Earlier this week Microsoft released sneak peak videos of SharePoint 2010, which have created quite a buzz among the many working within the SharePoint goldmine. A blog post by US-based SharePoint expert Mauro Cardarelli, co-author of “Essential SharePoint 2007 – Delivering High Impact Collaboration“, called Planning for SharePoint 2010, caught my attention as he called for more governance and predicted yet another difficult upgrade for existing customers. SharePoint 2010 is currently in a limited, invitation only Technical Preview program and expected out in a final release in early 2010.
I’ll share two interesting quotes from the blog, which was a sobering read to me.
First on governance:
…this next version, more than any other product release I have ever seen, will demand governance
Then on upgrading:
…the upgrade from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 will be harder than SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007
Mainly due to the governance problems experienced by several organisations, e.g. viral proliferation, uncontrolled content and compliance risks, CMS Watch compared SharePoint to a virus. To be fair, problems are far from always due to faults with the actual product and as we have previously shared on this blog, there are also many successful enterprise implementations of SharePoint. Customers can find much inspiration on Microsoft’s Governance Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2007. Not surprisingly, the governance guidelines provided by Microsoft are of a highly technical nature. You will naturally also need to address non-technical facets of governance.
As some of you might remember, the upgrade from SharePoint 2003 to SharePoint 2007 was a nightmare. It is still early days with regards to the technical details on SharePoint 2010, but if the upgrade is anywhere near as hard, it will be a major source of frustration for many practitioners. Microsoft is known for making their partners happy and this would certainly be very good news for any vendors earning money on upgrading customers – and of course for competing vendors like Ektron, EPiServer and Sitecore. I asked Cardarelli for more details on his bold statement and he clarified that in his view the upgrade will be technologically easier, but require more effort in planning.
My colleague Dorthe R. Jespersen urged caution with SharePoint in April this year, when she advised existing SharePoint customers to carefully plan for the future. Dorthe recommended that the best way to minimize risks is to stay in touch with other practitioners and the SharePoint community at large.
I strongly recommend that all buyers keep addressing questions directly to Microsoft, as they may be willing to share further details, potentially under a non-disclosure agreement. I hope the combined advice from Mauro, this blog, from Microsoft and from peers, together with the internal dynamics in your organisation, will enable you to avoid any first-mover disadvantages.
