.NET Portal Server errr... Office SharePoint Server 2007
Over the past few days, I've been having a closer look at the next release of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS), the successor to SharePoint Portal Server 2003. This ain't your grand-daddy's Sharepoint (assuming your grand-daddy was cutting code for SharePoint Portal Sever circa 2001 onwards) - this is an entirely different beast, deriving new scale-out and internet-facing savvy from CMS2002, which was rolled into the Office SharePoint Server platform. If you're interested in a quick rundown, there was a session on MOSS at MIX, and there is a Sharepoint team blog here.
Some of the things that I really like about MOSS2007:
- ASP.NET 2.0: MOSS is built on ASPNET 2.0, which means it leverages all the goodies that are available in ASP.NET - including: the provider models, master-template pages, and going forward you should be able to leverage ATLAS client-side magic within your web-parts.
- Speaking of ASP.NET provider models: You can now build Sharepoint sites that authenticate against pretty much anything for which a provider exists or can be built - i.e. go ahead and build a sharepoint site that authenticates against a LDAP store
- Scale: In the past, Sharepoint has mainly focussed on delivering Intranet sites. Not any longer - this is a internet-ready portal that will scale up into the stratosphere by building on some of the learnings in CMS2002. This flows through the entire product set - including workflow and search.
- Content management: improved branding, authoring, navigation, search and workflow facilities.
Add to this various integrated components of the stack (Collaboration, Excel Calc Services, WinFX services such as WF and WCF) and Office SharePoint Server suddenly becomes a much stronger contender in the enterprise portal space. I think the SharePoint team should have considered calling this release ".NET Portal Server" which would have served the dual purposes of [a] overcoming the preconceptions of some that anything called 'SharePoint' is not internet/enterprise ready (it most definitely is) and [b] getting up the noses of certain blue-suited sales-guys :)
