Appendix: Requirements, Licensing, and Pricing

SharePoint Server 2007 requires Windows Server 2003 Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter, or Web Edition; in all cases, Windows SharePoint Server (WSS) 3.0 and the .NET Framework 3.0 (which includes the Windows Workflow Foundation) are also required. In addition, the product requires either SQL Server 2000 SP3a or higher or SQL Server 2005 SP1 or higher for multiserver installations. (Microsoft recommends SQL Server 2005.)

With WSS 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007, SharePoint product licensing has become more complex and will generally lead to higher license fees, even for customers who purchased upgrade rights on previous product versions.

Specifically, customers can purchase SharePoint technology in any of four products. (See the chart “SharePoint Servers and Licensing“.) The entry-level product is WSS, which provides basic team collaboration and document management functions, and which is free to licensed customers of Windows Server. Two specialized server products support Web-based InfoPath forms and enterprise search and could interest organizations that already use another portal product, or that need to provide search or forms for public Web sites on a different platform. Finally, SharePoint Server replaces SharePoint Portal Server and Content Management Server as Microsoft’s product for hosting large-scale corporate portals and Web sites, and for enterprise content management, records management, and other functions described in this report.