The SharePoint development program evolved from the two main projects of the Office XP development cycle. These are codenamed “Tahoe” and “Office Server” respectively. The Tahoe project focuses on shared technology, which includes the “digital dashboard” and exchange. This program specifically targets search and document management and also top-down portals. The Office Server on the other hand evolved from Microsoft Front Page, the “Team Pages” and from the Office Server Extensions. It is specifically aimed for simple bottom-up collaboration.

The first version was released in the market in 2003. This was known as Microsoft SharePoint 2003. This version was so impressive that it earned appreciation all over the world. The next release was 4 years after and this was the Windows SharePoint Service pack 3.0. It was a free version of Microsoft SharePoint. Just shortly after, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 was released as a commercial extension pack. In 2010, Microsoft released the latest of its SharePoint versions. Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 is another free edition of the business solution. Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and its extension, SharePoint Enterprise 2010 were released as commercial extension packs; the former for Microsoft SharePoint Foundation and the latter for the Microsoft SharePoint Server.

To those who are wondering how to obtain one of these versions, there are many Web hosting providers for Microsoft SharePoint. However, the most in demand hosting is through SharePoint UK servers because these are reliable hosting lines.