Greetings Everyone

Welcome to another Wednesday featured forum, today we will be looking at the SharePoint Server Forum.

This is a post about collaboration! Before we dive into what SharePoint is, let's go back to the days where you would have a file server and store all your documents for people to access. Each one having its own folder with it's own set of permissions etc. When it came time for moving to a newer version you would generally have to re-do some of the work and hours spent on granting access.

Now we come to the question, What is SharePoint? Short and sweet:

SharePoint is a web-based, collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office

What does this mean for me? Well, you now have an intranet site where you can store all your documents and these are stored in a SQL database. Each department can have there very own page geared at what they do and it is integrated into Active Directory and Exchange. This means that any site administrator can add a user and all the information is pulled through to that page. Take this a step further, you can integrate your calendar into SharePoint as well, being an individual one or team one or you can create new ones. Everything you need in one place.

Instead of having users access many URL's to access the leave system, HR Polices, etc. you can now put web parts on to have it display within that SharePoint site so it alleviates the need for your end users to remember where to go etc. and having to ask for general documents from relevant departments.

You can also view the presence of people online like you do with Skype for Business or Lync.

Another great feature is document control. Remember in the days where person A worked on a document and it was overwritten by another user or a user deleted the document and because it was stored on a share, well it was permanently deleted. You now have the ability to check out a document and work on it and it has version control. So if something happened to the one you were working on or was deleted it is stored in SharePoint's recycle bin, making it easy for an Admin to restore vs having to load tapes to recover last nights document and all the work the user did after the backup is gone.

SharePoint has progressed over the years, here is a look at the different versions:

• SharePoint 2007
• SharePoint 2010
• SharePoint 2013
• SharePoint 2016
• SharePoint Online

I am not going to dive into each version but each one has a foundation version and a full version. Obviously cost is a factor here with the Full version. That includes SQL costs as well.

Let's now jump to the SharePoint Forums. Another massive Forum with 358485 pages of questions...Yes you read it right. It is a massive forum.

Here are some example questions asked:

• Uploading new version of a document erases all the existing metadata in SP2013
• Backup/restore SharePoint sub site

To access the SharePoint Forums, head over to this link.

If you would like to pursue a career in SharePoint and want to start studying, here are some resources available:

• Learn SharePoint
• Microsoft Virtual Academy
• Check what places are available in your area to provide training.

That is all for now, good luck to those wanting to install SharePoint in there environment!!

All the Best!

Edward