A discussion of the FAST search engine which is now part of SharePoint Portal Server. We explore the business opportunities in both employee-facing and customer-facing scenarios and discuss the differences in the technology from the perspective of readers that are already familiar with SharePoint.
With all of the versions of Microsoft’s search engine available, it is very confusing to know how they are related, and what each version provides. I’ve prepared the following graphic to help pull all of the information together into one place (click to expand)
I’ve noted the major functional differences between the versions, but the list isn’t exhaustive.
Notice that the majority of the core SharePoint search engine functionality is available in the free Search Server 2010 Express download. We have deployed the Search Server 2010 product for a number of clients, where in addition to having base search functionality available, it is also licensed on a per-server basis.
While I’ve noted that there is no additional search functionality in SharePoint 2010 Enterprise, FAST Search Server for SharePoint is often considered part of SharePoint 2010 Enterprise. However, it costs more to deploy and is referred to with a different SKU for internal deployments (FS4SP), and so I’ve chosen to separate it.
The graphic includes SharePoint Foundation 2010, Search Server Express 2010, Search Server 2010 (MSS), SharePoint 2010 Standard, SharePoint 2010 for Internet Sites (FIS), SharePoint 2010 Enterprise, SharePoint 2010 for Internet Sites Enterprise (FISe), FAST Search Server for SharePoint (FS4SP), FAST Search for Internet Applications (FSIA), and FAST Search for Internet Sites (FSIS).
Here are some references for more information:
If you have any feedback or comments, please spend a moment to drop a note. I’m @jdunmall on twitter.