DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHAREPOINT FOUNDATION AND SHAREPOINT SERVER

The answer depends on your requirements, and not so much on the size of your organization. For example, if you want a good platform for a basic intranet plus collaboration and project management, then SharePoint Foundation may be just what you need. If you need the best web content management, more advanced document management, or tight integration with Excel, Access, and Visio, then SharePoint Server is what you need.

SharePoint Foundation

Here are some of the more frequently used features and characteristics of SharePoint Foundation:

• It’s a web based application running on top of Internet Information Services (IIS)
• It’s a free 64 bit only add-on to any edition of Microsoft Windows 2008 Server or 
  Windows 2008 R2
• It requires a 64 bit Windows Server operating system
• It stores all its data and information in one or more Microsoft SQL Server databases
• It displays information using a web page file, usually containing one or more web parts
• It has very good document management features, such as version history, custom metadata, and Microsoft Office integration
• It has a number of list types that you can use for storing different types of information, such as documents, contacts and calendar items
• It enables you to build workflow solutions; for example, sending an email to a given user
• When a document is changed or a list column is set to a specific value
• It’s perfect for building basic, but effective, intranet solutions, with its built-in web content management features
• It’s ideal for collaboration on project data, meetings, social events, blogs, and such

But there are also important features that SharePoint Foundation does not offer. Here are just a few examples: 

• No built-in advanced search functionality. SharePoint Foundation offers limited search 
  functionality, but still it will only allow users to search within the current site and sites below it
• No advanced web content management features, such as publishing control, targeted 
  information, and multilingual support
• No advanced document management features, such as global document IDs, document sets, and document policies
• No record management of legal and other important documents
• No support for displaying InfoPath forms in a web browser
• No support for displaying MS Excel spreadsheets as web parts
• No support for displaying MS Visio 2010 diagrams as a web part
• No support for key performance indicators (KPIs) 

This is where SharePoint Server 2010 comes in.

SharePoint Server 2010

SharePoint Server 2010 uses the same types of web sites and features as SharePoint Foundation but adds a lot of functionality. In addition to the previous list, SharePoint Server 2010 also provides the following features:

• Use the global search functionality to find any type of information, regardless of type and location, based on content or metadata properties
• Use Social Search to find people based on their typical activities and interests
• Target displayed information to one or more user groups
• Import user properties from AD, and make them searchable
• Use advanced content management features for public Internet sites or portal intranet sites
• Allow globally unique document IDs and document sets
• Display and use InfoPath forms with a web client, using the Forms Service
• Display Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and charts in a web part, using Excel Services
• Display Microsoft Visio 2010 diagrams directly on a web page, using the Visio web part
• Search, display, and edit content in external databases, such as SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL, using the Business Connectivity Service
• Give each SharePoint user a personal website, for both private and public use
• Create dashboards with scorecards and key performance indicators