The Evolution of SharePoint

Microsoft’s SharePoint product has recently evolved into its next iteration. SharePoint 2010 is a departure from its predecessors in many ways, and as such, adds a new layer of complexity to many areas. Designing, Planning, Architecting, Installation, Deployment and Development all have some changes that can be a challenge at first, but once you dig into the product, it begins to make sense.  One of the first changes one might notice, is the lack of a Shared Service Provider (SSP.)

The SSP was a way to create, configure and share services within a Farm to the Web Applications associated with it, or between Farms.  The concept was sound, but there were some limitations. One of which, if you wanted to share the search service, you had to share the whole SSP. Also, if you wanted a separate search or profile service, you had to create a whole new SSP. 

Enter the new shift to Shared Services. Services are now independent, and can be shared with web applications or other Farms easier than being contained in an SSP.  Services that can be shared across Farms are:

• Business Data Connectivity Services
• Managed Metadata Service
• People
• Search
• Secure Store Service
• Web Analytics Service

Services, such as Search, can now be load balanced for higher availability and scalability.  This new shift makes administration and resources more efficient, and ultimately provides a better End User experience.

In a nutshell, SSP is gone in SharePoint 2010 and a better Shared Services infrastructure takes its place. 

In my later posts, I will give a walkthrough of Planning, Installing, Configuring and Using these services from start to finish. 

Dave P.