Microsoft versions can be become very confusing, not too long ago I was helping a small client get the correct version of SQL 2005 (There are an astonishing 6 editions, before breaking those editions into licensing methods). Although not the topic of the article, research into business needs against actual required version can be quite time consuming, and confusing. Microsoft have helped this with regards to Sharepoint 2007 by supplying a spreadsheet of version comparisons (Download here). There are 3 versions of Sharepoint 2007, excluding the free bundled WSS 3.0 (a comparison can be found here); these are SharePoint 2007 for Search, Standard and Enterprise.
MOSS 2007 For Search has the core search functionality but not the complete, integrated MOSS 2007 offering.
MOSS 2007 for Search indexes common data sources out of the box with security trimmed search results and can be extended to search third-party repositories. It can also provide search functionality for public-facing Internet sites. It delivers search functionality for structured and unstructured data sources, security trimmed search results, search for third-party content sources and repositories, as well as people and expertise search.
Standard vs Enterprise comes down to a few extra features (the following is cribbed directly from the Downloadable spreadsheet), which includes all of the Business Intelligence features of SharePoint. Items Only available in Enterprise:
- All Business Intelligence Offerings (11 Key Items) – So for us, in our ever growing world of Business Intelligence, means that the enterprise version is the only way forward.
- All Forms Server Offerings (7 Key Items) – Although these features are implemented in Office Forms Server.
- Business Data Search – Search data residing in your line of business applications using the Business Data Catalog. Structured content sources as well as LOB application data and reports accessible through web services or ADO.NET can be indexed and retrieved through the Business Data Catalog as search results or into a Sharepoint list
- Excel Spreadsheet Developer Reuse and Extensibility – Spreadsheets published to SharePoint sites are accessible more securely using Web services. This means that application developers can take advantage of the logic embedded in a spreadsheet by remotely accessing spreadsheets from any platform. Business analysts can modify or update the model without affecting the business application or having to involve an application developer in the process.
