Microsoft opens SharePoint 2010 Beta

Last week at the Professional Developer's Conference, Microsoft announced the availability of SharePoint 2010 Beta. Customers are free to download the Beta and begin using it to get familiar with the upcoming release and give Microsoft feedback about the product. (We covered the social features in 2010 last week in "Microsoft director defends SharePoint 2010 social features" and we will cover other content management features in next week's Editor's corner).

One of the more interesting aspects of the announcement was a partnership with SAP called Duet Enterprise for SharePoint and SAP. Kurt DelBene, senior vice president of the Office Business Productivity Group at Microsoft says it's a good partnership for SharePoint customers because they often also use SAP." DelBene says the Duet will be available some time in the second half of next year.

Another key feature is the Outlook Connector, which provides a way to access SharePoint 2010 social information from inside Outlook, a place that many enterprise users spend a great deal of their time. "The Outlook Social Connector brings business and social networking to the work force. People already spend a large portion of their day in Outlook, with most people receiving over 93 email messages per day. Outlook Social Connector lets them connect with people faster, without switching programs or changing their routine," DelBene says.

You can get a head start on SharePoint 2010 by downloading the Beta version, which is even available in multiple languages including English, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Russian, French and German. I'm planning on getting a demo of SharePoint 2010 around the first of the year and I'll be writing a post on it when I do.

For more information:
- see the Microsoft press release
- the SharePoint Team blog post

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