Introduction to planning for SharePoint site

1. How Many Sites Do I Need?!?!
SharePoint Saturday Virginia Beach
Mike Oryszak
http://www.mikeoryszak.com
January 7, 2012

2. About Me
• Practice Manager with Intellinet
• Microsoft SharePoint Server MVP
• Dev and Architect with MS stack since 1996
• Working with SharePoint since 2002
• Raleigh-Durham, NC Area since 1998
• Contact Info
– Blog - http://www.mikeoryszak.com
– Twitter - @Next_Connect
– Email – nextconnect@live.com
– LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeloryszak

3. Session Overview
• Understanding SharePoint’s Structure
• Site Topology Options
• Planning Scenarios
• Wrap-up and Questions

4. Support our Sponsors

5. How Many Sites Do I Need?!?!
UNDERSTANDING SHAREPOINT’S
STRUCTURE

6. Understanding SharePoint’s Structure
Series of Containers

7. Understanding SharePoint’s Structure
Site Collections
• A Site Collection Contains
– One or more Webs
– Web Part Gallery
– Global (Top) Navigation
– Site Collection Features
– Quota Management
– Web Analytics Reports
– SharePoint Security Groups
• Backups
– Full fidelity backup
– Can be fully backed up including security, versions,
workflows, etc
– Can be restored to other farms in most cases

8. Understanding SharePoint’s Structure
Web or Sub-Site
• A Web / Sub-Site Contains
– Lists & Libraries
– Web Features
• Backups
– Can export content (documents, list items)
– Cannot backup security, versions, workflows

9. How Many Sites Do I Need?!?!
SITE TOPOLOGY OPTIONS

10. Site Topology Options
Two Extremes – Deep versus Flat
• Deep Site Topology

11. Site Topology Options
Two Extremes – Deep versus Flat
• Flat Site Topology

12. Site Topology Options
Creating Site Collections
• When to create Site Collections
– Governance dictates quotas and security to be
maintained by an administrator
– Large amounts of content (30+ GB); divide it into
multiple site collections
– Unique or new type of content

13. Site Topology Options
Hurdles With Lots/Multiple Site Collections
• Navigation Maintained At Site Collection
– Global nav across site collections requires customization
• Themes/MasterPages Maintained At Site Collection
– May need to be applied to each site collection separately
– Formal packaged customizations may be required
• Content Query Web Part (CQWP)
– Can only aggregate content within a site collection
• Workflows
– Workflows limited to content and data within site collection

14. Site Topology Options
Creating Sub-sites
• When to create a sub-site
– Content maintained by existing site collection admin
– Related to existing content
– Quotas are not used (Bad - )

15. Site Topology Options
Hurdles With Too Few Site Collections
• Navigation Can Get Cluttered
– More tabs than horizontal space and too much info
• Quotas Ineffective
– Storage reports no longer effective or meaningful
• SharePoint Security Groups Get Cluttered
– If default 3 groups are created for each site, can have
100s of SharePoint Security Groups
• Backups Fail
– Backups fail because of too much content, no recovery

16. Site Topology Options
Recommendations
• Find the Appropriate Balance
• Organize Content Based on…
– Site Administrator -> Who is the administrator?
– Governance Plan -> Quotas, Policies
– Amount of Content -> Smaller sites easier to backup
and restore
– Importance of Content -> Isolate critical content
– Type of Content -> Intranet, Team Sites, Applications,
Enterprise Content/Document Management

17. How Many Sites Do I Need?!?!
PLANNING SCENARIOS

18. Planning Scenarios
Feedback and
• How are you using it?
• What problems are you having?
• How can you improve things?

19. Questions?

20. Resources
• SharePoint Site Topology Planning
– http://www.mikeoryszak.com/sharepoint/sharepoint-site-topology-planning
• Site Topology Planning & Taxonomies
– http://www.mikeoryszak.com/sharepoint/site-topology-planning-and-taxonomies
• Planning & Architecture for Sites – Technet
– http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc261834.aspx