Connect (users group)

Connect, a 501(c)(6) non-profit association, is Hewlett Packard's largest independent enterprise business technology community.

Formed from the consolidation of Encompass, HP-Interex, and ITUG in May, 2008, Connect is a community of more than 70,000 HP customers, partners and employees. Through a strategic business partnership with HP, Connect engages its members through education, community, philanthropy, and advocacy to HP.

This community of IT professionals delivers information technology solutions for complex and multi-system computing environments, focusing on HP technologies, including HP-UX, HP's NonStop, Blade, HP Helion, Enterprise Storage, Enterprise Unix, OpenVMS, Linux and Windows.

Through its advocacy channels, the Connect membership provides feedback and direction to HP and their partners and has been instrumental in influencing the direction of many HP technologies.

History

The respective Users organizations have been of significant importance as to the development of technology in the so-called mini computer business (departmental computing). It has survived multiple mergers and takeovers, as well as multiple hardware platforms and software platforms. During its history it has been a tradition of self-service and mutual support amongst customers to complement the official vendor support.

Users' group

A users' group (also user's group or user group) is a type of club focused on the use of a particular technology, usually (but not always) computer-related.

Users' groups started in the early days of mainframe computers, as a way to share sometimes hard-won knowledge and useful software, usually written by end users independently of the vendor-supplied programming efforts. SHARE, a user group originated by aerospace industry corporate users of IBM mainframe computers, was founded in 1955 and is the oldest computer user group still active. DECUS, the DEC User's Society, was founded in 1961 and its descendant organization, Connect Worldwide, still operates. The Computer Measurement Group (CMG) was founded in 1974 by systems professionals with a common interest in (mainframe) capacity management, and continues today with a much broader mission. The first UNIX users' group organized in 1978.

Users' groups began to proliferate with the microcomputer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s as hobbyists united to help each other with programming and configuration and use of hardware and software. Especially prior to the emergence of the World Wide Web, obtaining technical assistance with computers was often onerous, while computer clubs would gladly provide free technical support. Users' groups today continue to provide "real life" opportunities for learning from the shared experience of the members and may provide other functions such as a newsletter, group purchasing opportunities, tours of facilities, or speakers at group meetings.

Group

Group may refer to:

Groups of people

In science and technology

In mathematics

In chemistry

In computing and the internet

Other uses in science and technology

Other uses

Connect

Connect may refer to:

Organizations

Cars

Music

Albums

Songs

Technology

SharePoint

SharePoint is a web application platform in the Microsoft Office server suite. Launched in 2001, SharePoint combines various functions which are traditionally separate applications: intranet, extranet, content management, document management, personal cloud, enterprise social networking, enterprise search, business intelligence, workflow management, web content management, and an enterprise application store. SharePoint servers have traditionally been deployed for internal use in mid-size businesses and large departments alongside Microsoft Exchange, Skype for Business, and Office Web Apps. However, Microsoft's 'Office 365' software as a service offering (which includes a version of SharePoint) has led to increased usage of SharePoint in smaller organizations.

While Office 365 provides SharePoint as a service, installing SharePoint on premises typically requires multiple virtual machines, at least two separate physical servers, and is a somewhat significant installation and configuration effort. The software is based on an n-tier service oriented architecture. Enterprise application software (for example, email servers, ERP, BI and CRM products) often either requires or integrates with elements of SharePoint. As an application platform, SharePoint provides central management, governance, and security controls. The SharePoint platform manages Internet Information Services (IIS) via form-based management tooling.