SharePoint 2013 Apps Advantages

SharePoint 2013 introduced a new feature called Apps. Apps are self-contained pieces of functionality that extends the capabilities of a SharePoint website. 

Apps will be executed outside the SharePoint Server, and in the Client machine or in the Cloud. This makes Apps easier to install & clean up. Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated and new custom solutions should be provided through Apps.



The advantages of Apps can be divided into the following categories:

1. Advantages to Users
2. Advantages to Administrators
3. Advantages to Developers
   
   

Advantages to Users

The following are the advantages of Apps from the user's perspective:

1. Apps are available through:
   • App Catalog within Organization
   • App Store outside Organization
    
2. Apps provide easier discovery & installation
    
3. More Apps are available through the SharePoint App Store as compared with Sandboxed Solutions.
    
4. Apps provide future upgrade support:
   
   

Advantages to Administrators

The following are the advantages of Apps from the Administrator perspective:

1. Apps are safer than Sandboxed Solutions as they are executed outside the server environment
2. Apps induce Less Load to the server than Sandboxed Solutions
3. Apps are configurable by Administrators allowing them to restrict usage of Apps by users
   
   

Advantages to Developers

The following are the advantages of Apps from the Developer perspective:

1. Web Programming skills are reusable in creating Apps
2. Common web standards of HTML, JavaScript, CSS can be used to develop Apps
3. Visual Studio 2012 supports app project templates
4. Like the Sandboxed solutions, the developer can access SharePoint lists & libraries within Apps
5. Opportunity to create & publish Apps to the SharePoint store
6. More potential in developing revenues through Apps
   
   

Please note that Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated but are still supported in SharePoint 2013 to provide backward compatibility. This creates the need for developing new SharePoint custom solutions using Apps. Additionally Farm Solutions are still supported in SharePoint 2013 and we can use it in advanced scenarios.

Apps in SharePoint App Store

The following are some Apps listed in the SharePoint App Store:



You can access the site from the Apps for SharePoint link in the following page:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/store/ 

Please note that the above site have Apps for Excel, Outlook, Project & Word as well.



Building Apps

For starting with building Apps, you can follow the link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj163230.aspx 

References

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/office/apps/fp179930(v=office.15)

Summary

To summarize the article, the following are the points worth noting:

1. Apps are self-contained pieces of functionality
2. Apps are executed in the client machine or cloud
3. Sandboxed Solutions are deprecated
4. Apps provide more safety and less impact to the SharePoint server
5. Apps can be made available through SharePoint App Store
6. Opportunity exists for developers to receive revenue by selling Apps