Microsoft SharePoint
Microsoft SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office. Launched in 2001, SharePoint is primarily sold as a document management and storage system, but the product is highly configurable and usage varies substantially among organizations.
Microsoft states that SharePoint has 190 million users across 200,000 customer organizations.
SharePoint Server is provided to organizations that seek greater control over SharePoint’s behavior or design. This product is installed on customers’ IT infrastructure. It receives fewer frequent updates but has access to a wider set of features and customization capabilities. There are three editions of SharePoint Server: Standard, Enterprise, and Foundation (free) which was discontinued in 2016. These servers may be provisioned as normal virtual/cloud servers or as hosted services.
Microsoft SharePoint Standard builds on the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation in a few key product areas.
- Sites: Audience targeting, governance tools, Secure store service, web analytics functionality.
- Communities: ‘MySites’ (personal profiles including skills management, and search tools), enterprise wikis, organization hierarchy browser, tags, and notes.
- Content: Improved tooling and compliance for document & record management, managed metadata, word automation services, content type management.
- Search: Better search results, search customization abilities, mobile search, ‘Did you mean?’, OS search integration, Faceted Search, and metadata/relevancy/date/location-based refinement options.
- Composites: Pre-built workflow templates, Business Connectivity Services (BCS) profile pages.
SharePoint Standard licensing includes a CAL (client access license) component and a server fee. SharePoint Standard may also be licensed through a cloud model.
Built upon SharePoint Standard, Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise features can be unlocked by providing an additional license key.
Extra features in SharePoint Enterprise include:
- Search thumbnails and previews, rich web indexing, better search results.
- Business intelligence integration, dashboards, and business data surfacing.
- PowerPivot and PerformancePoint.
- Microsoft Office Access, Visio, Excel, and InfoPath Forms Services.
- SharePoint Enterprise Search extensions.
SharePoint Enterprise licensing includes a CAL component and a service fee that must be purchased in addition to SharePoint Server licensing. SharePoint Enterprise may also be licensed through a cloud model.
Microsoft’s hosted SharePoint has typically bundled in Microsoft Office 365 subscriptions but can be purchased outright. SharePoint Online has the advantage of not needing to maintain one’s own server, but as a result, lacks the customization options of a self-hosted installation of SharePoint.
It is limited to a core set of collaboration, file hosting, and document and content management scenarios, and is updated on a frequent basis, but is typically comparable with SharePoint Enterprise. Currently, additional capabilities include:
- Support for SharePoint Framework extensions
- New “Modern” (Responsive) SharePoint UX (partially included in 2016 – Feature Pack 1)
- Yammer Integration & Office 365 Groups
- Integration with Outlook Web App
- Newer versions of Online Office Document Editor Tools
- Removal of various file size/number limitations
- Apps Concept
Missing capabilities include:
- Some search & UI customizations
- Many web publishing capabilities
- Service Application administration options
- Many customization/solution types will not run
- No ability to read error (ULS) logs
Microsoft lists changes in SharePoint Online on its Office Roadmap.
