What is Microsoft SharePoint? [closed]

Answer 1

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) is a combination of two previous products, Microsoft SharePoint and Microsoft Content Management System.

It has a large number of features out of the box that are very desirable for any single system, including hosting files with customisable metadata. Page and file publishing that is enabled for end users, excellent search... the list goes on.

Essentially it is designed to enhance and organisations collaboration activities across the entire enterprise, leveraging the organistations existing Office application to create an enterprise system.

Answer 2

What is SharePoint?

The latest version of Microsoft SharePoint software is really two different products:

1. Windows SharePoint Services is a free download for Windows Server. In the latest version, known as WSS v3, collaborative web sites templates include basic blog and wiki services along with list templates for Image Libraries, Document Libraries, Contact lists, Calendars, Tasks and much more.
2. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or MOSS for short is built on Windows SharePoint Services. As a member of the Office Server product platform, it leverages the Microsoft Office client software to provide content on the web. Integration with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Access and InfoPath provide rich web content from familiar content creation tools.

Why is it so popular

File Sharing SharePoint originally became popular because it was an easy way to share documents on the web. Many organizations that adopted SharePoint in the 2003 versions capitalized on the ability to upload documents to Document Libaries and share those documents with others.
Company Extranets One great example of this web based sharing, is a company extranet where users are not all in one location or authentication domain. Using form based authentication, accounts can be created for people across physical and company boundaries. By allowing one place for shared documents around a task rather than a corporate entity, SharePoint goes way beyond the common file share.
Content Management There are plenty of other Content Management Systems, but MOSS incorporated the functionality of the previously name Microsoft Content Management System which itself often cost more than MOSS alone.
Search Search is greatly improved in SharePoint 2007 technologies. Search results are security trimmed, relevant and performant unlike the previous 2003 version. Bad search in SharePoint 2003 products lead to a lot of dissatisfaction with the product.

Answer 3

what is sharepoint

Sharepoint is really two different technologies: Windows Sharepoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS). WSS is free and it comes with Windows Server 2003. MOSS isn't free.

WSS provides lots of out of the box functionality for managing documents and projects online. It manages documents in "document libraries." These are folders with permissions and different views of your documents. Projects, tasks, issues, or any tabular data, is managed in lists. Lists are similar to document libraries. They have permissions and views as well. It provides some simple search as well.

MOSS provides a better search (it's supposed to at least). It also has more publishing capabilities (WSS doesn't). And you have more control over page layouts. It's meant more for internet style sites while WSS is more for intranet sites.

and why is it popular?

WSS is popular partly because its free and partly because it just does so much out of the box. You can solve many common office requests with WSS. Stuff like issue trackers, project management and document management are trivial in WSS. That said, its a jack of all trades - good at many, master of none.

MOSS is probably less popular because its not free and having used it for a year, I don't see as much value in it as WSS. Search isn't that great. It does do a good job of creating a company directory.

Answer 4

I've been working with SharePoint since v.1 and I could tell you that SharePoint is a:

• Document management server
• Web content management server
• Portal solution
• Search engine
• List-based repository
• Collaboration site
• Replacement for file shares
• etc etc...

...but if I have to summarize in one sentence what SharePoint is I would say:

Sharepoint is Microsoft's Web OS.

That's real the secret of its success. Many people imagined the Web OS as something like these. A Web OS is not something that is meant to look like a desktop OS. A Web OS should be a WEB PLATFORM in which all sort of applications can be built on and users are able to collaborate with.

Think of SharePoint as the 2.0-era version of Windows :-)