Infrastructure from Mars and SharePoint from Venus
As I spoke about it here SharePoint Tale, SharePoint is an excellent product from Microsoft .
Now what if you want to have SharePoint environment for your company/organization/customer?
Do you recall the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus"? Each one is speaking his own language and they met on earth.
The case here is similar when you decide about the best servers and the specifications to use when hosting SharePoint.
There are a few options available, either you buy/rent servers from somewhere and host it by yourself or you go to the cloud, which I prefer with the emerging technology from Microsoft.
Microsoft is providing excellent cloud services which is called Azure that provides IaaS and PaaS and help you save the effort of buying servers and managing all layers underneath it or even you go to SaaS and just start using already existing SharePoint Online.
What is IaaS and PaaS?
Based on TechNet and wikipedia:
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)--The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud physical infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly limited control of select networking components.
Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS)--The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applications created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.
Software as a Service (SaaS)--is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. It is sometimes referred to as "on-demand software". SaaS is typically accessed by users using a thin client via a web browser.
What are the benefits for deploying SharePoint on Azure?
- Faster Deployment.
- Pay as you go.
- Scalability.
How to host SharePoint on Azure?
- Create virtual machines representing each role you have (Front end, Application, databases).
- Use existing Templates available in Azure market.
Azure Services
SharePoint Online Benefits
- No need to manage infrastructure.
- No need to manage platform.
- Reliability.
- Access it from anywhere.
How to start using SharePoint Online?
- Buy license or you can start using the trial version https://products.office.com/en/try
- Log into https://portal.office.com
- Press on SharePoint icon on the main page and start customizing and managing your SharePoint Online
TechNet and other references:
- SharePoint on Azure
- Build SharePoint Virtual Machines
- SharePoint 2016 on Azure
- SharePoint 2013 Test Lab in Azure
- SharePoint 2016 Farm Configuration
- Azure Test Labs
- Cloud Computing
- Webinar: A begginer's guide to SharePoint Online
- SharePoint Online working with PowerShell
Written by: John Naguib
Microsoft MVP, Solution Architect/Senior Consultant
Wiki Ninja Blogger, SharePoint Expert and Speaker.