Microsoft Unveils SharePoint Server 2010; Highlights Functionality

Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer has announced that the public beta of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010 will become available in November. The company has also revealed some of the new SharePoint Server 2010 capabilities for the first time.

"By taming the overflow of information across systems and technologies, SharePoint enables organisations to thrive," Ballmer said. "SharePoint 2010 is the biggest and most important release of SharePoint to date. When paired with Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 will transform efficiency by connecting workers across a single collaboration platform for business."

The features and capabilities of SharePoint Server 2010 include:

* A new ribbon user interface that makes end users more productive and customisation of SharePoint sites easy

* Deep Office integration through social tagging, backstage integration and document life-cycle management

* Built-in support for rich media such as video, audio and Silverlight, making it easy to build dynamic websites

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* New Web content management features with built-in accessibility through Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, multi-lingual support and one-click page layout, enabling anyone to access SharePoint Server sites

* New SharePoint tools in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, giving developers a premier experience with the tools they know

* Business Connectivity Services, which allow developers to connect capabilities to line-of-business data or Web services in SharePoint Server and the Office client

* Rich APIs and support for Silverlight, representational state transfer (REST) and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ), to help developers build applications on the SharePoint platform

* Enterprise features in SharePoint Online such as Excel Services and InfoPath Forms Services, which make it simple to use, share, secure and manage interactive forms across an organisation

* The addition of two new SharePoint SKUs for Internet-facing sites, including an on-premises and hosted offer

Availability

The public betas of Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Office 2010, Project 2010 and Visio 2010 will become available in November 2009.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 will be available in the first half of 2010.