Windows SharePoint Services is now Microsoft SharePoint Foundation—the essential starting point for organizations that want the business benefits of Web-based collaboration combined with the value and security of an enterprise solution.
SharePoint Foundation 2010 is a versatile technology that enables organizations and business units of all sizes to increase the efficiency of business processes and improve team productivity. With tools for collaboration that help people stay connected across organizational and geographic boundaries, SharePoint Foundation 2010 gives people access to documents and information they need. People can access collaboration capabilities through a familiar, Web-based interface and everyday tools including the Microsoft Office system of productivity programs. The familiar and intuitive look of SharePoint Foundation 2010 means it can be deployed rapidly with less disruption to current work practices and with less demand for training and support.
SharePoint Foundation 2010 also gives organizations a cost-effective foundation platform for building Web-based business applications that can scale easily to meet the changing and growing needs of business. Robust administrative controls for managing storage and Web infrastructure give IT departments an effective way to implement and manage a high-performance collaboration environment.
SharePoint Foundation 2010 helps you to:
Collaborate easily and effectively: Connect teams and increase productivity by providing easy access to the people, documents, and information they need through out-of-the-box SharePoint Foundation 2010 elements, which include blogs, wikis, team workspaces, and document libraries. This provides employees with the ideal way to share information and collaborate around a customized Web site.
Deploy a manageable infrastructure: SharePoint Foundation 2010 offers tools like Windows PowerShell™ Administration to boost administrators' productivity and health monitoring to provide deep insight into server performance and health. This enables you to make the most of your organization's resources by deploying a manageable, scalable, and reliable collaboration platform that enables self-service by employees.
Build Web applications: Increase business process efficiency by creating Web applications and workflow scenarios on the highly customizable, extensible platform of SharePoint Foundation 2010.
Source: Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 white paper.