SharePoint in the Cloud Is 'Up in the Air'
Earlier this month, I pointed to a survey by Metalogix that found 55 percent of enterprises will run SharePoint on premise only, while 45 percent will deploy SharePoint in hybrid clouds that combine on-prem installations with Office 365 or third-party cloud providers. Only 10 percent said they are planning to run SharePoint purely in the cloud.
While that's not far off from the prevailing wisdom, it's important to keep in mind that it's hard to draw firm conclusions on a sample of 100 people, especially a crowd attending Microsoft's SharePoint Conference. Their mere presence suggests they may be ahead of the curve compared with typical SharePoint users.
One of Metalogix rivals, AvePoint, today announced the release of DocAve 6 Service Pack 2, the latest iteration of its SharePoint management and deployment platform. The new release boasts new governance features that will help organizations determine what data can safely be moved to the cloud versus information that must stay in house, depending on predefined compliance requirements. The new release also is designed to help customers manage SharePoint 2013 on prem and in the cloud along with Office 365.
I asked Shyam Oza, AvePoint's senior product manager for administration, migration and cloud strategy, if he agreed with Metalogix core findings. "I really do think it's up in the air," Oza said. "While that number might be accurate or snapshot of right now [actually in late November], it's a number that's shifting very quickly. We've had phone calls with customers who in the middle of last year said they would go to the cloud and are now saying it's too sensitive."
Do you plan to move any of your SharePoint farms to the cloud or deploy new ones via Office 365, Windows Azure or other third-party cloud providers? I'd love to speak with you to hear how you're making the move -- or why you're not. Please share your plans, issues and concerns with me at [email protected].
Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 02/20/2013 at 1:15 PM