SharePoint deployments are highly distributed in nature, but the power of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 is the ability to create a central, corporate-wide collaboration environment. But until IT controls it centrally with SharePoint security policies and governance, the organization will not realize the full benefits of the suite's functionality. SharePoint's popularity is driven by its ease of use and the ability for a business user or workgroups to set up a collaboration environment without the aid of IT. For the same reasons, setting Microsoft SharePoint security policies can prove difficult.
"Governance is almost counterintuitive to the way SharePoint populates an organization," said Carl Frappaolo, co-founder and principal of Boston-based Information Architected Inc. "Judging by how much of a security concern SharePoint is for upper management and IT, governance by default is a concern."
In a yet-to-be released survey of 400 companies conducted by Information Architected, the majority already have Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 installed. Within this group, 57% cited SharePoint security as their top concern. About 17% also said they had SharePoint scalability and functionality-related concerns, Frappaolo said.
