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Tony Byrne

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Don't get trapped in SharePoint 2010 Beta

23-Apr-2010

Tags: Evaluating SharePoint, SharePoint Ecosystem, Governance, Implementation

Microsoft has announced the "Release-to-Manufacturing" (i.e., final production) version of SharePoint 2010. We're still advising most customers to go-slow on SP2010 to allow more proven best practices to emerge, but if you've been planning to become an early adopter, here's one quick warning.

Specifically, if you've been messing around with the beta version(s), hopefully you've heeded Redmond's admonition that there's no supported upgrade path to the RTM version. To quote one Microsoft rep, "Upgrade from SharePoint Server Public Beta to RTM (in-place, or database attach) for [the] general public will be blocked." Microsoft itself will migrate over its sanctioned beta-test customers, but everyone else needs to essentially recreate any pilot applications in the final version, and physically migrate data.

Meanwhile, close Microsoft partner Metalogix says they will release a migration tool in May to at least move data. (On an unrelated note, Metalogix's public website runs on SharePoint competitor, Ektron Web CMS.)

The problem here is less about significant changes in the RTM version; they seem minor, at first blush, though please comment below if I'm wrong about that. Rather, at some point -- likely later this year -- your beta installation will expire and simply stop working. So, if your enterprise got excited about SharePoint 2010 and just couldn't wait, and asked your favorite SharePoint integrator to implement some SP2010-based services, then those services will need to get re-built in (and the data migrated to) the RTM version. The level of effort will depend in part on how well they "packaged" their development.

In any case, don't wait until expiration to find out what's entailed there.