Know more about SharPoint Portal!

This is a question I have heard often, or at least in one of its many forms. "Can I do xxxxx with SharePoint?", "Will SharePoint work with", etc. The truth is, SharePoint is much too big to limit with such a question. A better question is, what are people doing with SharePoint?

Today, we're going to look at some of the scenario's that people use Windows SharePoint services for, from the simplest uses to more complex setups.

Moss SharePoint as a CMS

Many companies are using SharePoint Portal as a content management system to host an Internet site. With a site builder/templates available and SharePoint Designer, there is no limit to the layout or functionality of a SharePoint site. A SharePoint site can be designed to host media, run an e-commerce site, and even provide per page user access. No matter your website needs, SharePoint can stand on its own as a website framework.

As an Intranet

Much like a website, but only for internal users (staff), Microsoft SharePoint 2007 can provide an excellent Intranet. Keep your company organized and up to date by sharing information with your employees and other internal users. Give assignments, share data and work together on projects using SharePoint for your Intranet.

As a Document Repository

One of the things that SharePoint is specifically designed to handle is documents and version control. The last thing you want is a document with inaccurate data because two people were editing it at once. SharePoint handles this with comprehensive version control and a check in/out system to maintain document integrity. Smooth out your workflow and stop worrying about loosing data.

As a Collaboration Server

If we combine the features listed so far, and add a few more, we start getting to what SharePoint was actually designed for. One of it's primary functions is as a Collaboration server. Imagine that you run a web development company with a virtual workforce (most of your employees are telecommute), and you need a way for your artists, designers and programmers to work together. Using SharePoint's tools for document sharing, version control, communications and CMS/ Intranet capabilities, your ideas can move seamlessly from concept to reality, with real-time interaction on all levels. One can also upgrade to a low cost dedicated SharePoint server with hyper-v hosting.

In conclusion, whether you're needs are a CMS to hold your website, or a full-blown Document Sharing and Collaboration Server, SharePoint site hosting is definitely worth a look.

SharePoint Service Architecture with a renewed feel in 2010!

With changing times and technologies, there have been a lot of changes to both the logical and physical topologies of SharePoint 2010. Thus, its very important for any developers to know the architecture of the new Windows SharePoint 2010 services.

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 builds on the operating system and database services to add additional features, such as team sites and collaboration features. Specifically, WSS 3.0 provides the following platform capabilities:

* Storage: Through content databases, which are literally SQL databases managed by Moss SharePoint to accommodate the pages, data, and documents stored in the various portals, team sites, and workspaces
* Management: Administration pages with deep configuration options
* Deployment: Web farms, physical servers, and roles
* Site Model: Web application, site collection, and sites
* Extensibility: Features, Web parts, and templates

A well architected logical and physical SharePoint Portal environment tends to revolve around Search. Search drives much of the logical and physical architectures for SharePoint 2007. SharePoint 2010 has not changed from a Tier perspective. There are Web, Application and Database tiers. Whats important is it to understand how to architect those tiers. For SharePoint 2010, the Application tier has changed significantly as it is more sophisticated than what was available in SharePoint 2007. Some things that we will get into within this series are creating service farms and partitioned services.

Architectural changes in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

1. Shared Service Providers (SSP) which was used to host services in SharePoint 2007 have been completely removed from SharePoint 2010. Thus, the services are run independently in SharePoint2010

2. Some services in SharePoint 2010 will be referred to as Service Applications. Not all services in Central Administration are Service Applications. Service Applications tend to map to major features of SharePoint rather than services which could be considered part of the infrastructure of SharePoint

3. Service Groups have been introduced to logically manage Service Applications. When Service Applications are added they will be included in a Default Group. Web Applications can use that Default Group or use a Custom Group of Service Applications

4. SharePoint 2010 services can be reused within and across farms. This was not available in SharePoint 2007 and provides a significant amount of scalability options.

5. SharePoint 2010 supports Service Partitioning. If you are familiar with database partitioning, think of it is horizontal partitioning of data within a SharePoint service. Not all services support service partitioning; partitioning is only used in services that are data driven. A typical scenario is that a centrally managed/cross farm service with data that should not be exposed to all subscribing farms. If that is the case, a farm would subscribe to a partition of centrally managed service. In SharePoint lingo each partition is referred to as a tenant.

Thus, having a glance at these changes before diving deep into SharePoint 2010 would be really helpful!