We are trying to deploy a SECURE instance of a SharePoint 2013 server farm and are finding it to be a nightmare.
Perhaps, someone here can help us start off on-the-right-foot? Our problem is that we need to setup a portal for Customers to access SharePoint and that portal must be highly secure. We need it secure for internal use and both must comply with numerous laws, rules, and regulations.
When we create sites, they are automatically having social features added that violate our business use and they do not comply with any reasonable security standard. The links to newsfeeds, links to share access to others, links to everything I would expect
on Facebook, not what I would expect for a secure business-related portal are embedded everywhere. Everywhere we find it posting user names and details of who has permissions to what.
What is going on here with this release?
I have high-level Microsoft partners involved who keep tossing their hands up in the air because every time we think we blocked these ridiculous features, they somehow pop-up somewhere else.
For example, we try to create a site and immediately there are links/buttons in the top menu to news feeds, share with others, etc. Imagine us having a customer login to a website that we tell them is a secure website and they immediately see these links?
This is horrendous!
To this point, we have found no easy way to eliminate these links. We have to customize the master page templates to programmatically throw them out.
Q: Problem solved, right?
A: No!
Why? Because we learn there are ellipses or any of many buttons/features embedded in list views or any of many other areas where a user clicks on one of these buttons/choices and "poof" another popup window shows up with more of these
social features made available.
I could go on and on into why it is a never-ending barrage of built-in options that keep offering undesired social features.
My question: IS THERE ANY BUILT-IN WAY TO CREATE SITES IN SHAREPOINT THAT ARE ACTUALLY SECURE AND START-OFF WITH NO AVAILABLE SOCIAL-RELATED MENUS/LINKS - INCLUDING SUB-MENUS/POPS-UPS?
Think of it this way: I want to create a workflow where we ADD what users can see and do and KNOW that the site is secure. We simply cannot anticipate every sub menu and option available within SharePoint.
Please, tell me someone there at Microsoft, when adding all these (in my opinion stupid) social features, actually figured out that many businesses not only do not "want" these social features, they CAN'T have them on because of one or many requirements
to complying with laws, rules, and regulations. We "CAN'T" have these features enabled!
I am so confused: Our internal studies have found no business benefit for users having access to Facebook or any other social site, but we have found a massive drop in productivity related to these sites. Whomever decided to focus SharePoint on mimicking social sites has massively degraded the value and usefulness of the product for us. Look at all the products out there to allow businesses to control internet access. These social sites and porn sites have massively been a NEGATIVE for businesses; hence, the reason so many are buying products to block and/or limit access. What company out there wants these features for their SharePoint installation? I can see having a few sub sites where these features are desired. Its absurd to think it's wanted on every SharePoint site.
Think of this: Do we want to have our accounting staff working on highly private financial documents have links for those documents where they can invite other, inappropriate, people to view them, or where they could be uploaded to the cloud? Do want any
of many possiblesecret drawing or formulas or employees personal information or whatever placed in SharePoint with all these social features enabled for them?
Please, tell me someone thought this through at Microsoft and realized there needs to have an On/Off switch for social website features? That it should be an option building a new website or list or whatever and with one-click those features are unavailable?
I really need this On/Off switch ASAP? It is costing us a fortune trying to manually yank these features out and so-far its not working... there are far too many embedded pieces that keep showing up.
HELP! This is horrid and unusable! Please, tell me we are just unaware of something simple to make this problem go way?