Considerations for selecting a SharePoint hosting provider
SharePoint hosting is not a new capability. In addition to the standard single instance hosting by a managed service provider, SharePoint has been available in a hosted service provider model since Windows SharePoint Services 2.0 (WSS 2.0). Microsoft tried to deliver hosted multi-tenant WSS 2.0 using bCentral until it was sold off to another hosted service provider. The problem is that it has only been WSS 2.0 or WSS 3.0. Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 did not have the multi-tenant functionality available for hosted service providers to use. But with the release of SharePoint 2010, this all changes and the providers are looking very carefully at how and when to deliver it for general use.
This brings new questions to light on how to choose the right hosted service provider for your SharePoint environment. Here are some suggestions for your selection process:
1. How long have you been a hosted service provider?
With companies realizing that the "cloud" is an upcoming strong revenue stream, many companies are starting up their own hosted service offerings to expand their offerings. The more seasoned companies have the hosted provider processes documented and supported and do not have the challenges of learning how to support a cloud offering.
2. What types of migration processes or tools do they use?
The most complicated part of moving to a hosted service provider is the migration of the data. If the provider does not have the automated migration tools in place, there is often a lack of understand the difference between migrating from the single instance WSS 3.0 environment to the hosted multi-tenant SharePoint 2010 Server environment. If there aren't tools in place, you may want to find out how long they expect to move the data and how.
3. What are the service levels offered?
Service levels are just one way to determine how confident the hosted service provider is about their own infrastructure, software configuration, and support. The latter is often overlooked by providers because their objective is to keep the application running, and not how quickly they will answer the phone when you call. When reviewing service levels, do not forget to check the maintenance windows. This can be a big issue for 24/7 customers if the maintenance window is every evening between 8PM and 5AM and the service levels are only measured between 5AM and 8PM.
4. Are there contractual penalties associated to the service levels?
If the company has a failure or disaster, having service levels does not make a hill of beans without some payment or reduction in monthly costs.
5. What are the Microsoft Certified Competencies?
Much like any other Microsoft Gold Partner, each one has competencies in certain fields of service certified by Microsoft. Microsoft certified competencies are verified by Microsoft to have the certified personnel and good references to receive the competency. The SharePoint hosted service provider should have at least two: Hosting Competency and Portals and Collaboration Competency. There are plenty of other competencies that may be relevant for your need, so ask for the entire list.
6. What is the disaster recovery plan?
Most hosted service providers have a disaster recovery plan that can be sent to each customer. It is not usually highly detailed but it will provide enough information to make an informed decision or at least to prompt more questions. Pay special attention to how long it will take for the provider to get your environment back up and running after a disaster and find out how they define a disaster. Some may consider it equipment failure, while others consider it an act of nature or terror.
7. How are they configured for SharePoint?
Since SharePoint 2010 is still facing challenges for multi-tenant, it is prudent to find out how they deliver the SharePoint environment. At this time, nearly all hosted service providers are installing SharePoint in a stand-alone model on virtual machines (VM). This ensures that all of the resources assigned to that server are readily available. However, with the VM model, you are paying for it. Dedicated processors, memory and disk mean that resources are not as fully utilized as the multi-tenant model, thereby making it more expensive.
8. Do you have backend or central administrator access?
Customizations are often held up due to this issue. In the old multi-tenant model, customizations were often prohibited to protect the integrity of the system as a whole. In many VM stand-alone models the case is also true. The hosted service provider has to support the operating system and the SharePoint environment as a whole and will lock down that functionality to protect themselves. However, the provider may allow changes to the configuration upon request.
9. Is anti-virus included?
Anti-virus for SharePoint? I know. I hear that a lot. Yes, anti-virus for SharePoint. You are moving and storing files on the SharePoint environment much like the file system you may have used in the middle ages. The file server required an anti-virus, so why wouldn't you have one on SharePoint? In cloud service models, anti-virus for the SharePoint environment is often an additional cost.
10. Do my employees have to log in every time?
This question is relative. If you have an active directory environment and want the SharePoint site to have the same credentials and login ID and password, this is an important question. I know that I hate getting a pop-up box when I am in the office. I expect the company system to know exactly who I am. However, if the company is mostly virtual and spread out all over the world, this may have no relevance.
11. Am I losing out on functionality by using a hosted service provider?
You can assume that alert notifications in SharePoint will work as normal. However, incoming email addresses to document libraries may be a different story. Ask the provider if all of the SharePoint functionality is available.
12. Are there other service offerings on top of SharePoint?
Some additional offerings to consider are archiving and compliance for SharePoint, PDF filters, multi-server configuration for the security-minded, and application integration (Exchange, OCS, Project Server, Dynamics CRM).
13. Price?
I know. Do I really have to add this? Answer: Yes. Because after all is said and done, you have to decide if the available options are going to work for your company. What you may end up realizing is after all is said and done, it may be easier to place a SharePoint environment in-house and pay for remote managed services. Another point to note is that not everyone prices the same way. In cloud environments, you may have hourly fee + per seat, monthly fee + per seat, monthly per seat fee, or monthly bulk seats fee (e.g. 50 seats included).
