Friday, 12 August 2011

Which SharePoint? Foundation or Server?

Many companies are now taking the plunge and moving to SharePoint 2010 to help them improve their internal systems whilst reducing their overheads, but which version should they chose?  There are actually 5 different versions although two of them are just Internet versions of the ‘Standard’ and ‘Enterprise’ editions so in this blog we will just focus on the main three.

It is not an easy choice and whilst Office Talk’s SharePoint Consultants are happy to advise it really depends on your organisations budget, requirements and technical expertise.

I have a similar decision to make at the moment because for the first time in twelve years I have decided I need a new telly. With the digital switchover happening in my area in just a few weeks and my old chubby Panasonic TV from the 90’s now looks quite outdated it is time to decide which new TV I should purchase. As with SharePoint it depends on my budget (which is probably around £500), which features I would like and which features I am actually going to use. Do I choose a plasma, LCD or LED? It seems to depend on what kind of programmes I am going to watch and what size telly I want. Reading reviews and online articles has probably confused me even more, but in the showroom the LED backlit ones seem to give the best picture. This could of course be because the sales staff just tune them in better because they make more money on them.


 Even when I have decided on LED I have to ask myself do I want a ‘Smart TV’. This isn’t a statement about the look of the TV, but whether it comes with Internet features. It seems that people want to use Twitter, Facebook and even Skype at the same time as watching ‘Coronation Street’. If it is a ‘Smart TV’ should it be wireless or am I happy having a Ethernet cable running behind my sofa? Then do I really want to see my Sky Sports in future in 3D (scary thought of seeing Iain Dowie in 3D)? Then there is the question of if I really want to try and balance those special 3D glasses on top of my normal specs?     
So back to deciding which SharePoint version is right one for you.  The main three SharePoint 2010 versions are ‘Foundation’ (the one that is sort of ‘free’), ‘Standard Server’ and ‘Enterprise Server’.  First consideration is cost and if money is no object then the Enterprise Edition is for you. If you have a very limited budget and already have Windows Server on a 64-bit machine then you can just download SharePoint Foundation 2010 with no licensing costs.  For many the middle one ‘SharePoint Server’ is just right. Sounds like Goldilocks and the three bears beds.



Each of these three versions have different features and thanks to Dave Coleman’s SharePoint EduTech I have listed all the feature differences below;

