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Microsoft Outlines Migration Deadlines for 'Classic' Stream Video-Sharing Service
Microsoft announced on Thursday that it plans to end its "classic" Stream video-sharing service for most customers early next year.
Organizations using the classic version of Stream should get prepared to move to Microsoft's SharePoint-based Stream, which reached "general availability" (commercial release) back in October. Microsoft is planning to block classic Stream video uploads in Aug. 2023. It'll "retire" classic Stream on "Feb. 15, 2024 for all customers except GCC."
At this point, Microsoft hasn't yet announced classic Stream retirement for its GCC (government) customers. However, the above deadlines are in effect for everyone else. Gritty timeline details regarding Microsoft's classic Stream retirement can be found in this "Overview" document.
For organizations needing more time for a migration to SharePoint-based Stream, Microsoft will provide delay settings, but they will be arriving next month.
"Admin delay settings will become available in the Stream (Classic) admin center on Feb 15, 2023," the announcement indicated.
Microsoft has created a migration tool that organizations can use to migrate from classic Stream to SharePoint-based Stream. The migration tool is currently available at the public preview stage. It's expected to reach general availability on "Feb. 15, 2023 for all Stream customers, except GCC."
SharePoint-Based Stream Perks
Microsoft suggested that the SharePoint-based Stream service offers benefits over the classic service. The SharePoint-based Stream lets organizations run videos in other Microsoft 365 apps, such as "Teams, Office.com, Yammer, Viva, PowerPoint, and SharePoint," the announcement explained.
The SharePoint-based Stream service also lets organizations record videos using a camera's advanced tools. It's possible to use search in Microsoft 365 apps to find videos, or videos can be found using a Streams start page in Office. Organizations can create transcripts for videos. They can share organizational videos with external guests. Stats on video views can be seen. Microsoft also enables compliance, legal discovery and multi-geo support with the SharePoint-based Stream service.
Stream Live Events Also To Retire
The classic Stream Live Events capability, which gets used for company leadership events or other audience broadcasts, also will be retired and replaced by SharePoint-based Stream. However, Microsoft hasn't yet set a date for the retirement.
When the classic Stream Live Events retirement is announced, organizations will have six months to move to the "successor service, Teams live events with external encoder support, which is currently in public preview," the announcement indicated.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.