January 13, 2000

If you are hosting Microsoft Office Server Extensions (OSE) for other corporations and organizations, you can find out how to set up OSE efficiently across your Web servers. A new white paper published on the Microsoft Web site explains how to work with OSE in your environment.

Deploying Microsoft Office Server Extensions in a Commercial Hosting Environment describes the deployment process from a hosting perspective. It provides the context for optimizing performance and avoiding pitfalls when you are setting up OSE.

Toolbox    Deploying Microsoft Office Server Extensions in a Commercial Hosting Environment is available on the Microsoft Web site. Download the white paper from the Service Providers Web site.

Among other topics, Deploying Microsoft Office Server Extensions in a Commercial Hosting Environment covers the following subjects of particular interest to Internet hosting companies:

• Features enabled by OSE and OSE architecture
• Comparison of OSE and FrontPage Server Extensions
• Planning for OSE, including system and licensing requirements
• Deployment, security, and database information
• Site provisioning and scaling guidelines
• Management information, such as database backup and restoration and remote management

You can find information about installing OSE in other sources – including the Installing Office Server Extensions topics in the Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit. However, this white paper directly addresses the needs of the shared hosting environment. The white paper provides recommendations and guidelines for deploying OSE and helps with the unique configuration requirements of this environment.

If you provide hosting services for multiple customers, read this paper to understand issues such as why to use SQL Server instead of Microsoft Data Engine, or why the Active Directory Services Interface can be useful to an Internet Service Provider (ISP).