Happy Tenth Birthday, SharePoint!

Image Courtesy of Tech Cakes

It's hard to believe that it's been a full ten years since Microsoft SharePoint was released. In fact, it's been ten years and two months, with the birthday seeing its official celebration in Microsoft offices in March.

One good birthday tradition is to spend some time reflecting on the advancements you've made and your overall list of accomplishments. It would normally be a touch rude to do this for someone else, but considering that SharePoint isn't sentient (it's smart, but not quite self-aware yet) it seems appropriate to take a quick stroll back down memory lane.

Back in 2001, when SharePoint was still just a mutated extra limb to the Microsoft Office and Outlook suites, SharePoint was a difficult to use and sometimes impossible to handle platform. Its portal server and team services did one thing that was vital, though: they caught enough attention from businesses that Microsoft didn't give up on the product. In 2003, the second version of SP was released, followed shortly by Portal Server 2003.

Then we took a break from development for a few years. While many still added extras to SP, and service packs and fixes were being released as usual, SharePoint didn't make its next advance until SharePoint 2007. But what an advance it was! The Office SharePoint Server, as well as items like the SharePoint Site Designer,  created a fleshed-out and simple to use system that also integrated essential social elements. In 2010, those features were improved further, and SharePoint became stronger, more streamlined, more stable, and easier to customize.

Now we look to the future, as Office 365 brings us SharePoint Online. As SP is reaching its teen years, it seem that its rebellious streak – running off to the cloud as it is – is already manifesting.

It's been a great ten years, and we hope for many more decades – as rich with advancement and possibility as this one – in the future.