be licensed using a server/CAL model. Use rights for FS4SP per user or per device will be included with the SharePoint Enterprise CAL. The FS4SP server will be sold separately and will require SharePoint Server
FSIA will be licensed using a server/CAL model. The FSIA CAL is a different CAL than both the SharePoint Standard CAL and the SharePoint Enterprise CAL.
FSIS will be licensed using a server model
FIS-E will be licensed using a server model. FIS-E includes rights to FS4FIS
See question below for server types requiring license coverage.
8: What types of servers require license coverage in the new release cycle?

....  [ed.  Hang in there, it gets better...]

Cold stand-by servers used for disaster recovery do not require product licenses only if the customer is current on M or SA. This is a benefit of M/SA and customers who drop M/SA lose this benefit.
Development and testing servers can be covered in a few ways. Under Microsoft VL, customers can choose to cover them with product licenses (server/CAL for FS4SP; server for FIS-E) or via MSDN subscriptions. Under FAST, these rights will be included in the base licenses for FSIS and FSIA. Each user of FSIA must be covered by a CAL.
Each virtual machine on a physical server counts as a server and requires a separate license. This matches Microsoft licensing for server technology hosted in a virtual environment.

9: May customers buy ESP or ESP for SharePoint to extend their capacity in the upcoming release?
In the upcoming release, FSIS and FSIA replace ESP One and ESP 360. FS4SP replaces ESP for SharePoint. ESP One, ESP 360, and ESP for SharePoint are no longer available for purchase after the corresponding products have been released. ESP for SharePoint customers can buy FS4SP and use downgrade rights to extend their existing ESP for SharePoint search deployments. (ESP for SharePoint is the “downgrade” for FS4SP.) ESP customers can purchase additional capacity by buying FSIS or FSIA and using these licenses to extend their ESP deployments.
10: Is the FSIA CAL the same as the SharePoint Enterprise CAL?
No. The FSIA CAL is only good for FSIA. The FSIA CAL is not the same as the SharePoint Enterprise CAL (ECAL) nor is it part of any other CAL suite. The FSIA CAL may only be purchased from FAST.
11: Do eligible customers receiving license grants have to “accept” these grants?
No action is required by customers upon receipt of the license grants. Customers may decide when, or if, they wish to undertake technical migration. If customers have follow-up questions after receiving their license grants, they may contact us at FASTq@microsoft.com.

Optional license grant exchanges
12: To what products may license grants be exchanged to?
Customers may choose to opt-in to exchange their FSIA license grants for FS4SP or FSIS for FIS-E, respectively.
13: Does the SharePoint ECAL come with FS4SP server license grants?
If a customer opts-in to exchange their FSIA license grants for FS4SP, they will receive only server licenses of FS4SP. No grants of SharePoint Standard CAL, SharePoint Enterprise CAL, or of SharePoint Server will be included. It is up to the customer to obtain the SP Standard and Enterprise CALs and SharePoint Server 2010 before they can use FS4SP

.... [ed. AHHHHH! I can't take it any more (ictiam), ictiam, ictiam....

[ed. But wait there's more!]

License grant letters for exchanged licenses will be issued by Microsoft Regional Operating Centers (ROCs). Customers can expect to receive grant letters from their nearest ROC within 8 weeks of requesting an exchange.
17: Do customers have to sign up for SA for all their FS4SP or FIS-E license grants?
No. FS4SP and FIS-E license grants are Microsoft product licenses and the rules governing SA and Microsoft VL apply to these products. Customers may choose to sign up all, a portion, or none of the licenses to cover under SA.
18: Can customers exchange only a portion of their license grants?
Customers with grants for both FSIS and FSIA are allowed to opt-in to exchange just one type of license; they need not swap both FSIS and FSIA licenses together. Furthermore, customers need not exchange all their FSIS or FSIA licenses if they are running multiple deployments and wish to run separate deployments on different products
Example: A customer runs two Internet sites and has received FSIS license grants to cover both. If they wish to run FIS-E on one of the sites, but FSIS on the other, they may request exchange of the FSIS license grants for the first site and retain FSIS license grants for the second site.
19: After requesting an exchange, may customers swap back for FSIS or FSIA?
Once a customer has made the choice to swap their FSIA or FSIS license grants for FS4SP or FIS-E, they may not swap the grants back. Customers should be certain of their decision to exchange licenses before requesting the exchange. FS4SP and FIS-E bits are available as part of the SharePoint beta and customers are encouraged to download and evaluate these products before requesting license exchange
Technical migration and M&S

.... [ed. BUT WAIT THERE'S EVEN MORE!]

22: Will future FAST M&S costs be based on the value of these license grants?
No. The nominal paper value of a customer’s license grants will not be used to calculate FAST M&S renewal costs.
23: If customers use their FSIS or FSIA license grants and make the technical migration, do they have to sign a new contract for maintenance and support?
No. The original FAST M&S agreement carries forward when the customer upgrades and no new agreement needs to be signed.
24: If customers use their FS4SP or FIS-E license grants and make the technical migration, do they have to sign a new contract for maintenance and support?
Yes. FS4SP and FIS-E are available only through Microsoft VL. Support for these products is available only through Microsoft Support. SA, the analogue to the “M” portion of FAST M&S, may only be purchased through Microsoft. Customers must initiate coverage for FS4SP or FIS-E under Microsoft Support or SA.
Questions
25: Where can customers direct questions about license migration?
Questions should be directed to FASTq@microsoft.com. [ed. YOU BET I WILL!]

Don't not can't believe me? Go read the original doc. How's that for one big pile(P) of acronyms(A). Or saying it another way, a great big P of A's?

Oh, and my favorite and best-es part of all time is the last line. "Questions should be directed to FASTq@microsoft.com." What? You had to abbreviate the word "question" to q? Are you cereal?

So I have a q 4 u.

"Where are you going with all of this Inoun?" It's pretty simple really. The point I am trying to make is this. Every company, every customer, every family, every WWW RNA DNA Soylent Green CCCBLF(card carrying carbon based life form) has their own language. And this language is often short handed buy (yes, I know) our use of TLA's and FTLA's. And it makes sense. But only to us. And sometimes only at that very pacific moment in time. Take this blog for instance, it only happens to make sense to a few select people in the woods. BID(but I digress).

So let me explain what happens to search if you don't deal with acronyms corrrectly....

SEO and other TLA's require translation before they are I'ed in the SI(search index). Because if we didn't, for example, a well intentioned unsuspecting user "could" type in something like:

"From the movie TRON, where can I find great pictures of Bruce Boxleitner, Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wildeor, or Britney Spears?"

And then stored in the index, some SEFB IMDB PHD WIKI expert could formulate and write all of their content and describe pictures about the above named actors in the movie TRON using acronyms like, PoBB, PoGH, PoOW, and then best of all,

well,

you guessed it, a great big

P of BS.

Smooth move INOUN

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• Anonymous
  March 19, 2011
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