When you use SharePoint to set up an extranet, you first need to decide
whether to use Windows SharePoint Services
(WSS) 3.0 or Microsoft Office Share-
Point Server (MOSS) 2007. If WSS will adequately
fulfill your specific requirements (in
my case, security, ease of use, document
management, search, change notification,
lists), then it would be the logical choice.
If you need functionality that WSS doesn’t
provide, then you’ll want to use MOSS.
For example, in WSS, search is merely
a service for indexing a content database.
MOSS search can index a variety of sources,
which would allow external users to search
across multiple site collections (extranets).
If this is a must-have requirement for your
external users, you should consider MOSS.
However, if your internal users are the only
ones with a need for this functionality,
consider deploying MOSS on your intranet
instead of on your extranet, and then point
the search index crawler to your extranet’s
site collections.
Although WSS is less expensive to
license than MOSS, this initial expense likely
doesn’t represent the bulk of your licensing
costs. SharePoint can be deployed in such a
variety of ways that licensing of all involved
servers becomes quite complicated. For the
purposes of an extranet, you might also need
to purchase an external connector license.
Ultimately, you might have to discuss these
details with a Microsoft licensing representative.
To get a head start on your licensing
research, read the Office&SharePoint
Pro.com articles “Licensing Windows
SharePoint Services for the Extranets” (www.officesharepointpro.com/content/1924/License-to-Fill--Licensing-Windows-SharePoint-Services-for-the-Extranet-.aspx) and “Licensing Windows SharePoint
Services” (www.officesharepointpro.com/content/1925/Licensing-Windows-Share-Point-Services-.aspx).
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