Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : Announcing SharePoint Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements

We’ve heard loud and clear that you want system requirements information as early as possible to assist in your budgeting and planning, so today we’re happy to announce (and confirm) some preliminary system requirements for SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog : Announcing SharePoint Server 2010 Preliminary System Requirements

1. SharePoint Server 2010 will be 64-bit only.
2. SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit Windows Server 2008 or 64-bit Windows Server 2008 R2.
3. SharePoint Server 2010 will require 64-bit SQL Server 2008 or 64-bit SQL Server 2005.

In addition to the requirements listed above we also wanted to share with you some preliminary detail about SharePoint Server 2010 browser compatibility. 

Comment

SharePoint Server 2010 (Where did "Office" go?) will only support a fully 64 bit stack.  This I assume includes the application layer which often requires filters, filters are produced by 3rd parties whom have been slow often to go 64 bit because market remains 32.  This also means that firms will fully upgrade to 64 bit fully or take a pass.  Also firms will need to make the move fully to IE 6.  Nothing about office 2003 being supported or not. So the question comes down to what feature sets 2010 will offer that make this massive investment over a year worth it.

Well actually since most firms will build buy or build 5 dedicated servers to make a SharePoint farm the question is if they have VMWare rights to built one.  The filters is a serious question by most standard installations I have seen are for managing word documents.  SharePoint at its heart is an extension of Office. But if the features on 2010 are not way better than I personally would have a hard time advicing a firm to spend money on these upgrades.

Companies probably already know most Microsft Certified Consultants will just parrot Microsft's position without really providing any reason and without looking at the issues the firms face.  So companies are stuck in a difficult position of their Microsoft face telling them that they need to go to the latest and most costly and real business needs.

I would strongly suggest firms wait to see what features 2010 will offer over 2007.  My suspicion right now is that for most firms it wont be worth the cost of training staff, upgrading servers, SQL and going fully 64.

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