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All,

At my current company, we are looking to replace all ASP.NET Applications and OLTP databases with Sharepoint 2007. Our applications and databases deal with 10,000+ rows, and we have 5,000 + clients actively using the system. Our Implementation of sharepoint would replace all n-tier applications.

Does anyone have an experience in implementing this? My current viewpoint is that Sharepoint is not built for or adequate enough to handle this type of application. Can it really replace application with hundreds of pages, and hundreds of tables? Support Data warehousing operations? Support high performance OLTP operations? Provide a robust development environment?

Any and all input is greatly appreciated. Thanks S.O. Community.

Rex Whitten
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  • This is not a discussion site (its a Q&A site) so your replies should be as comments or edits to your post. As people vote up/down ANSWERS they will re-ordered making your current discussion hard to follow. Please read the FAQ (top right) – Ryan Apr 25 '10 at 12:11
  • In view of that, i will take my 'discussion' elsewhere. Hope fully this gets answered. – Rex Whitten Apr 25 '10 at 16:59

7 Answers7

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SharePoint can absolutely handle this this level of data and users. But I'd have serious concerns though about whether the people in the organization can adequately manage, develop, and use such an implementation. There are hundreds of wrong ways to do things in SharePoint, and very few "right" ways.

At the level of usage you're talking about, you're going to have to do some serious customization and development. You'll have to be careful that people don't get fooled into thinking it will work for them out-of-the-box.

Andrew Lewis
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https://stackoverflow.com/questions/256407/what-are-your-biggest-complaints-about-sharepoint

How good/bad is sharepoint programming?

Basically not a good idea to shift to sharepoint. Difficult to use. Steep learning curve. You would probably need sharepoint consultants.

update: Developing a website for 3 mln. users: SharePoint OR pure ASP.NET?

Sharepoint CMS vs UmbracoCMS

might be more relevant to you.

Also you may want to look at Running away from SharePoint (just kidding)

Community
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AJ Dhaliwal
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SharePoint is a platform, like any other, it has strengths and weaknesses and can be made, through various levels of effort, to do anything you really want to with it.

Can SharePoint handle the load you ask about? Without a doubt. Can it support your data back end? Sure, either via the "SharePointy" mechanisms of the BDC/BCS, or though your own custom code.

The better question is what is to be gained from essentially re-developing all of your applications on a new platform, if anything?

Don't be swayed jump on the SharePoint ship because Microsoft is selling it as the new shiny. A thorough knowledge of ASP.Net is required for development in SharePoint, but having that alone doesn't allow for a rapid start-up in development.

Preston Guillot
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  • Please explain, "support your data backend"? – Rex Whitten Apr 23 '10 at 22:58
  • SharePoint is not a replacement for any DBMS, but it does have mechanisms for interacting with that data without directly writing multitudes of custom code, namely the Business Data Catalog in SharePoint 2007 and its replacement in SharePoint 2010, Business Connectivity Services. Attempting to store ALL of your business data in SharePoint lists because they're "like tables" will lead to infinite sadness, but that isn't the purpose of the tool. – Preston Guillot Apr 24 '10 at 03:18
  • Thank you OedipusPrime. I think that one fact is extremely misunderstood in our enterprise. – Rex Whitten Apr 24 '10 at 15:43
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Here's some info on Sharepoint capacity planning: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/wss/2/all/adminguide/en-us/stsb07.mspx?mfr=true

It suggests that more than 2000 items per list would not work.

Frank Schwieterman
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Thanks all for your answers!

After reading all of the feed back, it seems to fall in line with my research. Having said, here is what I gather from your responses:

  • SharePoint out of the box is a CMS.
  • SharePoint Lists do not replace relational tables.
  • Extending SharePoint to fill other uses is limited to custom development within the SharePoint framework.

From my research: - Utilizing a relational database in a SharePoint application is done through custom code. Adhereing to point 3 above.
- Developing and building applications in SharePoint, with features that fall outside of the CMS domain , nullifies many sharePoint features and requires heavy custom development.

Again, thank you all for your feed back, this ihas invaluble to my research.

Rex Whitten
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For posterity , and anyone else who stumbles here.

Further points: - Most Developers do not have enough SharePoint Development Knowledge to properly implement a solution with SharePoint. - ASP.NET Knowledge is required to develop SharePoint applications. - SharePoint Maintains a step learning curve.

  • Are we saying that developing on a platform built on top of ASP.NET is harder to learn then ASP.NET it self?
Rex Whitten
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Ouch man, I don't know if you want to head down this path; SharePoint has a pretty notorious learning curve, isn't something easy to bend and flex too much.

Pierreten
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  • Thanks, but as ive said, its something that non-coding management personnel were sold on by hype and false pretense it would seem. – Rex Whitten Apr 24 '10 at 16:29