SharePoint Server 2019 is the latest Microsoft platform for rich document and workflow-based collaboration. Originally released as SharePoint Portal Server in 2001, it's continued to evolve over almost 20 years to become one of the premier document management and collaboration platforms for enterprises. It's been designed to help you to create, store, organize, visualize, and share data, content, and applications. Not only is SharePoint Server 2019 a content management platform, but it is also an application development platform. One of SharePoint Server's strengths is the ability to search for data across an enterprise content set, including connected resources such as other on-premises SharePoint Server environments or file servers.
In addition to content management capabilities for your documents and data, SharePoint Server can also connect to database services on-premises to produce data-driven dashboard pages. With SharePoint Hybrid, SharePoint Server can allow users to interact with data services and visualizations in Office 365 cloud-based solutions, and navigate between SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online environments seamlessly.
For content creators, SharePoint Server features an easy-to-use what you see is what you get drag and drop design, publishing, and categorization tools. For more precise design and advanced control of the end user experience, SharePoint Server also offers development interfaces for coding more complex sites and queries. As the owner of a SharePoint site, you can publish news, upload documents, add links to resources, and visualize data from other parts of the Office ecosystem or application widgets. Microsoft enables content consumers to access resources via browsers on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, as well as native mobile applications for the Android and iOS platforms.
SharePoint Server features similar responsive design templates on its corresponding cloud service, SharePoint Online, as you can see in the following screenshot:
Responsive sites feature designs that are optimized for display on a variety of screens and devices, typically using a series of grids and flexible layouts (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/servicedescriptions/sharepoint-online-service-description/sharepoint-online-service-description#feature-availability-across-office-365-plans).
While SharePoint Server is frequently used for hosting local intranet sites or as a development platform for business process automation, it can also be used to host public websites or collaboration extranets with partners. SharePoint's workflows and security model make it simple to configure and promote content approval and publishing for public sites and to automate business processes when employees, partners, vendors, or customers submit or modify documents.
We'll explore some of SharePoint's core features and capabilities in the following sections:
- Overview of SharePoint Server architecture
- Overview of core SharePoint features and services
Understanding these features and capabilities will help you design and implement SharePoint Server environments to meet the needs of your organization.