SharePoint 2013 is the newest version of Microsoft’s web application platform. When SharePoint was first launched in 2001, it was mainly focused on intranet, document management, and content management. However, as the years go by and newer versions appear, its capabilities have become broader. Globally, around 50% of organizational intranets use SharePoint.
With a familiar Microsoft Office-like interface and a close integration with the Office Suite, SharePoint 2013 comprises of a huge array of web tools such as document management, social networks, intranet portals, extranet sites, enterprise search, websites, and business intelligence. In addition to these, its capabilities also include workflow automation, system integration and process integration. It is a powerful tool to share, organize, manage and build the various components of any enterprise.
SharePoint 2013 Features:
Branding:
It’s easy to create a website for the organization using the design features in SharePoint 2013. It could be an internet site or an intranet site. The amount of SharePoint knowledge that is required to design a SharePoint site has been minimized in this version.
Business Connectivity:
It’s now easier than ever to access information that is stored within as well as outside SharePoint.
Business Intelligence:
SharePoint has the tools required to easily organize and access the organizational goals, performance requirements, and processes.
Identity Management:
There have been significant improvements in the authentication process in SharePoint 2013. Server-to-server authentication and app authentication has been enhanced.
Mobile Devices:
New and optimized interfaces for SharePoint on various mobile platforms are now available. Features to enhance productivity and usability are especially attractive.
Search:
Better query processing and targeting of search results are the improvements to Enterprise Search in SharePoint Server 2013.
Social Computing:
SharePoint 2013 has improved user-experience and administrative functionality. It’s now easier than ever to share and collaborate with others in the organization.
Web Content Management:
Designing publishing sites is now heavily simplified. It has new features that using enterprise search to bring out dynamic web content on publishing sites.
SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites:
Of course, it is possible to download the SharePoint 2013 prerequisite installer (prerequisiteinstaller.exe) which downloads all the prerequisites from the web and installs them on the machine.
However, an internet access may not be available on every SharePoint server. In such a scenario, it is useful to install the prerequisites manually from previously downloaded installers for each component.
Here’s a list of SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites with direct links to download each of them:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/meamcs/archive/2012/12/26/install-and-download-sharepoint-2013-prerequisites-offline-manually.aspx
You can also use Powershell scripts to automate the download and installation of the prerequisites. The following website has a well-written script as well as detailed information on how to use it:
http://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/DownloadInstall-SharePoint-e6df9eb8
The difference between the two methods to install SharePoint 2013 Prerequisites is that the Powershell script strictly requires Windows Server 2012, not Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.
Summary:
SharePoint 2013 has a lot of improvements over the previous versions. The offline installation of SharePoint 2013 prerequisites can be done manually without much hassle. Downloading and installing each component one by one might take some time, especially if the number of servers is high. So, we recommend using the Powershell scripts to perform the task easily.
