Print | posted on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 1:01 PM
It is a common misconception both among customers and those in the (ahem) consulting business that SharePoint Technologies can be deployed as a wholesale replacement for traditional file server based shares within an organization.
Whilst moving to the new world of work can indeed dramatically reduce the amount of data stored (and used) in this manner (think personal drive or the common general dumping ground for all manner of tat) this perception is very dangerous and should be debunked at the earliest possible opportunity to save you from a world of hurt.
So are SharePoint Technologies a suitable replacement for your existing File Shares? The answer is the perennial favourite, 'it depends'. Theres more to it than meets the eye, and to answer appropriately requires an adequate understanding of both the technologies and your current usage.
In a stellar effort to provide some pragmatic and sensible guidance, Joel Oleson has posted Is the File Server dead? over on the SharePoint Product Group blog. If you are working in this space, you absolutely must check it out.