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Get the NewsletterSharePoint Online (SaaS) Review - What it is and Isn't
With the number of on-premise SharePoint installs going no where but up, one has to wonder why Microsoft has also gone to the trouble of building an online (SaaS) version.
In an interview with Redmond's Director of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), Tom Rizzo indicated the move was in part to reach new customers and grow revenue more efficiently — keeping up with the Joneses also comes to mind.
SharePoint Online isn't for everyone. While it offers a nice bit of functionality that will support many organization's collaboration and document management needs, there are some things you can't do and you should be aware of these before you sign up.
A Little Background
Microsoft's decision to offer an online version of SharePoint was announced back in March of last year. Designed to offer intranet collaboration capabilities for organizations of all sizes, there are two flavors, standard and dedicated (see details).
The standard version is a shared version — multi-tenancy — with most of the functionality required to support a company intranet that is focused on collaboration and communication.
The dedicated version offers a bit more functionality and is a separate installation on separate servers for a specific company.
SharePoint Online Admin Center
Microsoft supports the following languages for SharePoint online: English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. And the offering was just recently made available to a number of countries other than the United States.
Here is a quick view of what you get with SharePoint Online Standard:
SharePoint Online Standard — Key Features
SharePoint Deskless Worker
In addition to the standard user, Microsoft offers a special deskless worker subscription. This is typically a person who needs access to information on the Intranet site but does require the collaboration capabilities. Generally they may not work in the office or have an assigned PC. Deskless workers cannot upload or create documents, only view and download.
Secure and Fully Backed Up
Access to your SharePoint Online Site is encrypted with 128 bit SSL encryption. Availability is 99.9% and backups are performed every 12 hours. There is also the Recycle Bin for most content types, the exception being deleted web pages (not web part pages) and customizations done using SharePoint Designer.
You also have virus filtering of email and other content using Microsoft Forefront Security for SharePoint. There are also a number of files types that are blocked from upload to SharePoint Online including: asp, bat, exe, class and more.
Okay enough of the basics. Time to get to the heart of the situation and look at what you do and do not get with the standard version of SharePoint Online.
Getting Started
You don't create your Site Collections though the usual SharePoint Server Administration. You do through the Online Admin Center. This means you can't create a site collection from a custom template — you only have the default options available.
Remember the forty application templates that SharePoint offers free? You can upload any one of those to get a custom site created.
SharePoint Online — Create Site Collection
Once you have your first collection created you can start using SharePoint Online. You will need to add any users you want to access the site — this is also done through the Online Admin Website.
Microsoft also provides one-way Directory synchronization to help you get your users imported to SharePoint Online quickly.
SharePoint Online — Admin, Manage Users
Single Sign On Application
To make life a little easier when using SharePoint Online, you download and install the Microsoft Online Services Sign-In application. This application enables you to move through the site without having to continually provide your credentials.
SharePoint Online Standard Capabilities
SharePoint Online is offered as a collaboration and communications tool for organization's Intranets. It offers the following types of functionality.
- Collaboration
- Portals
- Search
- Content Management
- Business Process and Forms
In the standard version, you do not get all the functionality that you would if you implemented your own version of SharePoint on premise or if you subscribed to the Dedicated Version. Here's a look at what you get and don't get.
Collaboration | What you get:
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What you don't get:
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Portals | What you get:
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What you don't get:
| |
Content Management | What you get:
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What you don't get:
| |
Search | What you get:
|
What you don't get:
| |
Business Process and Forms | What you get:
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What you don't get:
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Customization Capabilities
Probably one of the most important questions you may have about using SharePoint Online is what can you customize. You can do customizations, but you are limited to customizing only what doesn't require coding.
