Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Microsoft SharePoint 2010: Full Name and Title, Please

By announcing on April 15 the release of the beta version of Exchange 2010, Microsoft moved one more step forward to the next wave of the Office product line. In a MSDN PressPass interview, Microsoft’s Chris Capossela also outlined the approximate roadmap for the release of other MSOffice and related products. According to this timeline, SharePoint 2010 beta is due in late 2009, with the manufacturing version following in the first half of 2010. As to WSS, it is on its way to the v4 version, no deadlines specified.
With the “14” codename safely gone, there are a number of brand-related issues floating around. Apparently, the SharePoint folks will have hold their breath as a frantic search for a fresh acronym for Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is underway, with the “Office” part dropped in order to avoid misconceptions and undue associations with the Office user package, just as the “Portal” component vanished from the name back in the times of the transition from 2003 to 2007. The question is for what exactly we are supposed to substitute the pleasantly acronymic MOSS. Here’s what Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog warns us about:
“Don’t try to acronym Microsoft SharePoint Server to MSS since MSS is already taken by Microsoft Search Server. Just remember, SharePoint is SharePoint is SharePoint.”
So far, so good. However, there’s still time for a suitable letter combination to be picked – it’s a tradition to be honored, after all.
There’s little divulged as to SharePoint brand-new functionality features yet, but it has to be nothing less significant than the previous upgrade. In the meantime, we will have to make do with the rather vague bits of “using office in more locations with more devices”, “promoting interoperability”, “giving users the same value whether deployed on-premises, as a service from Microsoft and industry partners, or a mix of both” et al. And fiddle with Exchange, of course.

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