An important part of any introduction of SharePoint for better document collaboration/management as compared to a network share is to decide what documents to migrate.

The first question I always ask is "are you going to add any value to the documents by placing them into SharePoint?".

Bearing in mind that SharePoint storage is more expensive than a network share there has to be benefits for doing it. Just saying "we will be able to find it more easily by using SharePoint search" is not a valid reason because SharePoint can search the files in the network share.

So the documents that don't benefit from migration into SharePoint may still have to be kept on a network share. A simple strategy might be to mark the network share "Read Only" but there are often files that still need to be maintained in this location along with future files that are not suitable or supported in SharePoint such as MS Access databases or extremely large files such as CAD, TIFF images or video files. So what tools can be used to improve or extend the basic network share?

Most Architects and Administrators are unaware of the new features in Windows Server 2003 R2 and 2008. Most IT people seem to have learned the basics of Server 200 and assume that each version since then has just fixed bugs or changed the UI. One such feature is the File Server Resource Manager (FSRM) which ships with W2K3 R2 and W2K8.

Figure 1: File Server Resource Manager Administration snap-in

FSRM enables administrators to restrict the use and propagation of files on network shares. File screening rules apply to all users in a folder tree or volume. Exceptions limiting inheritance of screening policies can be configured.

• Create file screens to control the types of files that users can save and to send notifications when users attempt to save blocked files.
• Define file screening templates that can be easily applied to new volumes or folders and that can be used across an organization.
• Create file screening exceptions that extend the flexibility of the file screening rules.

This is something the IT department would have to configure on the Network servers. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772675.aspx

I can see File Screens also being useful for creating a Media Share which would restrict users to only be able to add valid audio/video media file types. Links to these files along with associated metadata can be added to a SharePoint list or publishing solution (such as

FSRM also provides a simple way to quickly identify, monitor, and fix inefficiencies in storage resource management. Administrators can configure specialized reports or request reports in predefined outputs, including by:

• File size
• Least recently used
• Owner
• Duplicates

These reports could be useful in the information audit process before migrating anything into SharePoint.