SharePoint: The Enterprise Platform
October 12, 2009
I read “SharePoint 2010: The Enterprise Platform” with an open mind. Microsoft is “all over” the US Federal government. Many of the information technology savvy folks with whom I speak point out the advantages of the SharePoint solution. Programming is getting easier. Users are comfortable with the basic features and functions of the system. Competitors’ products are often more expensive to license. SharePoint is easily shaped into what an information professional needs to solve a particular problem. Microsoft makes available a large number of software “MRE”s; that is, ready to eat, no extra effort required to get certain capabilities or functionality.
Jeremy Thake’s article provides some useful background for SharePoint 2010. This release of SharePoint adds a number of new capabilities to an already richly endowed system. He did make a comment that I found interesting:
In my opinion and a lot of others SharePoint is “a jack of all trades and a master of none”, much like most of the other vendors who played the same card. SharePoint is extremely strong in the collaboration area from an End User perspective, but is weak for example in Records Management, Business Intelligence and Digital Asset Management.The days of purchasing a product for a specific area have clearly gone which is a shame because you pick one of the Enterprise Platforms and suffer in the weaker areas.
He concludes his write up with a reference to MOSS 2007 “horror stories” and makes clear that he loves SharePoint “anyway”.
My thought is that overburdened information technology professionals may find the charms of SharePoint fading when complexity and costs begin to rise. These two issues may be the stepping stones for Google, despite its flaws and weaknesses, to make significant gains at a time when Microsoft is hoping that SharePoint 2010 blunts the appeal of Google’s enterprise offerings.
Google is no match for Microsoft in terms of marketing. But Google does a much better job with the technology for a hybrid platform in my opinion. Can Google deal with the buzz saw of SharePoint 2010? Interesting face off to watch in the last weeks of 2009.
Stephen Arnold, October 12, 2009 No dough
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