SharePoint Server 2007 Technology Stack

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007 use a multitier architecture that relies on a variety of Microsoft products and technologies, including SQL Server, the .NET Framework 3.0, and Windows Server 2003. WSS and SharePoint Server are closely related—SharePoint Server is built on WSS and relies on it for basic plumbing. For example, SharePoint Server’s document management features rely on document libraries, a feature of WSS.

Data tier. SharePoint Server 2007 and WSS 3.0 rely on SQL Server databases to store configuration, administrative, site content, and search data. A SharePoint installation will have a configuration database that contains information such as global configuration data (e.g., information on the Web servers in the installation) and server settings (e.g., to map SharePoint sites to their content stored in content databases). SharePoint also maintains all site content in SQL Server databases—for example, documents managed in SharePoint document libraries are stored in databases instead of the Windows file system. Other databases store information used by SharePoint’s search services (indexes, for instance) and for features that are unique to SharePoint Server, such as shared service providers, a set of centralized, shared services that are not specific to any one SharePoint Server site. (Excel Services, SharePoint Server’s server-based spreadsheet calculation and rendering engine, is one example of a shared service.)