SharePoint Server 2010 for Internet Sites, or SharePoint FIS, empowers your team to publish awesome, interactive external Internet and extranet sites—while dramatically simplifying Web content management and administration.
SharePoint for Internet sites? Yes, SharePoint has outstanding versatility as a collaborative platform but not many people recognize that versatility extends to Web site-building. SharePoint intranets, SharePoint extranets and SharePoint external sites — it’s all possible.
With AIS Network’s hosting for SharePoint FIS, you can build an amazing Internet or extranet site that also has powerful search and interactive features. Best of all, SharePoint FIS’ extraordinary Web content management features free the IT staff from having to make every little change to the Web site. Others within the company, technical and non-technical alike, are empowered to keep the site fresh and interesting by publishing their own page modifications independently.
Why SharePoint FIS?
Forward-thinking companies are increasingly drawn to SharePoint FIS, because they can use it to build beautiful, sleek, public-facing Internet sites that are compliant, and offer a strong visual identity. Just look at Ferrari’s Web site.
Why build an Internet site using SharePoint FIS?
SharePoint FIS’ native features offer customized design, the best Web content management capabilities on the market, approval workflows, scheduled content publishing and rich media—all of which can be accessed via user-friendly content manager tools.
Here are three highly compelling reasons to license SharePoint FIS:
- Easy-to-use. Create, customize and publish a site that looks great and meets specific business needs. SharePoint FIS has an intuitive Web content manager interface that empowers virtually any staff member (novice or expert) to modify pages independently—change content, add interaction, apply a design theme or alter site navigation and structure—thus allowing the site to reach a broader audience and yield a more compelling Web experience.
- Flexible workflows and publishing processes. No more emailing docs to your tech staff or a central admin to get things posted on the organization’s Web site. SharePoint FIS enables the people who use the Web site most often to adapt and update the site’s content in real-time.
- Enhanced user experience on the site. Use SharePoint FIS to create an interactive experience using integrated FAST Search (Microsoft FAST Search Server for Internet Sites), rich media and social networking.
Who uses SharePoint FIS? Hosted SharePoint FIS is ideal for corporate enterprises, associations and large institutions—any organization that needs to interact with a large number of users via its public-facing Web site. Digital marketers and design agencies, who need to launch multiple Internet/extranet sites quickly and easily, are also making great use of SharePoint.
Internet sites like the Microsoft SharePoint Web site, Ferrari, Spinebreakers, and Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant are built on SharePoint FIS. According to TopSharePoint.com, Fortune 500 companies are also using SharePoint technology for their public-facing Web sites. Among them: ConocoPhillips, Proctor and Gamble (Tampax, Home Made Simple, Pringles, Pantene), Kroger, Kraft Foods, Dell Financial Services, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Viacom, Occidental Petroleum, and Pfizer UK.
Why not use Office 365 to build a site? While SharePoint 2010 in Microsoft Office 365 allows you to publish simple Web sites (e.g. billboards), its design capabilities are limited to building the simplest of sites. You’ll quickly exceed your resource quota. That’s why licensing SharePoint FIS makes so much sense.
SharePoint for Internet Sites: Case Studies
Conservation International
Conservation International needed to connect better with a global audience. Using SharePoint Server as the foundation for a new site, Conservation International deployed its flagship Web site in two months. Now content owners can update sites easily, in multiple languages, in a fraction of the time it used to take—without IT assistance. Watch the video.
Licensing SharePoint FIS Enterprise
AISN’s hosted Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Server for Internet Sites Enterprise enables you to create cool, easy-to use external Internet and/or extranet sites that will help you expand your reach, increase customer retention, and drive revenue.
SharePoint FIS comes in two versions, Standard and Enterprise. SharePoint FIS Standard is scoped for a single domain only and has standard SharePoint features for unlimited users (anonymous or authenticated). SharePoint FIS Enterprise, on the other hand, is scoped for multiple domains and has enterprise SharePoint features for unlimited users (anonymous or authenticated). Find more information on licensing and usage scenarios in our blog.
Key SharePoint FIS Enterprise Features
Not only does SharePoint 2010 Server FIS Enterprise allow you to deliver core content management capabilities in a single, extensible platform, but you’ll also appreciate the way it provides a consistent approach to managing traditional content (documents, spreadsheets, presentations), social content (blogs, wikis), Web content and digital assets, as well as defining the structure, navigation and appearance of Web sites.
With SharePoint FIS Enterprise, you can also:
- Count on unlimited anonymous users.
