SharePoint Foundation 2010 Used by Employees

A SharePoint Foundation 2010 site can be implemented on a single server or across multiple servers for increased scale and fault tolerance. Like its predecessor, called Windows SharePoint Services, SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a free download for Windows Server that offers tools and services for creating and managing team collaboration sites (see the sidebar “SharePoint Foundation 2010“).

In the “Simple Deployment” (left), the SharePoint Foundation 2010 components required to implement the site are installed on a single server, including a copy of SQL Server Express, a free edition of SQL Server that, despite database size and throughput restrictions, is sufficient for some small-scale SharePoint sites. The SharePoint Foundation server must be licensed for the Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter edition of Windows Server 2008 or 2008 R2. Assuming Office Web Apps (browser-accessible editions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote) are not hosted on the SharePoint Foundation server, all that is required for clients is a Windows Server 2008 Client Access License (CAL), which can be purchased per user (best when workers make use of multiple devices such as PCs and smart phones) or per access device (best when devices such as call-center consoles are shared by multiple users).