The Dilemma of SharePoint Online

SharePoint Online is rapidly gaining momentum for the last two years despite the fact that it still falls behind the SharePoint on-premise versions. Well…not in all cases, but in terms of active users. Office 365 has always been the favorite child of the Microsoft and the promotion effort for Office 36f says it all. Constant update coupled with a vigorous marketing campaign does the trick. And to confirm the fact, the company reported a massive growth of 90 % in the user base of SharePoint Online and OneDrive.

But, companies that are used to on-premise deployments can be disturbed by this momentum as they never had a plan for a shift, except for upgrading the platform to a higher version. A survey on the impact of SharePoint showed that organizations are still using SharePoint 2007 and even 2003.

Nevertheless, there’s a reason behind the instantaneous growth of SharePoint Online Solutions, which is its offerings such as simplified support and maintenance, lessened infrastructure cost, continuous security, and functional updates. The offerings look delightful, aren’t they? But, the path to this delightfulness is barbed as it makes SharePoint owners go for some tough decisions.

Should you stop using SharePoint infrastructure?

You can easily leave SharePoint on-premises farm and let Microsoft take the burden as SharePoint Online is being hosted in the Datacenter of Microsoft, which implies that they will be accountable for offering security patches and functional updates from time to time. Seems smooth right? And you can also cut some slack to those IT guys and take the burden of your IT infrastructure.

But there are two issues to consider, the first one being: will you be ready to dismiss the old SharePoint server that you had built in your organization for new SharePoint infrastructure? The second is: you might have to consider laying off your development team as SharePoint online takes much less effort.

Here’s the dilemma...

When you are thinking about functional issues, do consider the following options: choosing SharePoint standalone or opting for the entire Office 365 suite, which has multiple plans.

The cost of your product will be determined by your choice: SharePoint Online - $5.00 user/month, Office 365 Enterprise: $35.00 user/month

Several plans unpack varied opportunities for the users. SharePoint Online standalone will give you OneDrive features only, while Office 365 will give you access to a set of apps and services, such as: Skype for Business, Yammer, collaboration combo of SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.

Once you select a plan that you need, you will be facing the real challenge of migrating your SharePoint online to the cloud and tweaking it according to your exact requirements. This might seem easy, but it is somehow a difficult move.

SharePoint Online vs. On-Premises: Customization delinquencies

Customization has its perks for both the platform and is manageable if you wish to lunch your SharePoint in the cloud. However, sometimes the gap of customization can be hard for organizations that wish to enjoy the same functionality while moving to the cloud. It will sometimes impossible to get the same experiences.

SharePoint Online gets continual updates and as a result, it affects your existing customizations. However, organizations tend to rely on customizations despite of the warning as they rarely make use of out-of-the-box solutions offered by SharePoint.

It is astute to use recommended methods to get the best out of SharePoint online customizations. To start with you can use Microsoft-enabled tools, browser-based settings, remote provisioning, and custom apps. And the most important thing to do is to replace code-based sandbox solutions with SharePoint Online apps as code-based sandbox solutions are no longer supported.

Should You Worry About Your Data Protection?

Another concern for worry is security, which the organizations have to worry if they want to adopt SharePoint Online. SharePoint administrators are really worried about data protection, though Microsoft is offering datacenters’ reliability. Some companies aren’t even considering deployment move due to data compliance restrictions.

How it affects end-users?

The new cloud environment will be confusing for administrators who are using On-Premises for years. However, with proper training sessions can be done to explain end-users about the new functionality and features.

The Bright Side

To tell you the truth, the road to SharePoint Online, Office 365 and Azure can be a hard one. But, they are developed keeping the users’ convenience in mind. A poorly adopted SharePoint Online can be disastrous, so it is advisable to seek the help of SharePoint professionals, Office 365 experts or Azure experts.

Softree Consulting employs SharePoint consultants; we are a technology services provider with the aim to help companies achieve exceptional performance through SharePoint. Our dedicated team of SharePoint consultants has the right bent of mind to understand and execute customer requirements.