Installation and Configuration Decisions
ADMINISTRATION of Microsoft SharePoint can be broken down into two categories: Business User Administration, and Information Technology Professional Administration.
If you are a typical person who works in this category:
Your main job doesn’t revolve around computers.
You create and modify sites, libraries, and lists.
You might also be responsible for the site content. For example, you might upload documents to libraries for others to download.
The majority of this book includes information targeted to the advanced business user who might perform some of this type of administration. This chapter will give you the tools to set up your SharePoint sites that are serviced on the back end either by your organization’s IT group or an external hosting company, or both.
If you are a typical person who works in this category:
You work in a room surrounded by the server’s network hardware.
You install and configure SharePoint on a server.
You create web applications and Site Collections for business users to administer.
The IT professional at an organization with SharePoint is often an advanced user of SharePoint, as well. Although this chapter is not intended to describe the step-by-step processes to implement back-end changes for SharePoint Foundation, an IT professional can benefit from this chapter by learning the business perspective of the same changes.
Why Administration Matters: One Search Example
Have you ever searched a website and been disappointed by the results? Maybe your search for chocolate chip cookies on your favorite recipes website returned no results. What would you do next? With the amount of websites available to choose from today, you’re probably heading over to your second favorite recipe website or a search of the Internet. You’re less likely to continue on that website when your search comes up with no results. And, you are less likely to return to it in the future.
Now, think about the sites for which you have some responsibility in your organization’s world of SharePoint. Do you want visitors to your sites staying for more and returning the next time they want to find something you’ve got there? Of course you do, or you wouldn’t have created the site or accepted some responsibility for it in the first place. With your name on the site, you want to make every visit to it rewarding and enjoyable. Understanding administration will help avoid bad experiences like this search example. Ownership of a site in SharePoint doesn’t make you an IT professional. You might not be the one pushing the buttons on the computers that host the site, but what that person does affects how your site is perceived. You need every visitor to come away with the information they came for (especially if that visitor is you).