MOSS architecture

Figure: MOSS architecture (http://blogs.msdn.com/martinkearn/archive/2006/06/06/MOSS-Architecture-_2600_-Shared-Services.aspx)

MOSS services

• Search
• Index
• Audience compilation
• User profiles database
• My Sites
• Business Data Catalogue
• Excel Services

Collaboration Portal:

It is called ‘Collaboration Portal', not ‘portal’ and it is just another type of site collection that is hosted on an IIS site (called web applications in MOSS). Portals no longer contain any application services such as search, my site. All these services now have to come from an SSP. This means that all you need to host a portal is a web server and a place to put the content database.