SharePoint Workspace 2010 is a successor to MS Office Groove 2007. It is bundled with Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010. SharePoint Workspace 2010 provides more robust functionality and architecture than Office Groove 2007. It makes accessing libraries and lists on SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Foundation 2010 a more convenient experience than before.
MS SharePoint 2010 includes a client that enables you to easily synchronize desktop content with SharePoint documents and lists. You can take advantage of the Groove collaboration workspaces and Shared Folder workspaces to collaborate with team members or external partners and share offline and online contributions. You can also synchronize online and offline content with a particular SharePoint site.
Types of Workspaces in SharePoint Workspace 2010
SharePoint Workspaces
A SharePoint workspace facilitates synchronizing library and list content on an individual client computer with a SharePoint site on the server. SharePoint workspace enables users to actively access SharePoint library documents from their client computer. As it supports bi-directional synchronization, you can take content offline, make the desired changes, and again synchronize it with a SharePoint site. When a client connects to the SharePoint server, the content is automatically synchronized at regular intervals of time. If a connection cannot be established, you can continue to work offline. Automatic synchronization of content occurs when the connection is reestablished. This approach is way better than accessing SharePoint through a browser.
Groove Workspaces
Groove workspaces are a plus when it comes to collaborating with peer client computers, forming teams, and synchronizing content among the team members that use shared workspace. Every team member can share his online and offline contribution with other team members. Teams can use collaboration tools to connect with trusted partners around the world. Collaboration becomes easy when network conditions are ideal and communications are supported across firewalls.
Shared Folder Workspaces
Using Shared Folder workspaces, you can share contents of a common Windows folder stored in a Windows Explorer directory.
Benefits of SharePoint Workspace 2010
Offline and Online Collaboration
SharePoint Workspace 2010 provides SharePoint workspace, Groove workspace, and Shared Folder workspace that make it easy to synchronize online and offline content either with the SharePoint sites or among peers. Synchronization is performed on the fly among all online collaboration points. Any changes done by the user offline are synchronized with the SharePoint libraries and lists as soon as the connection is reestablished.
Instant Access to Recently Updated Documents
The content of SharePoint workspaces is immediately synchronized with the document libraries and lists on the SharePoint server. Similarly, if an update occurs on the server side, it is quickly distributed to the SharePoint workspaces. The changes made to the Groove workspaces are automatically transferred to the workspace peers.
Bandwidth Usage Optimization
SharePoint Workspace 2010 takes care of the bandwidth usage by transferring update packets over the network instead of the whole documents.
Integration with Windows Logon
SharePoint Workspace 2010 eliminates the need of separate logons as it uses Windows logon credentials to verify the identity of users.
Author Bio: Mansi Khurana is a technical writer with more than 3 years of experience. She has written several articles on SharePoint database recovery and various other technologies.
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