At the end of the day, a typical technical support organization for supporting a productive Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server implementation might include the following specialists, or Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) : -
Server hardware -
Disk subsystem/Storage Area Network (SAN) -
Network infrastructure -
Windows 2000 administration -
Exchange Server administration -
SharePoint Portal Server infrastructure -
SharePoint Portal Server configuration -
Database administration -
Computer/Systems operations -
Access to third-party Systems Integrators (SIs) with deep experience in the previous areas as well NOTE The above does not necessitate full-time dedicated resources to the SharePoint project. Rather, individuals currently tasked with similar functions managing other enterprise resources are often asked to perform those functions here as well. An excellent example included the Backup/Restore Operator at ABC Company (a member of the Computer/Systems Operations, or CSO, staff) ”given that this function is addressed for every server in the data center, it only made good business sense to incrementally add the SharePoint server systems to the B/R Operator's responsibilities. To learn more about developing the technical support organization for a fictional enterprise SPS deployment, see "Staffing Challenges," p. 582. But we are getting ahead of ourselves . In the next section, we will step back to the first few weeks of the SharePoint deployment planning process, and dive into the hardware vendor selection approach. |