WIXLIB

The Product ContentEcosystem: ExtendingDITA Beyond NetAppJames HomEngineering Program Manager

Agenda Introduction to NetApp Why XML Why DITA Why CMS Why Localization (L10n) Where DITA has taken us thus far Where we want to go – inside NetApp Where we want to go – beyond NetApp 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.2

NetApp at a Glance 3.0BFY07: 2.8 Billion 2.0B 1B Worldwide, enterprise customers Broad portfolio of innovative storageand data management solutions Industry-leading partners Comprehensive professionalservices Global support Customer success fuels our growth02 03 04 05 06 07 7000 EmployeesFortune 1000 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.Offices in over 110 countriesNASDAQ 100S&P 5003

NetApp Information Engineering Produces all documentation for NetAppproducts– User manuals– Configuration guides– Online Help– Installation posters Publishing to print, Web, Help 80 writers, editors, production staff Multiple locations: Sunnyvale, RTP,Waltham, Pittsburgh, Bangalore 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.4

One Scalable Storage ArchitectureNearlineStorageRemote/Small OfficeNearStore EconomicalSecondaryStorageFAS200 SeriesRemote andSmall OfficeStoragePrimaryStorageFAS900 SeriesFAS3000 izationV-SeriesNetAppSimplicity forHeterogeneousStorageVirtual TapeVirtual TapeLibraryBackup andrestore dataData ONTAP Operating System – SAN, NAS, iSCSI One architecture One application interface 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. One management interface Total interoperability5

Go Green: Reduce, Reuse, RecycleProduct Efficiency Server utilization & virtualization– 50% less rack space– 52% less power; 51% lowerheat* DeduplicationInformation Efficiency Write Once Use Many Use DITA Topic anywhere Content Ecosystem*Source: Mercer and Oliver Wyman TCO studies 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.6

XML, DITA, CMS, L10n 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.7

Why XML? Business drivers:– Breadth and depth of content– OEM rebranding– Modular products– Multiple rapid software releases– Multiple content delivery vehicles– Global product development Non-drivers– Localization (yet) 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.8

Why DITA?DITA Darwin Information Typing Architecture Modular content model for modular products– Considered, piloted DocBook– DITA is natural extension to NetApp’sInformation Mapping roots– Reuse designed into DITA paradigm– Delivery vehicles supported by DITA OpenToolkit– DITA invented by our OEM partner IBM Started DITA pilots in 2005 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.9

Why CMS? Benefits of running on NetApp storage only go so far– Easy backup/restore but no version control, accesscontrol– Still constrained by network issues– Thousands of files to manage– File-aware but not content-aware Key requirements– Global usage– Offline usage Non-drivers– Localization (yet) 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.10

Why Localization (L10n)? Was ad-hoc– Loosely coupled: driven by regional demand and usingregional assets and resources Now corporate priority– Company-wide core team, reps from different functions,sponsored at SVP level– Selected 2 LSPs– Unifying needs and driving investments– Decisions to make: Which languages? Which products?What collateral?– Core team model enables whole-product, wholecompany thinking 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.11

Where we’re at nowDITACMSL10n 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. 1/3 of content in DITA Remainder migrating through thisyear Beginning to migrate content andusers to the Trisoft InfoShare CMS Gathering requirements forintegration with TMS Corporate core team to makedecisions Investing in corporate tools,processes, and headcount12

Benefits we’ve seen from DITA (already!)Easier rebrandingof OEMdeliverablesMore informationdeliverables withsame headcountLeverage contentassets acrossdepartment 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. Level of conditionalizationonly possible in XML Multiple outputs from samesource content Reuse of topics betweenproject teams Better content– Task-orientation with Conceptand Reference supportingtopics– Structure focuses the writing13

Benefits we expect to get when we startlocalizingReuse drives L10ncost downwardLanguage-awareCMS asrepositoryAllow partners toleverage content 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved. Content reuse (atomic topics,conref) through DITA helps in alllanguages Trisoft CMS tracks languageobjects with source, does diffs sojust changed content is flagged fortranslation Trisoft pulls software strings fromI18n resource files into docs Pass topics directly to TMS viaworkflow Sharing of translation assets– Terminology, TMs, Author Assistantprofiles– Translated DITA topics14

Growing a ContentEcosystem 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.15

Reuse within NetAppBrand Information Engineering content as:tested, validated, “from the source”NetApp USame procedural task topic usedin tech manual, WBT, andinstructor-led classNetApp Global SupportKnowledge base incorporatesDITA topicsNetApp MarketingLeverage technical concepttopics for white papers 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.16

Reuse within NetApp: How to get there?Connect and Communicate Web services in our CMS’s Status definitionsTools and Processes File formats and delivery vehicles– DITA as the core contentauthoring model– Office XML looking promising– SharePoint as possibleintermediary 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.17

Reuse beyond NetApp: the real goal Start with our OEM relationship with IBM– Current: Rebrand books then hand off “IBM” PDFs– Future: Pass DITA topics back and forth; allows IBM touse their existing DITA translation process Beyond NetApp: Everyone in the product stack– Not just NetApp IBM, but NetApp VMWare, NetApp Xyratex Beyond NetApp: Sales and support channels– Partners in company value chain: VARs, integrators– Big spectrum of partner companies: from global VARs toSMB integrators. 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.18

Reuse beyond NetApp: How do we getthere? Problems to tackle (partial list):– Knowing when content is ready to share– Moving the content around– Copyright/Intellectual Property– Editorial standards – usage, terminology– Voice, tone, style– Reviews and incorporation of comments– Bugs! How to notify and get them fixed.– Translation: tracking of source, translatedcontent, translation memories 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.19

Reuse beyond NetApp: How do we getthere? Specific problems in DITA– DITA Specializations “Easy because of fallback processing” But: How to communicate updates to the specialization? But: What if specializations collide?– DITA Conditions DITA constrained to the “big 4” attributes: audience, platform,product, otherprops Trisoft CMS allows anything, plus Boolean logic Even within the big 4: one company’s “product” might beanother’s “platform” 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.20

Reuse beyond NetApp: How do we getthere?Starting to think about solutions Goodness of GUIDs– Trisoft CMS topic is unique wherever inthe universe it ends up Author Assistant controls style, ensuresconsistency of usage– Agree on common style, then shareprofiles between partners Translation Management Systems asmodel for getting content back and forth– Already managing moving topicsbetween companies 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.21

Eventually Beyond Books Knowledge about customervia NetApp Autosupport Leverage that customerknowledge to provide unifiedinformation Provide custom, localizeddocumentation, training,support experience No more product-focus orvendor-focus but acustomer-centric focus 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.22

Questions? 2008 NetApp. All rights reserved.23

Reuse beyond NetApp: the real goal Start with our OEM relationship with IBM - Current: Rebrand books then hand off "IBM" PDFs - Future: Pass DITA topics back and forth; allows IBM to use their existing DITA translation process Beyond NetApp: Everyone in the product stack - Not just NetApp IBM, but NetApp VMWare, NetApp Xyratex