According to an article that was released yesterday from Redmond Magazine, some SharePoint Online features have been eliminated. This includes notes and tags that were deprecated last month and the tasks menu option that was removed from the SharePoint Online menu. Both the Tasks page and Sync to Outlook feature are subject to removal within a year’s time. The full article can be read here.

So why is this significant?

Simply, the lack of control. For example, if you’re on prem, you would have the control if and when such updates were applied. In an online environment where Microsoft manages the updates, you have no such control. It’s a double-edged sword. There are huge advantages to having Microsoft manage your updates but there are unintended consequences; this is one of them. If you depend on features that are deprecated in an update, you are out of luck.

The article states “Microsoft has flat out stated that it will lean more toward Yammer for collaboration solutions in SharePoint Online going forward.” An interesting consequence to this is that Yammer is just sparsely available on pre. Meaning, to take advantage of Yammer in the fullest sense it’s intended, you’ll need to be on SharePoint Online as the features are less extensive on prem.

To be clear, I’m a huge proponent of SharePoint Online and am a firm believer that the good out weighs the bad by big margin.  However, it’s important that we evaluate the whole picture.  Most of what you see me write about will be very much in favor of the SharePoint Online model but to only point out the benefits would not paint an objective picture.

What are your thoughts on this?