Microsoft has recently published a TechNet article containing an Overview for SharePoint Workspace 2010. SharePoint Workspace is the new name for Groove, which provides offline collaborative functionality for SharePoint with better synchronisation than is available within Outlook 2010.
Personally, I have been reluctant to encourage the use of Groove/Workspace within organisations unless they have very specific needs. It adds another layer of complexity to managing a SharePoint deployment and is another user interface for people to learn. A classic target scenario for using Groove is one where organisations need to co-create and collaborate on documents with a distributed workforce who aren’t always well-connected to the Internet (people can author offline and Groove synchronises with SharePoint in the background). Or for working beyond an organisation’s boundaries – Groove crosses firewalls better than SharePoint if you don’t have an extranet, although there are less complicated alternatives…
Whilst talking about new names, Windows SharePoint Services is also being rebranded SharePoint Foundation Service. So to give a summary of what goes with what SharePoint name:
| What’s it called? | What does it do? |
| SharePoint Foundation Service | Provide a web-based platform for storing and collaborating on documents and other activity-related information. Previously called: Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) |
| SharePoint Server | Full web-based platform for information management, search and collaborative working including personalisation and integrating other applications into a single user interface. Previously called: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) |
| SharePoint Workspace | Client for offline co-creation/collaboration on SharePoint content from remote locations/across firewalls. Previously called: Groove |
I’ve had one client come away from a Microsoft event confused by hearing about over 8 different versions of SharePoint. Microsoft’s acquisition of FAST for more advanced enterprise search capabilities is being listed as part of the SharePoint range. And then there are products such as SharePoint Designer. Further adding to the confusion, there are two different types of licence available for each edition of SharePoint Server.
To keep it simple, think of SharePoint as serving three core scenarios:
- Storing content and basic collaborative work: Use SharePoint Foundation Services
- Finding and managing unstructured information (documents and web content), building social networks (personalisation and knowledge sharing): Use SharePoint Server Standard Edition
- Integrating structured information (applications, data analysis, identity management/single sign-on): Use SharePoint Server Enterprise Edition
If you want advanced search capabilities, add FAST to any one of those three scenarios. If you want offline collaborative working, add SharePoint Workspace or Outlook (2007/2010). If you want to customise how SharePoint works, you’ll be using SharePoint Designer.
From a licensing perspective, SharePoint Foundation Service is included with Windows Server 2008. For SharePoint Server, both Standard and Enterprise, there is a choice between Intranet licensing (for internal use only) and Internet/Extranet licensing (for external use/public web sites). All the extras (FAST, Office etc.) have their own separate licenses.
Here’s a rough matrix to help get a feel for what you get with each SharePoint product:
Click on image to view larger version
Hope that helps a little. Think it’s time to update the old SharePoint History timeline…