SharePoint\u2019s penetration of the Intranet market had advanced far beyond where it was eight years ago when the Nielsen Norman Group reported on the strong foothold SharePoint already had in that space at that time.<\/p>\n
Today, 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies employ SharePoint<\/a>, which also holds a dominant 75 percent share of the market for content collaboration software. SharePoint Online\u2019s average annual revenue is $2 billion, and its average project success rate is 50 percent, with retail and healthcare being the two fastest-growing SharePoint sectors. Microsoft reports that more than 200 organizations and 190 million people use SharePoint for intranets, content management and team sites.<\/p>\n Despite this impressive record, SharePoint adoption<\/a> and Intranet implementation can be a very demanding task \u2013 something that\u2019s been apparent ever since AIIM\u2019s 2016 study that found 11 percent of its 195,000 respondents had reached an impasse with adoption, while 22 percent had run into challenges that were plaguing their user communities.<\/p>\n What can make the task much easier is developing an adoption checklist that can successfully guide the deployment of a new SharePoint environment<\/a>. Key points on this checklist include:<\/strong><\/p>\n Since Office 365 now is Microsoft 365<\/a>, it\u2019s not necessary to do anything to migrate SharePoint from the former to the latter. Just as Microsoft bundled SharePoint and its whole family of apps into Microsoft 365 a dozen years ago, so, too, did Microsoft rebrand Office 365 as Microsoft 365 in April 2020 to highlight the larger suite of Office products and services (such as artificial intelligence capabilities and cloud-based productivity) beyond the core Office software portfolio.<\/p>\n There are solid reasons for implementing a SharePoint Online migration<\/a> of data from whatever file system you have, including easier access, more efficiency, and less miscommunication and confusion.<\/strong> And, whether you\u2019re migrating SharePoint into Microsoft 365 or already have your content hosted within Microsoft cloud, there are several types of SharePoint migrations you can implement:<\/p>\n As has been the case for several years, organizations face a choice about whether SharePoint Online \u2013 SharePoint\u2019s cloud platform \u2013 or SharePoint On-Premises<\/a> \u2013 the platform that IT staff manages in an organization\u2019s own data center \u2013 is the better option to meet their needs. Both of them let you deploy a multi-tenant server to flawlessly store, share and manage content.<\/p>\n The two platforms have several significant differences. Online doesn\u2019t require dedicated hardware. On-Premises does. Online gets automatic updates and patches from Microsoft. On-Premises gets this from the internal IT team. SharePoint Online has cloud data storage. On-Premises has local network storage. Online data security conforms<\/a> to industry standards. On-Premises data security is the organization\u2019s responsibility. There are limited customizations for Online, but unlimited customizations for On-Premises. There are other points of departure regarding external users, scalability and the introduction of new tools.<\/strong><\/p>\n So, then, how to decide?<\/p>\n If you\u2019re building a scalable intranet, go with SharePoint Online: it cuts costs and reduces complexity, saves the time and money that otherwise would be spent on creating the necessary infrastructure; and has a lot of multi-purpose features (including documentation and collaboration, centralized management, user- and support-friendly design, more protection, and integration into existing applications).<\/p>\n On the other hand, SharePoint On-Premises is the way to go if you have a dedicated infrastructure in place.<\/strong> It\u2019s a perfect match for you if you require high compliance standards and levels of customization, more storage space than Microsoft provides, more control over your SharePoint farms architecture, and the intranet would only be available on your business network.<\/p>\n In the end, the decision depends on business requirements for business continuity, compliance rules, data security, and digital transformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n While SharePoint Online is always up to date, that\u2019s not the case with SharePoint On-Premises. Although On-Premises usually receives new features with each new release, it still maintains existing features with patches and other add-ons.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, whether a business uses the cloud or in-house version, it must stay current with the latest capabilities for either platform. There are two ways to do this: migrating or upgrading SharePoint<\/a>. But what\u2019s the difference, and when is one option better than the other?<\/p>\n An upgrade, which is a more restricted process and doesn\u2019t change the taxonomy or architecture of any existing systems, can be performed in two ways.<\/strong> An in-place upgrade is a revision in which underlying operating system bits are replaced and rewritten with newer codes instead of undergoing a wipe-and-replace deployment. A database upgrade installs the new SharePoint version from the ground up, and the existing legacy system databases are attached to it.<\/p>\n The more extensive SharePoint migration process<\/a> collates and transfers all existing data to the new SharePoint environment. In this case, all content, metadata, and other things that keep applications and sites relevant are moved and reconfigured to fit into SharePoint.<\/p>\n The upgrade option makes more sense in any of these cases:<\/strong><\/p>\n Migration is preferable, however, in any of the following situations:<\/strong><\/p>\n The most critical part of a SharePoint migration to Microsoft 365 is planning for the migration itself. That\u2019s why Microsoft has a step-by-step setup guide in the Microsoft 365 administrative center that contains instructions for installing and configuring SharePoint, including Microsoft\u2019s best practices for SharePoint<\/a> and suggestions on deploying SharePoint for optimal performance, security and user experience.<\/p>\n The guide addresses all the essentials needed for a fully successful SharePoint rollout in Microsoft 365, such as site creation and document libraries; workflow setup; data migration; how to manage user permissions and search and share settings; app protection policies for safeguarding company data on mobile devices; information rights management (IRM) for encrypting and assigning file usage restrictions; data loss prevention (DLP) for protecting sensitive information; and a network connectivity test to see SharePoint-related results.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a medium-to-large corporation that\u2019s planning a SharePoint launch, you should ask yourself what your high-level goals are for the rollout, what you need for file storage and collaboration, how you want to transition from the tools you have into SharePoint, and how important content migration is to this process.<\/strong><\/p>\nA Suggested Adoption Checklist<\/h2>\n
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Why and How to Do a SharePoint Migration<\/h2>\n
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SharePoint Online or SharePoint On-Premises: Which to Choose<\/h2>\n
Upgrade or Migrate: Which SharePoint Path is Right for You<\/h2>\n
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Planning Is Key for Successful Migration to Microsoft 365<\/h2>\n