There has been much debate about when companies should consider migrating to SharePoint 2010. Many suggest 2010 is not relevant and others are jumping aboard before the product has been released. Mark Miller recently asked the question, is SharePoint 2010 relevant?
Just like the SharePoint platform itself is used differently by organization for many features perhaps there is no “right” answer here. There will be some organizations which "migrate" quickly and some which don’t.
MS has made it clear that SharePoint is one of four foundations which can be used to collaborate and build applications. You now have WPF, WCF, WWF and WSF (Windows SharePoint Foundation) and it is clear the SharePoint Foundation is a keystone in the MS stack from this point forward.
If your company is not "deploying" SharePoint you may see pockets of WSF in your organization sooner than you think. What does “deploy 2010” mean? Are you suggesting your company will not replace its existing WCM, ECM or BI 2007 implementation with 2010 anytime soon? I can see this being the case for many companies.
This said vendors will have applications built with the SharePoint foundation and you may choose to use the "free" version where appropriate. You may build apps, collaborate or store documents using WSF. The big question is what vendor will step up and offer integration? Who will write code allowing you to use a “small” 2010 farm to publish Managed Metadata to your SharePoint 2007 farms? Who will publish service apps for Search, and other applications which can be consumed by your SharePoint 2007 farm?
Unfortunately some conferences may choose to only focus on the new. This may be an oversight in my opinion. At minimum sessions should include topics on integration between 2007 and 2010. Surely these integration topics will be covered in upcoming administration book releases by MVP’s and the community.
You might also consider that conferences tend to be forward looking and focus on new technology. This is true of all conferences made of experts. You wouldn’t go to a medical conference on cancer prevention and expect to learn about previous versions of medicines or technology.
Training is becoming a commodity; there will be plenty of training for both versions of the product. In business if there are dollars involved or a “market” the need will be filled.
I truly find peace knowing that there are few "right" answers when it comes to SharePoint questions. I love the fact that I can answer every question with; "It depends".
What is my answer to your email? It depends!
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