It’s good to have a clear sight on things.
I gathered some of ‘anti-Sharepoint’ posts on my blog, please visit: http://it.tmod.pl/Blog/EntryId/218/Sharepoint-what-s-wrong.aspx

From an IT perspective (managing servers, migrations, development etc.), Sharepoint (for me at least), has turned into a nightmare!

Never have I used an IT “platform” where you have to uninstall the product to change e.g. Authentication mode (Integration with Active Directory or not).

Never have I had my hands on something where you spend 80% of your time trying to find work arounds.

Users (and project leaders) expect that Sharepoint can do anything, cause that is what they have been told. How did Microsoft determine that running an application that uses Post back and JScript, instead of actually using pure .NET programming, could turn out to become a good performance tool for coolaboration??

Then you have all the additional services you can plug into Sharepoint, and it is all “out of the box”.. Microsoft is right, it is out of the box, but it feels like a Jason & Freddy jack-in-a-box nightmare… Try implementing Search Server Express and Reporting services on WSS 3 (existing installation). If you do not read ALL the fine print of the 300+ pages of documentation you can get, you’r up for a BIG surprice (so are all your users, and your backup and restore guys..)

Databases.. the best thing since sliced bred and and the remote control… Sharepoint totally rely on databases, even renders it’s web pages out of the database (??), but what ever happened to all the great things you can do on e.g SQL server? Triggers, stored procedures, a relational database for data integrity and efficient data gathering,++++? I can not believe my eyes when I see the structure of Sharepoint, who came up with the idea that lists as they call it, placed and scatered in all thinkable sites and sub sites, was a better way of organizing your data, than a relational database? Did they ever try to create a couple reports that where a bit more complicated than pulling data out of one list?

I don’t know what Microsoft tried to do with Sharepoint, but some where along the line, it all went wrong.

Sharepoint is a good idea, but that’s all. If I where the product manager of Microsoft, I would recall all licenses of Sharepoint, appologize to the market and said: “We’ll do better next time”.

I know IT people in large organizations that utilize Sharepoint, and it has created more problems and misunderstandings than it has resolved.

I know one guy (and I know people in 20+ contries that work with IT), that can handle all the needed aspects of running and developing Sharepoint. The list of knowledge you must have to develop and maintain this application, without stepping on a “land mine” is huge! This means you will have to have more IT personnel to end up with something that in the end, will not resolve anything. Cost goes up, frustration goes up, and resolutions does not exist.

Instead of Sharepoint, build custom applications for the processes you can not cover with “out of the shelf” software, and instead put up a couple wiki pages, and a good search engine along with a good document handling system. Yes, you will end up with more than one application, but at least you will not end up with cahos.

I just walked by my co-worker after reading this article and getting a refill of my water mug when I heard “awe, no” (he’s British, so throw some accent onto that for the full experience). Of course, he was trying to put something into SharePoint and something (bad) happened. I said “Do you need a hug? Have you lost a document you were trying to put into SharePoint?” He seemed a bit dejected. I walked away leaving him to his SharePoint misery, at which point he said “No, but I’m shortly loosing the will to live.”. And I was then precipitated to the floor choking on my water and spiting it all over the floor.

Hope our experience is in line with others across the globe. Our thoughts go out to you all…