Environment Design and Deployment

For organizations preparing to deploy SharePoint™ 2007 or to move from a pilot to full deployment, creating a properly designed environment is critical to the successful deployment of an enterprise business productivity infrastructure. The purpose of the SharePoint Environment Design and Deployment is to create a design and project plan that will meet the organizations requirements and leverages Microsoft and DataLan standards and best practices around the following areas: Physical Architecture, Logical Layout, Security Configuration, Connectivity Planning, Usability Planning, Disaster Prevention and Recovery Planning.

Physical Architecture – This includes the physical layout of the servers and network elements needed for the SharePoint environment. Physical architecture considerations will include:

SharePoint Server Farm Topology Configuration
Third Party and Custom Service Configuration
Server specifications and allocations
Network integration points with other systems
Network entry/boundary points

Logical Layout – This includes the logical layout of the SharePoint web application and service elements needed for the environment. The logical layout review addresses:

Web application, site collection and site structure and configuration
Shared Services and My Site placement and configuration

Security Configuration – This outlines the security mechanisms that will be employed to control access to the environment and environment resources including:

Environment access method and AD integration
Content access, control, and governance
Security delegation
Auditing and Policy management requirements

Connectivity Planning – Details the environment access points and user connectivity methodology and controls. Connectivity planning includes:

Local connectivity approach planning
Remote user connectivity approach planning

Usability Planning – Details the usage for the environment and reviews application needs and plans. Usability planning includes:

User experience and usage of the environment will be reviewed
Application planning will be performed in order to identify those applications to be created within or migrated into the environment

Disaster Prevention and Recovery Planning – Including the protection of the environment from potential service interruptions or loss of data in the event of a disaster. This planning includes:

Environment disaster methodology creation based on SLA requirements
Environment backup requirement levels
Environment Monitoring requirements and solution architecture

The deliverables include:

SharePoint environment architecture document detailing all aspects of the environmental architecture
Deployment of the SharePoint environment based on the Enterprise Architecture Plan

Installation of a SharePoint small or medium farm environment
Documentation of the installation and configuration of the SharePoint environment