This should move you down the track of selecting your hosted SharePoint provider. I am sure there are more items that may directly affect you that I haven't touched on such as data center security and processes, locations, and financial stability, but these are the items I hear about the most.
This brings new questions to light on how to choose the right hosted service provider for your SharePoint environment. Here are some suggestions for your selection process:
1. How long have you been a hosted service provider?
With companies realizing that the "cloud" is an upcoming strong revenue stream, many companies are starting up their own hosted service offerings to expand their offerings. The more seasoned companies have the hosted provider processes documented and supported and do not have the challenges of learning how to support a cloud offering.
2. What types of migration processes or tools do they use?
The most complicated part of moving to a hosted service provider is the migration of the data. If the provider does not have the automated migration tools in place, there is often a lack of understand the difference between migrating from the single instance WSS 3.0 environment to the hosted multi-tenant SharePoint 2010 Server environment. If there aren't tools in place, you may want to find out how long they expect to move the data and how.
3. What are the service levels offered?
Service levels are just one way to determine how confident the hosted service provider is about their own infrastructure, software configuration, and support. The latter is often overlooked by providers because their objective is to keep the application running, and not how quickly they will answer the phone when you call. When reviewing service levels, do not forget to check the maintenance windows. This can be a big issue for 24/7 customers if the maintenance window is every evening between 8PM and 5AM and the service levels are only measured between 5AM and 8PM.
4. Are there contractual penalties associated to the service levels?
If the company has a failure or disaster, having service levels does not make a hill of beans without some payment or reduction in monthly costs.
5. What are the Microsoft Certified Competencies?
Much like any other Microsoft Gold Partner, each one has competencies in certain fields of service certified by Microsoft. Microsoft certified competencies are verified by Microsoft to have the certified personnel and good references to receive the competency. The SharePoint hosted service provider should have at least two: Hosting Competency and Portals and Collaboration Competency. There are plenty of other competencies that may be relevant for your need, so ask for the entire list.
6. What is the disaster recovery plan?
Most hosted service providers have a disaster recovery plan that can be sent to each customer. It is not usually highly detailed but it will provide enough information to make an informed decision or at least to prompt more questions. Pay special attention to how long it will take for the provider to get your environment back up and running after a disaster and find out how they define a disaster. Some may consider it equipment failure, while others consider it an act of nature or terror.
7. How are they configured for SharePoint?
Since SharePoint 2010 is still facing challenges for multi-tenant, it is prudent to find out how they deliver the SharePoint environment. At this time, nearly all hosted service providers are installing SharePoint in a stand-alone model on virtual machines (VM). This ensures that all of the resources assigned to that server are readily available. However, with the VM model, you are paying for it. Dedicated processors, memory and disk mean that resources are not as fully utilized as the multi-tenant model, thereby making it more expensive.
8. Do you have backend or central administrator access?
Customizations are often held up due to this issue. In the old multi-tenant model, customizations were often prohibited to protect the integrity of the system as a whole. In many VM stand-alone models the case is also true. The hosted service provider has to support the operating system and the SharePoint environment as a whole and will lock down that functionality to protect themselves. However, the provider may allow changes to the configuration upon request.
9. Is anti-virus included?
Anti-virus for SharePoint? I know. I hear that a lot. Yes, anti-virus for SharePoint. You are moving and storing files on the SharePoint environment much like the file system you may have used in the middle ages. The file server required an anti-virus, so why wouldn't you have one on SharePoint? In cloud service models, anti-virus for the SharePoint environment is often an additional cost.
10. Do my employees have to log in every time?
This question is relative. If you have an active directory environment and want the SharePoint site to have the same credentials and login ID and password, this is an important question. I know that I hate getting a pop-up box when I am in the office. I expect the company system to know exactly who I am. However, if the company is mostly virtual and spread out all over the world, this may have no relevance.
11. Am I losing out on functionality by using a hosted service provider?
You can assume that alert notifications in SharePoint will work as normal. However, incoming email addresses to document libraries may be a different story. Ask the provider if all of the SharePoint functionality is available.
12. Are there other service offerings on top of SharePoint?
Some additional offerings to consider are archiving and compliance for SharePoint, PDF filters, multi-server configuration for the security-minded, and application integration (Exchange, OCS, Project Server, Dynamics CRM).
13. Price?
I know. Do I really have to add this? Answer: Yes. Because after all is said and done, you have to decide if the available options are going to work for your company. What you may end up realizing is after all is said and done, it may be easier to place a SharePoint environment in-house and pay for remote managed services. Another point to note is that not everyone prices the same way. In cloud environments, you may have hourly fee + per seat, monthly fee + per seat, monthly per seat fee, or monthly bulk seats fee (e.g. 50 seats included).
This should move you down the track of selecting your hosted SharePoint provider. I am sure there are more items that may directly affect you that I haven't touched on such as data center security and processes, locations, and financial stability, but these are the items I hear about the most.
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