SharePoint 2010 Version Comparison
Feature
Foundation
Standard
Enterprise
Accessibility
●
●
●
Access Services
●
Advanced Content Processing
●
Advanced Sorting
●
Audience Targeting
●
●
Basic Sorting
●
●
Best Bets
●
●
Blogs
●
●
●
Browser Based Customizations
●
●
●
Business Connectivity Services
●
●
●
Business Data Connectivity Service
●
●
●
Business Connectivity Services Profile Page
●
●
Business Data Integration with the Office Client
●
Business Data Web Parts
●
Business Intelligence Center
●
Business Intelligence Indexing Connector
●
Calculated KPIs
●
Claims-Based Authentication
●
●
●
Chart Web Parts
●
Click Through Relevancy
●
●
Client Object Model (OM)
●
●
●
Colleague Suggestions
●
●
Colleagues Network
●
●
Compliance Everywhere
●
●
Configuration Wizards
●
●
●
Connections to Microsoft Office Clients
●
●
●
Connections to Office Communication Server and Exchange
●
●
●
Content Organizer
●
●
Contextual Search
●
Dashboards
●
Data Connection Library
●
Decomposition Tree
●
Deep Refinement
●
Developer Dashboard
●
●
●
Discussions
●
●
●
Document Sets
●
●
Duplicate Detection
●
●
Enterprise Scale Search
●
●
Enterprise Wikis
●
●
Event Receivers
●
●
●
Excel Services
●
Excel Services and PowerPivot for SharePoint
●
External Data Column
●
●
●
External Lists
●
●
●
Extensible Search Platform
●
Extreme Scale Search
●
Federated Search
●
●
High-Availability Architecture
●
●
●
Improved Governance
●
●
Improved Backup and Restore
●
●
●
Improved Setup and Configuration
●
●
●
InfoPath Forms Services
●
Keyword Suggestions
●
●
Language Integrated Query (LINQ) for SharePoint
●
●
●
Large List Scalability and Management
●
●
●
Managed Accounts
●
●
●
Managed Metadata Service
●
●
Memberships
●
●
Metadata-driven Navigation
●
●
Metadata-driven Refinement
●
●
Mobile Connectivity
●
●
●
Mobile Search Experience
●
●
Multilingual User Interface
●
●
●
Multistage Disposition
●
●
Multilingual User Interface
●
●
●
Multi-Tenancy
●
●
●
My Content
●
●
My Newsfeed
●
●
My Profile
●
●
Note Board
●
●
Organization Browser
●
●
Out-of-the-Box Web Parts
●
●
●
Patch Management
●
●
●
People and Expertise Search
●
●
PerformancePoint Services
●
Permissions Management
●
●
●
Phonetic and Nickname Search
●
●
Photos and Presence
●
●
●
Query Suggestions, “Did You Mean?”, and Related Queries
●
●
Quota Templates
●
●
●
Ratings
●
●
Read-Only Database Support
●
●
●
Recent Activities
●
●
Recently Authored Content
●
●
Relevancy Tuning
●
●
Remote Blob Storage (SQL Feature)
●
●
●
REST and ATOM Data Feeds
●
●
●
Ribbon and Dialog Framework
●
●
●
Rich Media Management
●
●
Rich Web Indexing
●
Sandboxed Solutions
●
●
●
Search Scopes
●
●
Secure Store Service
●
●
Shared Content Types
●
●
SharePoint 2010 Search Connector Framework
●
●
SharePoint Designer
●
●
●
SharePoint Health Analyzer
●
●
●
SharePoint Lists
●
●
●
SharePoint Ribbon
●
●
●
SharePoint Service Architecture
●
●
●
SharePoint Timer Jobs
●
●
●
SharePoint Workspace
●
●
●
Similar Results
●
Silverlight Web Part
●
●
●
Site Search
●
●
●
Solution Packages
●
●
●
Status Updates
●
●
Streamlined Central Administration
●
●
●
Support for Office Web Apps
●
●
●
Tag Clouds
●
●
Tag Profiles
●
●
Tags
●
●
Tags and Notes Tool
●
●
Thumbnails and Previews
●
Tuneable Relevance with Multiple Rank Profiles
●
Unattached Content Database Recovery
●
●
●
Unique Document IDs
●
●
Usage Reporting and Logging
●
●
●
Visio Services
●
Visual Best Bets
●
Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint Developer Tools
●
●
●
Visual Upgrade
●
●
●
Web Analytics
●
●
Web Parts
●
●
●
Wikis
●
●
●
Windows 7 Search
●
●
Windows 7 Support
●
●
●
Windows PowerShell Support
●
●
●
Word Automation Services
●
●
Workflow
●
●
●
Workflow Models
●
●
●
Workflow Templates
●
●

Although you can see that Foundation has a lot less features than the others it is still very powerful and there are many 3rd Party Add-ons that can add many of these extra features. It is like buying a telly that hasn’t got HD FreeView built-in and then buying a separate HD FreeView box.

Choosing Foundation Edition is similar to choosing a lower spec. TV. If you have never had ‘Rich Web Indexing’ you aren’t going to miss it, in the same way that if you have never had 3D on your TV you won’t miss it.

If I was recommending a ‘Best Buy’ for SharePoint 2010 and taking into account ‘value for money’ then I would nominate the Foundation Edition. But for larger companies (or organisations) who want the largest return on their SharePoint investment then SharePoint Server 2010 Enterprise Edition is the one to choose. It is like choosing a 3D Smart TV with built-in HD FreeView and WiFi.
Office Talk offers a free service to help UK companies to decide which version best suits your individual needs. Please email marketing@office-talk.com to find out more.  
So now I am off to the electrical store to buy my new telly ready for the start of the football season. If you haven’t claimed your free Premier League SharePoint Template yet please visit http://office-talk-dev.co.uk and click the ‘Buy It Now’ option.
Good luck to the Villa during the new season. 
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