New for IT Professionals in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 has many new features and enhancements that can help IT professionals deploy and maintain Office SharePoint Server 2007 solutions. Together, these new features and enhancements provide IT organizations with better control over information resources; individually these new features and enhancements provide functional benefits that help reduce administrative overhead and help IT administrators work more efficiently and effectively. The changes that impact IT organizations and IT professionals the most include:

• An improved administration model that centralizes configuration and management tasks, and helps IT organizations delineate and delegate administrative roles.
• New and improved compliance features and capabilities that help organizations secure resources and manage business-critical processes.
• New and improved operational tools and capabilities that drive down the total cost of ownership (TCO).
• Improved support for network configuration.
• Improved extensibility of the object model that makes custom applications and components are easier to deploy and manage.

Three-tier Administration Model
Architecturally, Office SharePoint Server 2007 now has a three-tier administration model that makes it easier for IT organizations to differentiate administrative roles and assign administrative responsibilities.
Tier 1 Encompasses all of the administrative features and functionality for centrally managing the server farm. Tier 1 administrative tasks are typically performed by an organization's IT administrators and can include a wide range of tasks such as farm-level resource management tasks, farm-level status checks and monitoring, and farm-level security configuration. For example, a tier 1 administrator might be responsible for creating new Web applications and site collections, managing incoming and outgoing e-mail settings for the farm, and managing server farm topology.
Tier 2 Encompasses all of the administrative features and functionality for managing shared services across a server farm. Tier 2 administrative tasks are typically performed by a business unit IT administrator and can include a wide range of management tasks at the service level such as configuring search, indexing, or usage reporting. Tier 2 is relevant only if you are running Office SharePoint Server 2007.
Tier 3 Encompasses all of the administrative features and functionality for managing sites within a server farm. Tier 3 administrative tasks are typically performed by a business unit site administrator and can include a wide range of site-specific management tasks such as Web part management, access management, and content management. For example, a tier 3 administrator might be responsible for creating a new list on a site, configuring access permissions for users, and modifying site hierarchy.
New and Improved Compliance Features and Capabilities
Office SharePoint Server 2007 includes new and enhanced features that provide IT organizations with better control over information resources. These new and enhanced compliance features include:
Policy management
You can now configure policies for Web applications based on the domain or the server authentication zone. For example, you can create intranet and extranet authentication zones to restrict access to information based on how users access information. You can also use authentication zones to create access control lists (ACLs) that include a group of users from different authentication providers.
Auditing and logging
Auditing and logging can now be configured for all actions on sites, content, and workflows.
Item-level access control
Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides item-level access control and security settings that allow site administrators and IT administrators to control which people or groups have access to sites, document libraries, lists, folders, documents, and list items. In addition to controlling access to Web page content, item-level access also allows administrators to control which user interface (UI) elements are visible or actionable. This feature, known as UI trimming, also reduces Web page clutter and makes Web pages easier to navigate.
Document life-cycle management
Using Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can take advantage of a stable, scalable, and efficient document management system that includes: a specialized Records Repository site template; a records vault with capabilities that help ensure the integrity of the files stored in the repository; information management policies that consistently and uniformly enforce the labelling, auditing, and expiration of records; hold capabilities that make it possible for IT, lawyers, and records managers to apply one or more holds that suspend the records management policies on items to help ensure that they remain unchanged during litigation, audits, or other investigations; records Collection Interface that helps people and automated systems easily submit content to a records repository—supporting "write only" access without requiring direct access to the records in the repository; record routing that enables automated routing of content to its proper location within the records management system, based on its content type.
Administrator access control
Office SharePoint Server 2007 now prohibits IT administrators from viewing site content unless the IT administrator is granted site collection administrator privileges. In addition, an event is written to the Event Viewer application log whenever an IT administrator changes site collection administrator privileges.
Extensibility enhancements
Office SharePoint Server 2007 has several extensibility enhancements that make it easier to create custom applications that are well integrated with Office SharePoint Server 2007 features, functionality, and user interface elements.
Site definitions have been enhanced so that sites are no longer locked or bound to your original template choice. For example, you can now enhance a document workspace site by using features from a team site.
Administration tasks and functionality can be extended to custom applications. For example, if you create a custom database by extending a database that was created by Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can have the custom database automatically appear in the backup and restore user interface.
Enhancements to the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service make it easier to create and manage timer jobs that control custom services.
In addition, Office SharePoint Server 2007 hosts the Windows Workflow Foundation, which allows the creation of customized workflow solutions and the use of structured workflows on document library and list items. In conjunction with the Office SharePoint Server 2007 application templates, the Windows Workflow Foundation allows you to create robust workflow-enabled business applications.