I’ve been asked “Why upgrade to SharePoint 2016? What’s in it for me?”
- Your SharePoint farm is old. As in, it’s SP2007 or SP2010 – you are not supported. That’s a no brainer. But what if you have SharePoint 2013…
- SharePoint 2016 is a lot more stable and it’s faster. Microsoft has gained had a lot of experience hosting SharePoint Online and they’ve brought all that knowledge and innovation to SharePoint 2016. Performance and optimization are baked into the product using MinRoles.
- FIM is gone! “Starting the Sync Service was so fun!” Said no one ever. FIM is replaced by Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM).
- Data Loss Prevention is now part of SharePoint. You can now identify, monitor for, and protect sensitive data across SharePoint on-prem, SPO, and ODFB using SharePoint 2016. If you are paying for the third party DLP tool you can now save yourself the $50K.
- Hybrid is the new on-prem. We now live in a cloud based technology world. Do you pay for the SPO/ODFB license in O365 but no leverage it as much as you should? Or don’t know how to leverage it? Well now you can easily integrate with Office 365 using SharePoint 2016. Take advantage of Cloud Hybrid Search, Delve, Hybrid Sites, Groups, Profile Redirection and more running SharePoint in hybrid mode. If you pay for the SPO/ODFB license now you can use it in a way that makes sense.
- Durable Links. Finally. Previously, moving files to a new location or changing a file name broke your link. Bookmarks, links sent in emails and embedded in word docs were all rendered useless. Now move files wherever you like and your link remains valid. It may seem like a small thing but to end users this is a big deal. And yet another reason to move off of file shares.
- Cloud Hybrid Search. Last, but certainly not least, you can have your search cake and eat it too. By hosting your index (not your content!) in the cloud you can display all of your results on one page without the need for Result Blocks. Results from O365 and on-prem will be listed happily together, by relevancy, and it’s all encrypted by the crawler.
There are many other new features offered by SharePoint 2016 – such as improved mobile experience and IRM – and there are even more to come. If you are interested in hearing more please comment! And download the SharePoint 2016 guide here
I understood that Office Online Server is also required before Durable Links will function
That is true. You do need Office Online Server for durable links. You also need it for excel services as well. SP2016 no longer has excel services as part of the platform. I would not deploy SharePoint without the OOS. They are better together!