The Future for SharePoint: On Premises Vs Online

Everyone has an opinion about SharePoint. They think it’s horrible. They love it. They think Office 365 (and SharePoint Online) are the future of SharePoint. They think most organizations can’t move off the on premises version. They think the on premises version is headed for the deal pool. I wonder if we’ll ever see consensus on SharePoint’s future?

Forrester Says SharePoint Online is Going Nowhere

We know that Microsoft has made a huge pitch for cloud technologies, saying that cloud is the future. Microsoft isn’t the only one. But it’s demonstrating its view by putting more time and effort into Office 365 than we see it putting into on premises SharePoint. Yet, according to research from Forrester, 28% of enterprises aren’t even looking at the online version of SharePoint, many noting security, compliance, privacy and other concerns.

However, of the 158 IT decision maker responding to the survey, 15% are using Office 365. Of those, over half had good experiences deploying SharePoint. Finally 28% are planning on moving to Office 365 over the next twelve months.

It’s a small sample size, and it is confirmed by recent AIIM research as well. But what does it really mean?

Gartner’s Take Isn’t So Clear

Gartner seems to have a slightly different take on SharePoint’s future, noting the efforts Microsoft is putting on the cloud. Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner, says that SharePoint Online and SharePoint on premises are going to diverge greatly. He sees SharePoint Online being more tightly integrated with Yammer, Lync and Exchange Online to the point that you might not be able to tell the difference between them (although he does note they will all still be available separately). This will mean faster updates to features and functionality. In an interview he states:

“SharePoint needs to go to the cloud, but some customers can’t or won’t —Microsoft needs to move SharePoint to the cloud for its own interests, as well as the interests of its customers.”

Of course Mann also points out that for many organizations a move the cloud isn’t really possible for a variety of reasons including security, compliance and privacy noted above, but also because of the extensive customizations made to the on premises version that can’t be replicated in Office 365.

As for SharePoint on premises, he notes slower updates and much resistance to upgrading to newer versions due to complexity. But he does say that Microsoft will continue to update its on premises version.

“While Microsoft will not walk away from this product line, there are strong arguments that the changes coming will split the on-premises and online versions of SharePoint sufficiently, and that Microsoft should acknowledge that they cannot remain as one product, and help customers plan accordingly.”

MetaVis Sees a Bright Future for SharePoint and the Cloud

It’s hard not to look at this research and think that maybe SharePoint’s future isn’t looking so great. Microsoft’s increased cloud focus regardless of whether enterprises can move there, could hurt it dramatically. But keep in mind, most of these research reports are with small sample sets, so it’s hard to know just how accurate they really are.

At MetaVis, we see things differently. We talk to many clients and potential clients about their plans to migrate to Office 365 – they are out there, trust me. And there are many reasons for this desire to move, not the least of which is that it enables them to concentrate on their business instead of keeping Exchange or SharePoint servers running and backed up.

We do believe cloud-based solutions are key to the future of the enterprise. The consumerization of IT clearly shows us there is a new way of working that supports how information workers (collaboration workers, knowledge workers – whatever you want to call them) need to work to be more efficient. Greater collaboration with external parties is another key driver to implementing solutions that people inside and outside the firewall can access.

But that being said, we don’t believe any cloud-based service for sharing files and collaborating will work. Enterprises need to monitor and manage how these collaboration tools are used. They need to know where their content is located, who is accessing it and be able to cut that off if necessary. That means tighter security, compliance and governance policies – and you won’t get those in everyday cloud services. This is Microsoft’s edge for Office 365. It is a secure cloud-based platform, it offers file sharing through SkyDrive Pro and many other services like email, instant messaging and conference, document creation, and so on. It also has more secure versions to support government.

And it has third party vendors like us who offer organizations better controls for administrating, monitoring and managing content within Office 365 (and SharePoint on premises).

Are there things Microsoft can and should be doing to deal with the issues that are raised about Office 365? Sure, no applications is ever finished, it’s an ongoing evolution to improve and change to meet the needs of a changing workplace culture. That’s a given for any product/service vendor.

I think we’ll see adoption rates of Office 365 improve as Microsoft continues to address these concerns. I don’t think it’s going anywhere, but it is evolving and MetaVis is excited to be a part of the evolution.

 

besides,

There was a post this week on the Windows IT Pro blog that said SharePoint 2013 is not yet supported on the soon to be out Windows Server 2013 R2. That version of Windows Server will be out mid-October. If you try to install SharePoint 2013 on it, an expected error occurs during the configuration process.

SharePoint 2013 will support that version when its first service pack (SP1) is released. However, there’s no known date for that service pack yet…

Is this further evidence that Microsoft is very focused on its plans for SharePoint in the cloud over its on premises version? It’s a good indicator. And the reality is that updates to the on premises version of SharePoint are always slow coming, whereas updates to SharePoint Online happen frequently.

So does it make sense that Gartner analyst Jeffrey Mann believes that Microsoft should drop the on premises version and just force everyone to move to the cloud?

“Killing on-premises SharePoint makes sense for Microsoft and ultimately for its customers as well,” he says. “It will deliver a better user experience, at potentially lower cost for the client, while also ensuring steadier revenues for Microsoft.”

Mann, who was speaking at a 2013 Gartner Symposium, also indicated signs that Yammer will strongly influence what SharePoint will look and work like in the future. That doesn’t really surprise me.

Take some time to read the comments in that post and you’ll see that most don’t agree with Mann. The reality is, many organizations aren’t ready to move to the cloud, or have the desire. They will always exist, so Microsoft will continue to support these large organizations — to not do so is crazy on Microsoft’s part.

That being said, we are seeing many consider the move, whether that’s Office 365 or some other hosted version of SharePoint. There are a lot of advantages to cloud-based SharePoint, including the more frequent updates to functionality. This is an area we have done much work, ensuring that those who decide to make the move have the tools needed to both migrate, re-organize if necessary and then manage their cloud environment.

These are interesting times for SharePoint — in whatever form it’s in.