- Employ powerful search capabilities delivered through Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010. This highly visual and contextual search experience uses advanced content and query processing across multiple domains. [Use this feature for multiple domains. A domain is a combination of a top-level domain (such as .com, .net, .org, .co.uk) with a subdomain. Examples of valid domains are example.com, example.co.uk, and example.net.]
- Publish Microsoft InfoPath forms in SharePoint Server 2010. InfoPath forms can be rendered to users who haven’t installed the program to gather InfoPath information.
- Maintain control over how sites are authored, approved, and published.
- Use workflow templates to make it easier to collect feedback, approve content, and publish information.
- Provide a flexible platform that helps authenticated users share ideas and expertise with one another.
- Take advantage of Excel Services and PerformancePoint Services connected to SharePoint Server 2010. Provide browser-based rendering of Microsoft Excel workbooks and easy-to-use tools for building dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators (KPI).
- View and manage Microsoft Access databases through an Internet browser or linked HTML page.
- Refresh and update data-connected Microsoft Visio 2010 diagrams from a variety of sources.
AISN’s SharePoint FIS Hosting Is World Class
Your Web site is one of the most critical aspects of your business. Ensure it’s available.
Choose a SharePoint FIS hosting provider that can offer reliability, bandwidth, speed and worry-free 24x7x365 support by a Microsoft-certified team of SharePoint experts—all for a predictable monthly cost.
Whether you choose cloud hosting or dedicated server hosting, with AISN’s SSAE 16 Type II-compliant SharePoint FIS hosting services, you’ll get:
- SharePoint FIS Enterprise licensing
- Rapid set-up and installation
- Full redundancy
- 100% network availability and uptime guaranteed
- No capital expenditure, easy to budget
- 15-minute response time on server alerts
- 24x7x365 live support by phone or email
- Microsoft-certified professionals
- Fast-loading Web site time
- Full security in a world-class, compliant data center
- Industry-leading, 100% SLA
So how do we differ from the competition? For one thing, all those “add-ons” that many of our hosting competitors offer in their SharePoint plans—like daily backups, 24×7 support and full security—come standard with AISN’s hosted SharePoint FIS. Our competitors may offer bargain basement pricing, but they don’t always offer the all-inclusive advantages of AISN’s fully managed SharePoint FIS hosting.
What’s more, AISN will also help you work through your licensing. As a Microsoft Authorized License Mobility Partner, we are empowered to help our clients move existing, on-premise hosting licenses directly to the cloud without requiring our clients to buy new licenses.
Know that you need SharePoint FIS but you’re having trouble finding someone to build your site? No problem. We work with an exceptional partner, who can make the process smooth for you and deliver a quality SharePoint site.
SharePoint FIS Standard Configurations
Prices starting as low as $2,499 per month including including all OS, SQL, and SharePoint For Internet Sites licenses!
| SharePoint FIS Starter Farm | SharePoint FIS Small Farm | SharePoint FIS Medium Farm | SharePoint FIS Large Farm |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web Front End Server(s) | Web Front End Server(s) | Web Front End Server(s) | Web Front End Server(s) |
| 1 Web Front End Server | 1 Web Front End Server | 2 Web Front End Servers | 2 Web Front End Servers |
| 1 Quad Core Processor | 1 Quad Core Processor | 1 Quad Core Processor | 1 Quad Core Processor |
| 8 GB Memory | 16 GB Memory | 12 GB Memory | 16 GB Memory |
| 120 GB Storage | 120 GB Storage | 120 GB Storage | 120 GB Storage |
| Windows 2008 R2 x64 OS | Windows 2008 R2 x64 OS | Windows 2008 R2 x64 OS | Windows 2008 R2 x64 OS |
| SharePoint Server 2010 FIS |
SharePoint Server 2010 FIS |
SharePoint Server 2010 FIS |
SharePoint Server 2010 FIS |
| SQL Server(s) | SQL Server(s) | SQL Server(s) | SQL Server(s) |
| 1 SQL Server | 1 SQL Server | 1 SQL Server | 2 SQL Servers |
| 1 Quad Core Processor | 1 Quad Core Processor | 1 Quad Core Processor | 1 Quad Core Processor |
| 8 GB Memory | 16 GB Memory | 24 GB Memory | 32 GB Memory |
| 150 GB Storage | 200 GB Storage | 200 GB Storage | 250 GB Storage |
| SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard | SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard | SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard | SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard |
Want to learn more about our standard SharePoint FIS configurations? Looking for a custom configuration instead? Contact us now for a free SharePoint FIS quote!
We also love to write about SharePoint 2010. You’ll find dozens of entries devoted to SharePoint when you have a look at our blog. For SharePoint FIS, check out our entries on licensing and usage scenarios.