When dealing with an expansive SharePoint deployment, the site collection boundary is a wall frequently run into in many aspects of managing such an environment. How can we ensure consistency across our sites with our content, business processes, the user experience, and customizations? Is it possible to maintain workflows and web parts in multiple sites? Microsoft has provided us with some platform support in a small number of areas, but what can be done to augment capabilities and ease the management burden? We'll dive into possible approaches for handling:
• site lifecycles including provisioning and deletion
• taxonomy
• workflow definition, replication, and updating
• navigation
• custom web parts
We'll be employing out-of-the-box features including use of SharePoint Designer and shared service applications, PowerShell, Microsoft Patterns and Practices, and some custom code. While many of these methods require on premise farm situations, we'll discuss what is possible with SharePoint in Office 365. We'll also talk a bit about what could help us in a hybrid situation.