Considering Sharepoint or Office 365? Let’s Share Some Points…

SharePoint is Microsoft’s enterprise development platform that brings along a feature list that might as well include a kitchen sink. This software has been widely adopted by small, medium and large-size businesses for content and file management, infrastructure creation and website development. You have three deployment options with SharePoint: deploy it yourself, go through a web host that provides hosted SharePoint, or use SharePoint through the cloud with Microsoft’s Office 365. While it’s pretty easy to make the decision on whether you want to host it yourself or not, it’s harder to figure out whether you should go with SharePoint hosting or Office 365. Here is a comparison of the two options.

Office 365 Considerations

The big advantage with Office 365 is you get all of the Microsoft Office tools in one service. If you use Microsoft Office software, such as Word, Excel and OneNote, it makes a lot of sense to consolidate that software, along with SharePoint, into a monthly package. According to Tech Radar, there are several plans which start at $5 per month per user for small business, $12.50 for small business premium, and $15 for the mid-size business plan. The enterprise plans start at $8 per user per month and go up to $20. The more expensive plans also offer desktop versions of the software, in case you want to access these applications locally as well as via cloud. Microsoft also offers cloud-hosted SharePoint on its own, with a per user cost starting at $3 per user per month. Microsoft handles support, installation and maintenance for the applications, so you don’t have additional overhead.

Office 365 offers a valuable package, with solid cloud-based hosting from Microsoft. However, this service is restricted solely to the office suite.  you don’t have the option of installing your own scripts or controlling the software versions available, according to ITPro.co.uk. If you prefer using SharePoint 2010 instead of SharePoint 2013, you don’t have that option. It’s also not completely compatible with iPad, which negates some of the cloud advantages, if you prefer that tablet.

Hosted SharePoint Considerations

You have a lot of flexibility for the hosts you can choose for a hosted SharePoint installation. Some companies provide application-only hosting, similar to Office 365, while others include SharePoint support in their web hosting packages. As MSDN Blogs explains, SharePoint deployment is simplified using Windows Azure, making it particularly easy to get SharePoint onto cloud computing resources. Your SharePoint host has a lot of experience working with different configurations, and you can choose the server set-up that works best for your business. If you go with traditional web hosting instead of the cloud model for application hosting, you can also use the server resources for other scripts and web hosting needs.

Dedicated servers and virtual private servers might end up being more expensive than cloud options, depending on the resources you need to support your SharePoint needs. You also have to be careful the host is an authorized SharePoint provider and has the proper licenses. You don’t want to lose your SharePoint work because your host has unlicensed software and gets in trouble with Microsoft.

Share your thoughts about SharePoint in the comments.

Author: Lawrence Feldman

Lawrence manages a small tech company and works as a freelancer when he’s not taking MBA classes.