SharePoint 2010 Officially Released

On May 12, 2010 the folks in Redmond officially released Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 to the public.  This latest release of SharePoint includes a number of important new features, some of which are SharePoint-specific, and others of which are tightly tied to the co-release of Office 2010.  The updated version will be very compelling for some, and a moderately interesting upgrade for others.  Let’s take a look at the highlights of Microsoft SharePoint 2010 (for more information, read our previous article written after SharePoint 2010 was announced).  

Word, Access, and Visio Services Join Excel Services

In SharePoint 2007, you could use Excel Services for SharePoint to establish a read-only connection to an Excel file thereby displaying your spreadsheet and graphics as a Web page.  In SharePoint 2010, Microsoft adds similar read/write capabilities for Word, Access, and Visio via Web pages.

64-bit Only

SharePoint 2010’s server-side components are 64-bit only.  In addition to this architecture requirement, there are some fairly hefty hardware and RAM requirements.  Servers with 2 GB or 4GB of RAM are no longer adequate for SharePoint.

New Versions and SKUs

In SharePoint 2007, licensing is relatively simple.  There is the free version, Windows SharePoint Services (WSS), the standard paid version, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Standard (MOSS Standard), and the complete paid version that included Excel Services, Forms Server, and Business Intelligence tools, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server Enterprise (MOSS Enterprise).  SharePoint 2010 still includes a free version and a few paid versions.  However, instead of there being only two paid versions SharePoint 2010 includes SKUs that are specialty-based.  For example, there is a SharePoint version specifically for Internet-facing Web sites.

New User Interface

The user interface of SharePoint 2010 is completely different from previous versions of SharePoint and includes a Microsoft Office-like Ribbon Bar.

SharePoint FAST Search

A new version of FAST Search for SharePoint is available at a lower cost.

Smoother Upgrade Path

The underlying architecture of SharePoint 2010 is much like 2007, meaning that upgrading from 2007 to 2010 should be easier than previous upgrades from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007.

SharePoint Workspace

SharePoint Workspace 2010 replaces Microsoft Groove for offline collaboration.  SharePoint Workspace is now easier to deploy and manage, and has tools that make accessing offline content simpler.

Business Connectivity Services

Business Connectivity Services (BCS) replaces Business Data Catalogs (BDC) for connecting SharePoint to external content and line-of-business (LOB) systems like PLM, ERP, or CRM.  The user interface is improved, and read, write, update, delete, and query operations are easier.  Business Connectivity Services now supports offline access as well.

Social Features

SharePoint 2010 includes a host of new social networking features, allowing users to see activity feeds from other users, and to rate and comment on content.

Sandbox Solutions

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 allows you to deploy solutions in a sandbox.  The sandbox is a restricted execution environment that enables programs to access only certain resources.  The idea is meant to prevent problems occurring within a sandbox from affecting the rest of the server environment.

These are the key changes in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 from Razorleaf’s perspective.  Although we are excited about this new version of the enterprise portal platform, we know a number of our clients will be maintaining their SharePoint deployments on SharePoint 2007 for a while.  If you have a specific SharePoint 2007 or 2010 requirements you would like to talk about, don’t hesitate to contact us.  We’d be happy to talk through the changes with you and help you evaluate the costs and benefits of upgrading.

Tags: 64-bit, Business Connectivity Services, Business Data Catalogs, Excel Services, Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, Microsoft SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2007, SharePoint FAST, SharePoint Workspace, Visio Services, Windows SharePoint Services