Anthony Milner

I came away from day one of the APAC SharePoint Conference with two thoughts swirling around my head…

• First thought – This is an outstanding platform and I want it in our armoury as we head out to solve the information management challenges of the enterprise (and the SME?).
• The second thought – Licensing? Why is it that every time I ask a Microsoft specialist the dreaded licensing question I receive in quick succession a nod and then a chuckle, then an answer which leaves me feeling like a hot potato?

Is licensing the “bad boy” at Microsoft? SharePoint is an extremely compelling offering but there needs to be simplicity in licensing to make it work. Maybe it needs a top down shakeup akin to the big security push of 2001? There are so many web 2.0 collaboration tools out there, they may not have the extensibility and scalability of SharePoint but what they do have is functional and licensing clarity, and that can make a huge difference.

If anyone can point me to a clear and concise explanation of the Sharepoint 2007 licensing model for external websites, extranets and intranets, then I’d love to hear from you.

A few of us are attending a SharePoint conference at the Hilton Hotel over the next two days. A good cross section of our company is attending which should allow us to cover most sessions across multiple streams as we continue our build up of MOSS 2007 skills. We’ve already had a few Microsoft Information Worker demonstrations but they’ve only touched the surface. It will be great to dig a bit deeper and see some hands on demonstrations.