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Should I Stay or Should I Move

Business TrackSharePoint Online vs On-Premises vs Hosted

- How to make the Right Choice

About Me

Over 10 years experience with SharePoint

Spent this year on projects using SharePoint Online and Windows Azure

NJPEnterprisesStarted with SPS 2003

Contact Details @Nigel_PriceBlog.njpenterprises.com/blog

What am I Going To Talk About ?

So you are in a position to make an informed decision at the end of the session

The differences between SharePoint Online, SharePoint On-Premises, and hosted SharePoint

The benefits and drawbacks of each platform

The differences between IaaS, PaaS and SaaS

Is there an ideal SharePoint environment?

There’s no «One size fits all» and there will always be drawbacks!

NO !

So which one should I choose and how should I choose it?

What Does Your Business Require ?

InnovationAvailable to Externals

Accessible from any device

Integrated to LOB Systems

Automated Business Processes

Accessible from anywhere

Newest Software

What Does Your Business Require - 2 ?

SecurityAvailability

Governance Simplicity

Responsiveness

Low CostCompliance

Stability

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But You Have To Keep The Balance

CostConstraintsGovernanceCompliance

FeaturesFunctionalityFlexibilityAvailability

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Office 365

Good Points - GeneralNo Infrastructure Team Required / Operators not required

No Data Centres

CheapNo Infrastructure

Don’t have to worry about patch management

7 x 24 telephone support

Good Points - Worry Free Installation/Deployment

Microsoft Data Centres have Redundancy Built in

Backups are done by Microsoft every 24 hrs

Deployment is done by Microsoft

No “up front” costs

Microsoft worry about the firewall and its settings

Microsoft help provision the identity store

Bad Points – 1

SharePoint 2013 has three different “places” for social collaboration

Patches and Upgrades

No PowerShell within SharePoint Online (yet!)

Search – you don’t know when the Search Crawler will run

Audience compilations are only once a week (normally Saturdays)

Bad Points – 2

Branding of MySites

Not The Same as SP2013 On-Premise

No ALM

Tenancies are not always the same

Cannot create site templates or Web Templates

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Hosted (Azure)

Good Points - General

ReliableNo Data Centres

Low (ish) Up Front Costs

No Infrastructure

You are in Control of Patching

7 x 24 telephone support

Easily Expandable

Bad Points

You have to upgrade it when CUs / SPs come out

You have to maintain it

You have to design and build it

You have to pay for the licences for SharePoint, SQL and Windows.

SP2013 is typically way behind Office 365 functionality

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On Premises

Good Points - General

You can define Maintenance Windows

You are in control when crawl is runYou Own It

You are in complete control

You are in Control of Patching

You can customise it as much as you want

Easily Expandable

Bad Points

You have to upgrade it when CUs / SPs come out

You have to maintain it

You have to design and build it

You have to pay for the licences for SharePoint, SQL and Windows.

SP2013 is typically way behind Office 365 functionality

Big Investment

You need a Data Centre to House it

On-Premises vs Azure vs SharePoint Online

On-Premises•Full Control•Upgrade whenever YOU want•High Maintenance•You’re responsible for availability & stability•High Cost•All Solutions

Azure•Full Control•Upgrade mostly in your hands•Medium Maintenance•Provider ensures availability & stability•Manageable Cost•All Solutions

SharePoint Online

•Limited Control•Upgrades happening every month•Low Maintenance•Microsoft ensures availability & stability•Predictable Cost•Apps Only

Some Things to Consider?• Functionality

• Does On-Premises / Azure Hosted / Sharepoint Online fulfil your business requirements?• Do your existing applications run on a specific platform?• Do you want to innovate and respond to business demands quickly?

• SLA• Can any of On-Premises / Azure Hosted / SharePoint Online guarantee the required availability?• Which one is more likely to go offline – your own server or one in the cloud?• Are you prepared for a disaster recovery? (When was the last time you tested it ?)

• Security• Can you / your Hosting Provider / SharePoint Online fulfil your security requirements?• Is your data more secure in-house than «somewhere outside»?

• Company Readiness• Can your company (and employees) keep up with the pace of SharePoint Online?• Do you want to be in complete control of your environment?• Do you have the internal knowledge needed to run/support the preferred environment?

Some Scenarios to Help Your Decision

Remote Blob StorageUsage Reporting

Office Apps in the cloud v Office Apps installed on computers

BI (Performance Point is on

premises only)

Storage

User Search

Experience

Customisations

Integration with Other

Applications

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Evaluate Carefully

On-Premises

High Customisability(Applications,

Integration, …)

Stable System

SharePoint Online

Low Maintenance Effort

(Hardware, Patching, …)

Always up-to-date, but rarely

stable

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Can I Use Only One Environment ?

NO !

There is Hybrid ! (Mixture of On-Premises and Cloud)

Leave Intranet on premises

(until ready to move to the

cloud)

Put Public Site in the Cloud

Slowly reduce costs by migrating

Minimize maintenance

efforts

Seperating Public Site and

Intranet Improves Security

Whilst leveraging the latest

technology from Microsoft

Keep legacy applications

(On Premises)

Bad Points

Its More Difficult to Setup

There are more decisions to

makeSearch and

Search Results

Final Thoughts

Include IT & The Business in your evaluation!

• The ‘Right Choice’ is whatever best suits your needs

• Don’t Forget Security

• What is your Roadmap ?

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Any Questions ?

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Diolch yn fawr !