SharePoint 2013 Unleashed Book Review

This book covers a ton of topics. Actually more like 10 tons of topics. The book is broken down into 6 parts: Planning for and Deploying SharePoint Server 2013 Administering and Maintaining SharePoint Server 2013 Securing, Protecting, and Optimizing SharePoint Architecture Using SharePoint 2013 Technologies for Collaboration and Document Management Leveraging Office Applications with SharePoint Extending the SharePoint Environment Covering so many topics has its pros and cons. Pros include covering a wide variety of topics and they provide a lot of very helpful lists. Especially when comparing SharePoint 2013 Foundation, SharePoint 2013 Standard, and SharePoint 2013 Enterprise. The lists are one of my favorite features of the book. They include List of SharePoint 2013 Service Applications, Hardware Requirements for the Various Server Roles of SharePoint 2013, Hardware Requirements for the Various Server Roles of SharePoint 2013, Sample Service Accounts for a Default SharePoint Install, Summary of Maintenance Tasks and Recommendations, Sample Small Virtual SharePoint Environment Deployment Specifications, Sample Medium-Sized Virtual SharePoint Environment Deployment Specifications, Service Accounts for a Default SharePoint Install, Service Applications Available in SharePoint Foundation 2013 Compared to SharePoint Server 2013, Templates Available in SharePoint Foundation 2013 and SharePoint Server 2013, Tools Available in a Document Library in Different Versions of SharePoint 2013, Guidelines for Using Versioning, Page Approval Workflows, and Content Approval in Document Libraries, and Governance Plan for Service Applications. This is just a portion of them. There are a ton more I could list, but I think I have made the point. These list really help give a quick glance into the features and tools available in a given area of SharePoint. To give you a better understanding of the vast number of topics covered in this book I have listed the part of the book below and the chapters they include. Part I: Planning for and Deploying SharePoint Server 2013 Chapter 1. Introducing SharePoint 2013 Chapter 2. Architecting a SharePoint 2013 Deployment Chapter 3. Installing a Simple SharePoint Server 2013 Farm Chapter 4. Advanced SharePoint 2013 Installation and Scalability Chapter 5. Migrating from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013 Part II: Administering and Maintaining SharePoint Server 2013 Chapter 6. Managing and Administering SharePoint 2013 Infrastructure Chapter 7. Leveraging PowerShell for Command-Line SharePoint Administration and Automation Chapter 8. Leveraging and Optimizing Search in SharePoint 2013 Chapter 9. Managing and Maintaining SQL Server in a SharePoint Environment Chapter 10. Backing Up and Restoring a SharePoint Environment Chapter 11. Monitoring a SharePoint 2013 Environment Part III: Securing, Protecting, and Optimizing SharePoint Architecture Chapter 12. Virtualizing SharePoint Components Chapter 13. Deploying SharePoint for Extranets and Alternative Authentication Scenarios Chapter 14. Protecting SharePoint with Advanced Edge Security Solutions Chapter 15. Implementing and Validating SharePoint Security Chapter 16. Configuring Email-Enabled Content, Site Mailboxes, and Exchange Server Integration Chapter 17. Safeguarding Confidential Data in SharePoint 2013 Part IV: Using SharePoint 2013 Technologies for Collaboration and Document Management Chapter 18. SharePoint Foundation Versus SharePoint Server 2013 Chapter 19. Using Libraries and Lists in SharePoint 2013 Chapter 20. Customizing and Managing Libraries and Lists to Meet Business Requirements Chapter 21. Designing and Managing Pages and Sites for Knowledge Workers Chapter 22. Managing Metadata and Content Types in SharePoint 2013 Chapter 23. Leveraging Social Networking Tools in SharePoint 2013 Chapter 24. Governing the SharePoint 2013 Ecosystem Part V: Leveraging Office Applications with SharePoint Chapter 25. Using Word, Excel, PowerPoint with SharePoint 2013 Chapter 26. Extending SharePoint 2013 with Excel Services, Visio Graphics Services, and Access Services Chapter 27. Office Web Apps 2013 Integration with SharePoint 2013 Chapter 28. Out-of-the-Box Workflows and Designer 2013 Workflows Part VI: Extending the SharePoint Environment Chapter 29. Application Development with SharePoint Designer 2013 and Visual Studio 2012 Chapter 30. Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2013 with PerformancePoint Services Chapter 31. Business Intelligence in SharePoint 2013 with Business Connectivity Services The book also covers topics I have not seen covered elsewhere. It covers Protecting SharePoint with Advanced Antivirus and Edge Security Solutions, Virtualizing SharePoint Components, SharePoint Foundation Versus SharePoint Server, and Safeguarding Confidential Data in SharePoint. The chapter I found most useful so far was SharePoint Foundation Versus SharePoint Server. The biggest con is that the topics are not as in-depth as they need to be sometimes for field level use. An example would be the upgrade coverage. For example they cover a vanilla upgrade, but most upgrades are not going to go that smoothly. The cons do not really detract from the book because of the type of book it is. It covers far too much material to go into scenario based topics and I feel it goes in-depth enough to get you very familiar with the topics covered. The Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Unleashed had some of the code and the scripts available for download, but none are available for this version yet. Overall the book serves as a good introduction to a very wide variety of topics and goes to the level of depth needed to gain a thorough understand of the topic. All in all I recommend this book for anyone involve with SharePoint administration.

SharePoint 2013 Unleashed

SharePoint 2013 Unleashed