SharePoint Designer is the tool to use to customize your SharePoint Online site. With it you can:
- Create no-code workflows
- Modify and create master pages, page layouts
- Create content types and taxonomy
- Create custom site templates
- Use the Data Form Web Part to create mashups of SharePoint data or other data brought in using Web Services
- Create InfoPath Forms — no code allowed
If you are using Visual Studio to build custom web parts, features or workflows, then you don't want SharePoint Online:
- No in-line code is allowed, including code in InfoPath Forms or custom coded workflows
- Can't create features, site definitions, web parts, solutions — anything that requires something be installed and configured on the server.
- You also can't modify SharePoint files, web.config settings or security
- No custom database modifications
- No configuration changes that affect the web server or the .NET framework
Is SharePoint Online Right For You?
This has been a quick review of the standard version of SharePoint Online Services. There's likely enough information here to give you a good idea if the service is a candidate for your organization's needs.
If you are looking for a version of SharePoint that is highly customizable, this probably isn't the best fit for you. If you are looking to implement some of those integrated partner solutions, this isn't the best fit for you — at least not yet.
There are a number of resources that will help you understand exactly how you can customize SharePoint Online. A 133 page developer guide is one of these. You also go the SharePoint Online website and download data sheets for both product versions.
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Thanks, this is a nice summary of the tradeoffs involved with SharePoint Online.
Our small company just dropped our subscription after using the service for a year (6 months in beta, then since November's launch).
A couple observations from our experiences:
-There are some feature gaps between MS hosted SharePoint and competitors. As mentioned in the article, MS doesn't fully enable the “Fab 40” site template set. It doesn't support email-enabled lists. And it doesn't allow for anonymous access. These added up for us as we looked to use our site collection for a mix of internal and external purposes.
-The off-boarding process for SharePoint Online is anemic. We had about 120MB of data to move when we decided to cancel. The only supported method was file download. You can't request a site backup, SharePoint Designer's site backup feature doesn't work (as mentioned in the article), and SharePoint itself doesn't allow template rollup of site data of more than 10MB. This meant I spent a day downloading documents and reassigning metadata. Not fun.
I also think site responsiveness is an issue in this hosted environment. More than once we had long stretches of very slow response times for basic site functionality. And the administration center for the MS Online service suite is highly functional, but very slow.
On the upside, for users of the productivity suite, having a single login for multiple services is a nice feature. Active Directory integration is an obvious win for organizations that need it. And the option to mix some hosted and some on-premise services is very nice.
As Microsoft partners, we'll keep the service in mind for our customers, but for our internal use, it's proven to be a poor fit. Better hosted solutions are available elsewhere.
Thanks! Our company is planning on implementing SharePoint Online, and this is the first article I've found that answered my basic questions about SharePoint functionality. I finally get it.
VERY disappointed with the lack of customization support. I can understand why. But Sharepoint is more of a framework than a system, customization being paramount.
I hope Microsoft can overcome this as it makes it near to useless for developers.
Thanks for the analysis. I find a there to be frustrating lack of analysis of the new SaaS products of Microsoft (SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, BPOS) from a functionality standpoint, although there is endless “high level” analysis. We had recently done a functional comparison of Google Apps, BPOS and our own HyperOffice - http://www.hyperoffice.com/google-apps-vs-microsoft-bpos/
Enjoyed your article as we are looking at the benefits of on-premise vs the cloud
Can you confirm on your ” what you get and dont get” list does this apply only to Standard Online or Dedicated too ?
Thanks
Ian
Hi Ian,
The list above is purely for the standard service. Dedicated means you get your own server, which makes it your environment alone.
barb
Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks;
Good source to start evaluating the online serivice.
I think the amount of storage for SharePoints is not correct. I believe you get 250 MB of SharePoint Storate per Standard account. No limitations on number of sites exist.
I've been evaluating the online version for only a couple of hours and the slow response times is definitely a problem. There is no way we can operate as a normal company with such slow response times to simple tasks. Will test further or course but not looking good.
The only negative point I see is Microsoft SharePoint Online charge for per user whereas companies like Apps4Rent is offering unlimited users for just $8.95 per month. I am going to signup with Apps4Rent on this weekend and see how it works out.