Project Server 2010 is the latest version of Microsoft’s Project planning and collaboration solution, and it can be much more confusing.
The previous version, Project Server 2007, was a stand alone product whereas Project Server 2010 has some dependencies on SharePoint 2010. However finding out exactly what these dependencies were and how necessary they all are was quite a lengthy process, one which I will describe here to save you time 
The question is:
“Does Project Server 2010 require Sharepoint Server 2010”
The answer is:
“Yes”
As to which version of SharePoint is required, well that’s where it got interesting!
I could see how sitting Project Server on top of SharePoint would be useful so I imagined that SharePoint 2010 Foundation would do the job. It’s pretty powerful and it’s free – seems the perfect fit to drive a Project Server 2010 implementation. However, a look at Technet brought up this:
I found it hard to believe that it would require the ENTERPRISE version, as that isn’t cheap, so I set off to verify this.
Ask Partner:
I spoke to the Microsoft Ask Partner Technical Pre-Sales team and they did the same as me. Said that Foundation would be fine…and then checked Technet!
Still I wasn’t satisfied so I went to the
MSDN
site and there I found this:
A diagram of the Server Architecture for a Project Server 2010 implementation from:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee767687.aspx
To me, the above says that SharePoint Foundation is perfectly acceptable and that SharePoint Enterprise is only required to serve ASPX pages in the Project Web App.
I’d love to get some feedback as to your thoughts on the above
I went back to the Ask Partner team and they agreed with me.
So at this point it seems that SharePoint Foundation is fine and we’re about done.
However, I also put this request out to the TwitterSphere and one of my favourite people at Microsoft came back and told me to look on page 117 of this month’s Product List, so I did…
“Project Server 2010 customers will require SharePoint Server 2010 and SharePoint Server 2010 Standard and Enterprise CALs”
Despite that, they’re still one of my favourites
The Answer
So that’s it really…both Technet and the Product Lists say that if you want to run Project Server 2010 you MUST also licence SharePoint Server 2010 with Standard AND Enterprise CALs.
My Thoughts
I don’t particularly agree with this, as it adds quite a chunk onto the cost of the solution.
| Project Server | £3768 |
| Project Pro | £684 |
| Total | £4452 |
| SharePoint Server | £3768 |
| SharePoint Std CAL | £72 |
| SharePoint Ent CAL | £63 |
| Total | £3903 |
| Grand Total | £8355 |
The above is based on standard Open Licensing and as you can see, the addition of SharePoint Enterprise almost doubles the solution cost.
I understand that having SharePoint Enterprise gives the client a whole raft of other wonderful tools and I’m a huge fan of SharePoint however, it’s a lot of extra money if you’re not going to use any of the extra features. I feel this will prohibit many businesses from being able to implement a full Project Server solution.
Alternatives
I am currently researching an alternative solution which is based on SharePoint Foundation customisations and from what I’ve heard so far, this could be a great alternative for many people.
Cloudy with a chance of Licensing 
While its does require SharePoint Enterprise 2010, make sure you carefully evaluate alternatives to Project Server 2010
Hi,
interesing article. I’m asking me ( and one of my customer me 🙂 the same questions.
There are two main points which are unclear to me:
1) is it technically possible to use project server 2010 with sharepoint foundation?
2) if it is possible, are there any legal restriction to use it this way?
Do you have more infos about this two points?
Best regards,
Martin
Hi Martin,
This is something that I’ve looked into a few times and Microsoft have been very clear that the Enterprise version of SharePoint is required for Project Server 2010.
It is possible to perform some functions of Project Server jsut within Sharepoint Foundation however, such as task syncing. The MS article about that can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/sync-sharepoint.aspx
I hope that helps?
Thanks for reading & commenting 🙂
CHeers
Rich
Hi Rich,
We are facing into the same problem. We have only a few manager needs project with write access. They want all their team can see the different projects so we were looking into project viewers… But we find no one very good or without major bug (maybe you have see some great during your search ?).
So we saw the Project Web Access, and it seems great… until 2007 ! Because we have Sharepoint Foundation…
So, I am currently looking for the best (and cheapest) solution to have a few (less than 10) peoples with their Proejct and the other (less than 60) can see the project in Read Only…
If you have any suggestion, I am listening..
(by the way, Bechtle is one of our major reseller for various stuff :D)
Cheers,
Brice
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