Over the past year we’ve spoken with many people wondering whether Microsoft would continue to support on-premises solutions moving forward. After all, everybody has heard about Microsoft’s push to the cloud, especially with the development of Office 365 and acquisition of Yammer. It’s important to plan for future flexibility, but for now at least it appears that on-premises, cloud and hybrid SharePoint implementations all remain viable.
An article from CMSWire offers reassurance that Microsoft will keep supporting the traditional on-premises experience for organizations that are comfortable with their current environment and aren’t looking to change. For those organizations, this was exactly the news they’ve been looking for. The on-premises version of SharePoint will continue to be updated in the current two- to three-year cycle, with service packs released in between, the article reports.
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That’s not to say that moving to Office 365 isn’t the right choice. It’s just that not everyone is comfortable from a security perspective with moving data to the cloud using a shared tenant environment like Office 365.
On the other hand, it’s worth keeping in mind that some Office 365 features, such as Yammer, were developed specifically for the cloud environment and are unlikely to be included in future on-premises releases. Companies that really want those features should consider moving to the cloud or to a hybrid environment, CMSWire explains.
Most organizations are conservative when it comes to embracing new releases, which cloud-based solutions offer at a much more rapid pace. Microsoft plans to implement new Office 365 features on a rolling basis, which means users will always have the most up-to-date feature set instead of waiting years for an upgrade to an on-premises product, the article reports. As Office 365 evolves, and Microsoft becomes more adept with the rapid release cycle for Office 365 and SharePoint Online, people will begin to trust Microsoft more in introducing such releases.
For now, however, Microsoft’s approach is a win-win for both organizations that prefer to continue using on-premise solutions and those that have already migrated to a cloud environment.
