Microsoft® SharePoint® Server 2007 Bible

Using Groove with Office Server

Groove is a collaboration tool that allows team spaces to be created on a client machine, which then replicates the Groove space to invited users. As data and content are added to any space, the data automatically replicates to other machines using technology that was compared to the Napster peer-to-peer sharing model when Groove was first released. Groove has several advantages:

• Team members can exchange information within their Groove space inside or outside of a company firewall. Groove can be configured and managed without any assistance from IT because there is no need to configure firewalls, servers, security, or network access.

• Groove features include presence information, chat, application sharing, file sharing, contacts, messaging, project management, data sharing, and content synchronization.

• Groove can be fully customized by both technical and non-technical users with simple form development tools as well as Visual Studio.

Determining when to use Groove with SharePoint

SharePoint has document libraries, contact lists, data sharing, and presence information. Why would you use Groove and SharePoint together? One of the main reasons would be to share information with users outside of your organization. Although some companies have extranets that allow collaboration with external suppliers and vendors, many still do not. If a company has an extranet, there are still issues around account creation, security, and Internet access that make a ...