Portals: When Do I Need SPS?

Microsoft sees Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) 2003 as serving two distinct types of corporate portals:

Ad-hoc collaboration sites for teams. To make collaboration among knowledge workers easier, Microsoft feels organizations need systems that support multiple small “team sites” that are easy for end users to create and manage. These sites essentially take the place of the combination of shared file server directories, Exchange public folders, and Excel-based lists that is often used by teams to store task lists, documents, calendars, announcements, and other information relevant to the team’s activities. Sometimes these team sites need only a limited lifespan, often just for the duration of a project. Microsoft designed WSS to meet these needs.

Access to corporate data and applications. Employees at many levels of an organization need easy access to various types of information stored in a wide variety of locations: in documents stored on various servers, in application databases, in team sites, and even on external sources outside the firewall, such as partner or competitor Web sites. Enterprise portals are designed to serve this need. Unlike team sites, enterprise portals tend to be used by large numbers of individuals, are more permanent, and are more carefully regulated as to who can post or access content. Microsoft designed SPS 2003 to meet the needs of enterprise portals.