A number of clients often ask us why they should consider using SharePoint online as opposed to an on-premises version. There are many benefits to using SharePoint online rather than on-premises, we will run through some of them below.
SharePoint online scales to meet your requirements
Unlike your on-premises solution, SharePoint online easily scales to meet your requirements. You only need to add user licenses to scale from 5 to 50000 users. If you have an on-premises solution, you will need to consider additional storage requirements additional virtual servers etc. Correspondingly, you can also scale down your office licenses if your user-base reduces.
SharePoint online is a simple monthly fixed cost
SharePoint online is a fixed monthly cost per user. As your user base grows, you can budget for the increase of your monthly subscription with no additional costs to worry about. If you need to scale out an on-premises solution, you will need to consider SharePoint Server Licensing implications, Windows server licensing and SQL server licensing.
Replication and backups
Office 365 automatically takes backups of your SharePoint online data removing one of your headaches. In addition, datacentres replicate automatically ensuring uptime is kept above 99.9%. For peace of mind Microsoft data centres are located in global regions. For UK customers they are in Ireland and the Netherlands. Full UK data centres are on the roadmap. Achieving a guaranteed 99.9% in an on-premises solution requires a significant financial investment.
SharePoint online is available at many price points
SharePoint online is available across a number of Office 365 subscriptions. For a basic SharePoint online subscription, prices start lower than £5 per month per user. Other more expensive licenses also include Office online allowing you to open and edit documents from any Internet enabled PC.
SharePoint online includes OneDrive for Business
SharePoint online includes OneDrive for Business. If a staff member has a Personal Site (formally MySites) then OneDrive for Business will also be available. This personal storage site has a total of 5TB (at time of writing) of storage per user in addition to overall SharePoint online storage quotas. With this personal area, staff can share files with others as well as synchronise data for offline use. OneDrive for business is effectively a personal SharePoint online area, so benefits such as Version Control, Recycle Bin are included. This is a great way to reduce or remove legacy file share servers.
Access your data anywhere
SharePoint online allows you to access your data from any location from any device. If you are away and do not have access to your normal device, simply login to SharePoint online from any Internet enabled device. If your subscription includes Office online, then you will be able to view and edit files without Office being installed on the end device.
There are many benefits to SharePoint online and this short article does not cover them all. Please contact MindPoint to discuss your requirements in more details.
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