Logical Architecture Model for SharePoint

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While I love using PowerPoint slides as much as the next person, sometimes I find that unrolling a printed diagram and placing it on the table and getting everyone to review a sample SharePoint Logical Architecture Model is a wonderful way to introduce SharePoint concepts that are hard to grasp in other ways.

There is a white paper that describes this architecture model on TechNet, titled Logical Architecture Model: Corporate Deployment.  This architecture description includes a link to a visio model, Design Sample: Corporate Deployment Logical Architecture.   I took this file and had FedEx*Kinko's print me up a couple of dozen of this printouts, and when appropriate, I hand them to SharePoint administrators when I have this discussion with them.

The basic idea is that a SharePoint Farm for the Fabrikam company is described within this model.  There are two SharePoint farms, one that includes the Intranet and the Partner-facing Extranet application, and one farm for the Public Internet site.  Within this model, the following SharePoint concepts are illustrated:

  • Web Zones (Intranet, Extranet, Internet, etc.) and Zone Policies
  • Different Authentication Models
  • Multiple SSPs
  • My Sites
  • Web Applications
  • Collaborative Team Sites
  • Secure Content Authoring and Publishing
  • Content Databases
  • Application Pools
  • Site Collections

It's all good stuff.  This is a model that keeps on giving back insights into SharePoint architecture beyond the first review.  Post it somewhere on your cube wall and when the day gets to tough, take a few minutes to gaze upon this model and simply allow the SharePoint sweetness to soak in.