![]() ![]() SharePoint started as a server for storing and sharing documents inside of a business, and as such its origins date back to the FrontPage Server Extensions (and then later the Office Server Extensions), and Microsoft's early attempts to establish its successful Office franchise in the server world. But that's not effective anymore, and as SharePoint has evolved and matured, it's grown to match the sharing needs of its user base. In the past, email was the de facto sharing mechanism that we all used. And where SharePoint's first ten years were marked largely by sharing within an organization, SharePoint's next ten years are all about sharing with people outside your organization. "SharePoint lets you share anything with anyone," he said, simply. But in a recent briefing, Microsoft director of SharePoint product management Jared Spataro delivered what I think is the best, and simplest, description I've seen of SharePoint yet. ![]() Microsoft's official description of SharePoint is deliciously vague and instead of providing a simple, one-sentence definition of the product, it provides links to several high-level capabilities. What is SharePoint? And how can you use it as a user, a developer, an IT pro, or a system administrator? What exactly does SharePoint bring to the party? And SharePoint isn't sitting still: It delivers double-digit growth each year and my guess is that the advent of Office 365-which now provides SharePoint 2010 access to individuals and truly small businesses for the first time ever-will drive even faster growth. It's used by 78 percent of the Fortune 500. In fact, Microsoft tells me that it now records over 100 million active users and that the SharePoint business generates over $1.3 billion in annual revenues. SharePoint, of course, is actually quite popular. Thanks to my testing of the Office 365 service over the past nine months, I've become more and more intrigued by this jack-of-all-trades product which, like an old SNL skit, is both a dessert topping and a floor wax, a product so versatile and useful that it defies you to describe it quickly and simply. While most readers are likely familiar with the name SharePoint, it's equally likely that many of you, like me, rarely if ever actually use the product. ![]()
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