SharePoint – New Beta Extranet Collaboration Toolkit

FYI – I’m putting this on my list of thing to research & explore for 2008. If an “easy” extranet SharePoint site can be made possible, I’m VERY interested and I think many businesses might benefit from this too.

The Extranet Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint helps enhance security by creating each collaboration site as a SharePoint site collection. This ensures that teams using one collaboration site will not be able to view documents on another site, unless they are explicitly given access.  In addition, the toolkit puts all external users in ADAM (Microsoft’s lightweight directory service), rather than in the organization’s primary internal directory.

The benefits for your customers include:
Boosts security.  The toolkit allows team members to store and share documents centrally on their organization’s server, instead of e-mailing documents to others across the Internet.  And instead of giving VPN access to external team members (therefore granting them access to everything on the internal network), site owners can give external members access to just the team collaboration site.

Easy to deploy.  Automated tools and step-by-step instructions allow customers to deploy this Solution Accelerator quickly and easily – in as little as two hours, instead of weeks or months without the toolkit.

Easy to use.  Once the toolkit is deployed, team members can set up their own SharePoint collaboration sites in minutes.  The toolkit’s web-based interface makes it simple for team members to share documents and collaborate with each other across the Internet.

Reduces IT costs and boosts productivity.  Project team members can manage sites on their own, freeing up scarce IT resources to focus on higher-return activities.

Thoroughly tested.  The toolkit is extensively tested in our labs, and verified by customers and partners under real-world conditions.

The Extranet Collaboration Toolkit for SharePoint is now in Beta and available via MSConnect!  To learn more about the toolkit, click here.

Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog : New Beta Extranet Collaboration Toolkit