Five Things Wrong With SharePoint

There's been a fair bit of comment already about this article. I think it's a good article, it's well informed and the criticisms are spot on. I think what's kept me interested in SharePoint for four years is the fact that it has grown in unpredictable directions and will continue to in the future. It's still a system with weaknesses which really underline it's potential. Here's my response to each point.

1. It's a crappy mish-mash of multiple technologies.

It sure is! But it's also a unique hybrid of Windows, Office, Search and open web standards like CSS/JavaScript and MS technology like .NET/AD. It's a product of it's environment though, technology-wise, Microsoft is moving away from it's old windows platform to a new one via the web, so, it's bound to be a sort of platypus in the evolutionary environment. It's wierd, but it works, in my opinion.

2. The development team is playing the Longhorn card.

Yes, I think they have to, Vista/Longhorn is were things are going so of course that's what they'd say!

3. There are two SharePoint products, which is confusing.

Totally agree, very tired of having to explain the differences to blank faces.

4. Support for SharePoint is lacking.

Not any more, the SDK and MSDN are very good, and there are loads of Blogs, sites etc. And the MVP programme is not Newsgroups-centric, I'm a SharePoint MVP for three years running and don't have an active presence on the forums, but I get 50,000 visits a month to my site, so I help people that way.

5. Microsoft has not stated a strategic direction for SharePoint.

As I said, I like that SharePoint could go in any direction!

Mike's final point is:

"Despite its lack of support and direction from Microsoft, SharePoint Portal Server still remains a viable product for an Intranet portal, document library, and company forum. To make all of those pieces work takes a tremendous amount of effort and education that — unfortunately — is not readily available to the end user community."

SharePoint is very demanding, you need to be a web developer, a .net developer, a network admin, have knowledge of Search technologies, Active Directory, Exchange... It's a long list. But it is I think Micrsoft's most bleeding-edge and ambitious technology an so it takes a knowledge of the technologies that are the future of the Windows platform to really implement it the best way possible.

So here are my Five things *Right* With SharePoint.

1. It's a hybrid of the latest technologies
2. It will be central to the new version of Windows
3. WSS is free, you can't knock that, and SPS is pretty good value.
4. It's demanding to get to know well, and that keeps it interesting. and when deployed well is an excellent solution.
5. It's potential is huge, I think it'll be the foundation of Windows for the future.

Before I forget, I promised these guys a plug for their new Web Parts. Loads of good stuff in there, go have a look!