What’s New for IT Professionals in SharePoint Server 2016

With SharePoint 2016, Microsoft is not killing off the on-premises deployment. It’s no surprise that cloud is where the emphasis is for Microsoft, but the cloud hasn’t killed SharePoint on-premises. It’s actually making it better.

When Microsoft brought SharePoint Online into the cloud, it used SharePoint 2013 as a starting-off point.From there, it had to manage the beast in largely the same way that IT Professionals have in other environments. Many of the improvements that we’re going to get in 2016 are a result of Microsoft managing SharePoint 2013 at scale.

There are many huge improvements to SharePoint coming in the next release. Here are some of the highlights that we can look forward to:

Improved user experiences

Making decisions faster and keeping in contact are critical capabilities for increasing effectiveness in any organization. Users’ ability to access information while on the go is now a workplace necessity. SharePoint Server 2016 will provide improved mobile access to content, people and applications along with touch-based experiences across devices and screen sizes. It will make file storage and document collaboration more people-centric. And it will enable improved user experiences and capabilities derived from innovations in Office 365, available either as part of your on-premises deployment or through a hybrid implementation of SharePoint Server 2016 and Office 365. For example, users will be able to quickly discover contextually relevant information and data that is stored across both on-premises and cloud environments powered by Office Graph and Delve. And, we’re focused on helping you streamline communications with richer integration with Exchange and Yammer, as well as broadening access and management of new types of media thru integration with Office 365 Video as examples.

Cloud inspired-infrastructure

SharePoint 2016 is the first on-premises server release representative of our experience running SharePoint at scale in Office 365, bringing our own internal investments to your datacenter that improve performance, reliability and scale as well as enabling true hybrid scenarios that can enrich your existing on-premises investments.

In addition, with an improved, simplified user experience and integration with products such as the next release of Windows Server, the next generation of SQL Server, and Exchange Server 2016, SharePoint Server 2016 will simplify end-user training and support for IT.

Finally, we’re focused on enabling a broad ecosystem of solutions and partners through a standardized set of APIs and experiences that span on-premises and the cloud.

Compliance and reporting

Data Loss Prevention (DLP) is non-negotiable, and overexposure to information can have legal and compliance implications. SharePoint Server 2016 will provide a broad array of features and capabilities designed to make certain that sensitive information remains protected with investments in DLP, new scenarios to enable data encryption, and compliance tools that span on-premises servers and Office 365 while providing a balance between enabling user self-service and ensuring content usage adheres to corporate policy.

Technology Adoption Program (TAP)

If you’re interested in providing feedback on early versions of SharePoint 2016, we invite you to nominate your company for the Technology Adoption Program (TAP). Joining the on-premises TAP provides companies with a number of advantages, such as providing input and feedback for future releases of SharePoint, Project Server, and/or Exchange Server; developing a close relationship with the product teams; and receiving Pre-Release information about SharePoint, Project Server and Exchange.

We look forward to seeing you at Ignite (May 4-8 in Chicago) where we’ll be sharing more details about SharePoint Server 2016, including a sneak-peek at an early version of the product. We’re excited about SharePoint Server 2016 and we’re sure you will be too!