- Posted by Prashant on April 2, 2009
A question on Linkedin:
I need more information on Sharepoint Online. What is it? how can we use it?
I answered:
Hi <Name>,
Sharepoint online is Microsoft’s attempt to position Sharepoint on SaaS (software as service) model. Microsoft is attempting to do it with few other application servers in its lineup. Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Exchange and Office Online to name a few. Salesforce.com is an example of SaaS enabled application.
With this model, the hosting provider (Microsoft in this case) will provide you with services like "DR (Disaster Recovery), Security, SLA compliance, Monitoring and etc…”. You as a consumer will only have to pay CAL licensing (per user), which includes all the hosting and other services you would expect from your data center and operations team.
The CAL licensing is pretty attractive for SMEs. If you look at the value proposition when they bundle it with other online CALs (i.e. Exchange, Office communications for online presence and etc...), it becomes even more attractive.
SharePoint Online Standard
This is the version most companies small to mid-size will likely use. It's a hosted version of SharePoint offering functionality such as Portal, Collaboration, Search, Content Management and Business Process Forms.
It contains all the standard templates for things like wikis, blogs and surveys and all the standard document and list library capabilities. Integration with Office, search, email alerts, offline access to documents from Outlook, RSS feeds, single-sign on and lots more.
This is a secure hosted environment using Microsoft Forefront anti-virus scanning. It has a 99.9% availability with financially backed Service Agreements. Web and phone based support are included for Tier 2 support for IT Administrators.
Standard Parameters include:
•Unlimited number of Sites (based on space limit)
•250 MB per user
•Secure via Https
•Single Sign-on using Sign In Tool
•Business continuity and disaster recovery
•Per user per month fee
•Supports IE6+ and FireFox 2.0+
SharePoint Online Dedicated
The dedicated version of SharePoint Online is a completely separate hosted version for a company. They host their own implementation (separate server environment including servers, networks and physical space) in Microsoft's data centres.
This service contains all the basics that the standard version contains, plus Active Directory integration, upgrades to SharePoint at no charge, self-service document restore and data recovery and more.
Optional Services include WAN Acceleration, Migration from older versions of SharePoint or other platforms and additional storage.
Other features include:
•Unlimited number of sites with 5GB per site quota
•100 MB per user, aggregated across the organization
•Audits and Security such as Sarbanes Oxley self assessment and external audit support
•99.9% availability
This is not a model for you if you have a large scale and highly customized MOSS implementation running. If your implementation is very dynamic and has integration with a lots of LOB applications hosted in house, it becomes an impractical solution for you. In short this is not a practical solution for large or enterprise MOSS implementations.
You being in a bank might have additional privacy and security issues to deal with (depending on your implementation).