Following a battery of at-sea testing within a network-challenged environment, AUSCANNZUKUS (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom & United States).  Reported that they are endorsing Syntergy as a SharePoint replication engine "able to provide reliable and timely transfer of documents and information in a Maritime Tactical Network environment" across the enterprise and out to the tactical edge.

With global importance placed on cyberspace increasing every minute, it is paramount that military operations remain on top of its maritime capabilities and concepts of operation. The at-sea testing concluded in August 2011. Its initiatives were aimed at providing a robust enhanced tactical network with increased survivability and tactical flexibility in a satellite restricted or denied environment. This particular experimentation series included the participation of AUSCANNZUKUS. It was here that AUSCANNZUKUS found their positive results, leading them to the endorsement of Syntergy's Replicator.

According to the results, it was previously "not possible to extend SharePoint over low-bandwidth, high-latency links, but replication technologies such as Syntergy…have made significant inroads in this area". Operators found that the Syntergy Replicator for SharePoint provided a reliable and timely transfer of documents and information.

Martin Jordan, Allied/Coalition Interoperability, FLEX Coalition Lead Engineer, SPAWAR 5.0AST, stated that "[This testing using the Syntergy Replicator] was the first time that SharePoint replication was successfully conducted over maritime low-bandwidth, high-latency tactical networks". He continued to say that they "look forward to continuing to progress the ability of [their] warfighters to collaborate within and between the US and Allied navies."

When testing was done within a network-challenged environment, using a 64k SATCOM, it was found that Replication times for large files, images and documents alike, were typically 2-3 minutes. On files marked for priority replication, the replication times were consistently less than 1 minute, and always replicated before other documents. Furthermore, with the use of HDR-SNR, files replicated so quickly that it was difficult for users to even measure the exact amount of time required for completion. SharePoint site changes, such as text, banners or background colours, were replicated "more or less instantly".

Most impressive was Syntergy's own compression algorithms, which reduced files the most. All this is further evidence of Replicator's continuity and functionality, even within a network-challenged environment. In fact, in a competitive comparison, Syntergy's patent pending compression technology had a 10% improvement over Infonic's compression - making Syntergy the leader in bi-directional replication in terms of speed and reliability.

The results of a survey following the test indicated that 100% of respondents agreed or strong agreed that "SharePoint replicates information between units quickly enough to be operationally useful", a clear depiction of user satisfaction. All these results demonstrated that Syntergy's replication solution could in fact help to modernize naval tactical information warfare as a whole.

"Syntergy is pleased with the findings of the military lab testing and sea trials," said Mark Mueller, Federal Director, Syntergy. "The results of this exercise, combined with the successful testing of our bi-directional CAS/Domino<>SharePoint gateway, offer US and coalition Navies a compelling end to end COTS solution for distributed collaboration and information sharing."
For detailed results of the at-sea testing, view the full report online or for more information about Syntergy and its products, visit www.syntergy.com.

Syntergy were Bronze Exhibitors at the European SharePoint Conference 2011. Stay tuned for more content by joining our community or by following us on twitter or facebook.