Choosing between MOSS and WSS

Windows SharePoint Services 2007 (WSS 2007) is a collection of services for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 that can be used to share information, collaborate with other users via document libraries, blogs, wikis, and discussions, as well as provide the ability to create lists and Web part pages. In addition to off-the-shelf functionality, WSS 2007 is used as a development platform for creating collaboration and information-sharing applications. WSS is very popular and often virulently adopted at the department level in organizations because it is included at no additional charge with the purchase of Windows Server 2003 user licenses.

Comparing MOSS and WSS

MOSS 2007 is built on top of WSS 2007 and therefore all WSS features are available in a MOSS deployment. Table 1.2 compares the two products from a feature perspective.

Table 1.2. MOSS 2007 and WSS 2007 Feature Matrix

Feature	Windows SharePoint Services 2007	Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
PORTAL
Social networking		X
Sites and documents roll-up Web part		X
Colleagues and memberships Web parts		X
Web parts	X	X
Web part pages	X	X
Enterprise search		X
Content targeting		X
Site directory		X
Automatic categorization		X
News		X
Shared services		X
Business intelligence		X
Single sign-on		X
Site and list templates	X	X
Infopath server		X
Excel server		X
Collaboration
Personal sites		X
Team sites	X	X
Wikis	X	X
Blogs	X	X
Alerts	X	X
Configurable alerts to users and groups	X	X
Discussion boards	X	X
Lists	X	X
Surveys	X	X
Workflow		X
Content review and approval	X	X
Site and list templates	X	X
Usability/Integration
Outlook calendar	X	X
Save to library from Office applications	X	X
Personal views of Web part pages	X	X
Infopath integration	X	X
Document Management
Document management sites	X	X
Records management		X
Document libraries	X	X
Document- and folder-level security		X
Content Management
Page layouts and publishing		X
Web page versioning and approval		X
Design control via master pages		X
Browser-based, in-place content editing		X

Comparing features is useful to help understand and delineate the two products, but business size and requirements are also important additional criteria to consider.

Considering organizational size

Most small businesses (5 to 500 information workers) can benefit from a WSS deployment. If an organization is creating and reviewing documents, tracking contacts, customers, and events, or collaborating with other organizations, they are good candidates for WSS. Perhaps there is the need to quickly create Web sites to communicate with internal employees or external customers. Again, WSS is a great solution for rapid Web site deployments.

Small business owners will want to consider starting with or upgrading to MOSS if they will be creating a large number of team sites. For example, many small consulting firms will create a new team site for each project. It doesn’t take long to recognize the value of having a site directory structure to help organize those sites by project type or category. In addition to the organizational benefits of a site directory, small businesses may want to perform a company-wide search across all sites and other data sources.

Generally, we do not recommend deploying just WSS in an organization larger than 500 users if the intent is to allow users to create their own team sites for collaboration. If you have ever worked with Lotus Notes or WSS 2003, you know that this type of technology spreads virally with the potential to quickly become unmanageable. The exception to this would be the organization that provisions the team sites and document repositories centrally. In this scenario, WSS can scale and provide valuable functionality for any size organization.

Meeting the requirements

Business requirements can help determine which SharePoint product is appropriate for your organization. The WSS requirements usually center on team-level collaboration and support of easy Web publishing, and MOSS requirements are focused on enterprise knowledge management and centralization.

Typical WSS requirements

The following requirements can be met with a standard WSS deployment:

• Template-based Web sites to manage meetings, teams, and project documents

• Blogs and wikis provide RSS aggregation

• Share contact lists, event calendars, and announcements with teams, customers, and partners

• Post documents for review and approval

• Provide self-service site creation for end users

• Provide administration for unused Web sites

• Ability to archive project e-mails

• Document management

• Content notification

• Desire to pilot collaboration and knowledge management software to gain acceptance in the organization

If your business requirements are one or more of the above and your organization falls within the organization size considerations, choosing to deploy WSS is appropriate.

Typical MOSS requirements

The common MOSS business requirements are enterprise scenarios where it is important to categorize, find, and administer data across a large department or at the enterprise level. The common MOSS requirements are

• Provide enterprise content management

• Records management and compliance solutions

• Use enterprise search to easily find posted content

• Ability to create business intelligence (BI) portals

• Provide business process automation

• Provide single sign-on to multiple internal applications

• Desire to push targeted content to users based on their profile within the company

• Provide personal sites and the ability to locate subject matter experts in the organization

If your requirements align with any of these MOSS requirements, you should deploy MOSS as your portal and collaboration product.