SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 2. Changes in the WSS Architecture

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Version 3.0

Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) contains a subset of the capabilities provided in the full Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 product. WSS provides a secure, scalable, enterprise-level portal environment for collaboration, and is comprised of a set of components and services that serve as an add-in to Windows Server 2003. WSS provides the plumbing infrastructure for the SharePoint Products and Technologies, more commonly referred to as SPT. Essentially, this term includes both Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS). Figure 2-1 describes the components included in SPT.

Figure 2-1. SharePoint products and technologies

At its base, WSS is a scalable site-provisioning engine that allows companies to create and manage hundreds, if not thousands, of web sites in a highly scalable web farm environment. WSS is designed to enable an architecture where stateless frontend web servers in a web farm interact with a SQL Server database engine to provide users with the ability to perform basic CRUD (create, update, and delete) operations on the UI components. Best of all, WSS automatically coordinates where and how content is stored in the database.

Tip

WSS 3.0 is the third and latest major version of WSS. This release goes by the name of Windows SharePoint ...