FAST University – Training Portal

Extend your knowledge with training

Microsoft's FAST University is a structured learning service that provides technical training for customers and partners who want to gain an in-depth understanding of search technology. FAST University offers classroom, virtual, and e-learning courses for the Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint, and Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for Internet Sites products.

Customers: Make the most of your deployments

Your deployments that use FAST search technology are delivering value already. But it is likely that you are using only a fraction of their potential.

With its rich series of classroom and online courses, FAST University provides you with an insider’s knowledge of FAST search technology, methodologies, and best practices so you can make the most of your deployments and improve your search experiences quickly and continually. The classroom instruction is tailored to your needs and can be delivered at your location or ours.

Stay ahead of the pack! Learn how to harness the power of the latest version of Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint and Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for Internet Sites with three courses for application developers and IT professionals:

Search with SharePoint 2010 for IT Professionals
This three-day course covers Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Students will learn the skills needed to design, install, administer, and monitor enterprise search solutions.

Search with SharePoint 2010 for Application Developers
This five-day course covers the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint product. Students will learn the skills needed to design, install, administer, and monitor enterprise search solutions.

FAST Search for Internet Sites for Application Developers
This five-day course provides students with a foundation for creating enterprise search solutions that leverage out-of-the-box FAST search components. Students learn the latest tools, such as Content Transformation Services and Interactive Management Services.

Case study: LexisNexis sets new standards for managing legal data

The introduction of LexisNexis Total Search led to expanded knowledge-sharing for LexisNexis clients and decreased search times by allowing clients to search their volumes of internal databases and data. LexisNexis relied on FAST University to deliver personalized training and documentation to its developers, sales engineers, and customer support staff to ensure that the company was able to support and extend its investment in FAST technology. The new search solution is a big success for LexisNexis and has won praise from clients and industry analysts alike.

Partners: Deepen your expertise, prepare for accreditation exams

FAST University courses for partners prepare your staff for accreditation exams and give them in-depth insights that allow them to generate more revenue from FAST search solutions.

Our partner programs are hands-on, easy to follow, and easily tailored. Available worldwide, these courses can be conducted at your site or at ours.

A program that can save you money

FAST University training credit units (TCUs)
Interested in training several people in your group? Want a discount to stretch your training budget? This is the program for you! FAST University training credit units (TCUs) are prepaid standard units of currency that serve as a convenient "bank" of funds that individual students can redeem for any FAST University public class. One TCU is redeemable for one day of public class held in a classroom or a live virtual class. Purchase 10 or more TCUs and receive a 10 to 30 percent discount. Start saving today! Sign in to the FAST University Learning Portal and search for TCU.

For more information, contact a FAST University education consultant at fastuniv@microsoft.com or call 877 304-2594 or 781 398-4797.

Train at our location or yours
FAST University instructor-led classes are conducted globally in Boston, Massachusetts, as well as in other worldwide locations, such as London, England, and Sydney, Australia. You can also conduct courses at your location.

Classroom formats
Teaching methodologies include demonstrations, hands-on labs, assignments, in-class discussions, and Q&A sessions to reinforce content and build practical experience. Courses are designed for individuals and small teams that prefer personalized attention by FAST University’s highly knowledgeable, certified instructors and course developers.

Courses currently available

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint

Search with SharePoint 2010 for IT Professionals
This three-day course covers the FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint product. IT professionals will have the chance to learn the skills needed to design, install, administer, and monitor enterprise search solutions by using FAST search.

Duration: Three days

Audience: IT professionals

Course details: This classroom course is a "must attend" for IT professionals who install, administer, monitor, back up, recover, or troubleshoot FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint.

Next course: Search with SharePoint 2010 for Application Developers

Search with SharePoint 2010 for Application Developers
This five-day course is designed for application developers who work with FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint. Students learn about product architecture, as well as configuring, extending, and creating enterprise search solutions.

Duration: Five days

Audience: Application developers

Prerequisites: Working experience with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Course details: This classroom course is a "must attend" for developers who configure, extend, and create applications.

Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for Internet Sites

FAST Search for Internet Sites for Application Developers
This five-day course provides students with a foundation for creating enterprise search solutions that leverage out-of-the-box FAST search components. You will learn how to use the latest tools, such as Content Transformation Services, Interaction Management Services, and Search Business Manager. The course also prepares students for in-depth customization of FAST enterprise search solutions via application development and configuration.

Duration: Five days

Audience: Application developers

Course details: This classroom course teaches students how to use FAST Search for Internet Sites tools to implement business rules for a search application to improve the search experience.

FAST Search: Advanced Linguistics for Search Applications
This course presents a "deep dive" into the comprehensive set of linguistic features of FAST search. Costs and benefits for each linguistics feature are explored. At the conclusion of the course, students should be able to determine which linguistic features can be used to help solve a particular search application requirement. In addition, students will learn how to enable, customize, test, and debug the linguistic features.

Duration: Three days

Audience: Project managers, developers, and integrators who are interested in learning how to maximize the benefits of the linguistic analyses available in FAST search for their search application.

Prerequisite: FAST Search: Fundamentals of Developing Search Applications course

Course details: In this course, students explore advanced linguistics in FAST Search, language and encoding detection, tokenization and character normalization, entity extraction and custom matcher applications, vectorization and noun phrase extraction, lemmatization, synonyms, spelling framework, and phonetic analysis.

Search with SharePoint 2010 and FAST Search for Internet Sites
The FAST University course schedule is subject to change. See the FAST University website for confirmation of scheduled classes, registration, and more information.

Learning Without Walls provides the flexibility to take FAST University instructor-led courses at your desktop, without the need or expense of travel. When you register for a Learning Without Walls live or recorded virtual class, the course materials are shipped to you and a remote server that runs FAST products and course software is configured for your lab exercises. FAST University instructors answer questions throughout live virtual classes and offer guidance during lab exercises.

In recorded virtual classes, you view instructor-led recorded lectures and demonstrations, break for lab exercises, and answer review questions to ensure your understanding. The cycle repeats for each module of the course. If you have a question at any point, you will have access to a dedicated email address that is monitored by FAST University instructors. Learning Without Walls enables you to pause the course or repeat sections as often as you like—anytime, anywhere.

Learning Without Walls virtual labs provide you with time to practice installing, configuring, and customizing FAST search solutions. A remote server will be available for you to practice, learn, and test new ideas. We recommend this option for students who have recently completed a FAST University course and need time to practice what they learned on a remote lab system configured with FAST products.

Learning that’s flexible
Learn at your own pace, in the comfort of your own work space. So that individual learning styles are accommodated, these courses are presented in modules by specific tasks. Online interactive tutorials are ideal for students who require maximum flexibility in their learning environment. These courses are available around the clock—all you need is an Internet connection to begin your FAST search education.

FAST Search for Internet Sites

FAST AdMomentum

FAST ImPulse

FAST Recommendations

FAST Unity

Ask the Expert Series—Interviews and Courses