As the SharePoint community disperses from Las Vegas after another awesome conference it’s time to digest the new information and figure out what that really means for you.
The takeaways for each person are probably different as we all use SharePoint in different ways, although there was one very prominent message being pushed…
Microsoft’s forecast: Very cloudy with a chance of on-prem meatballs
Microsoft was pushing the cloud first model very heavily, Office 365 will be getting all the new bells and whistles with on-prem maybe getting some of the new features down the track. Features that integrate the different services (e.g. Yammer/SharePoint/Exchange/OneDrive) would probably only be available in Office 365 where Microsoft can guarantee the compatible versions across the services and control passing user identity between the services and may never make there way to on-prem.
Attendee’s forecast: We are not ready/can’t move/don’t want to move to the cloud yet
This was the sentiment I was hearing on the booth. The reasons for not wanting to jump to the cloud (at the moment) were varied but most had understandable reasons. Microsoft has the potential to alienate a lot of the community and customers (possibly losing them to competitive products) if they take the big stick approach and try to force people into Office 365.
On a more positive note for on-prem customers, it was announced that there will be a new release of SharePoint (on-prem) in 2015.
The Venetian was an awesome location for the conference. Maybe it’s just me or maybe Vegas has slightly refined itself since the last conference but I thought the area of the strip near the Venetian had a better buzz about it and was just a nicer end of town. The Venetian itself was excellent with plenty of great options for eating and drinking. Anyone know a place that does a gourmet burger better than Vegas?
SPC14 was the conference that saw us announce the growth and re-positioning of our brand. OnePlaceMail has become one product of the larger OnePlaceEnterprise suite. Along with OnePlaceMail, the OnePlaceEnterprise suite contains the new products OnePlaceDocs and OnePlaceLive. This growth and shift was well received at the conference and I’m really looking forward to this new phase as OnePlaceEnterprise enters the market.
Thanks to all those who came up to see us at the conference and traded SharePoint stories. I hope you all enjoyed the conference and were able to walk away more knowledgeable at the end of the day.
Cameron Dwyer 