SharePoint 2016

SharePoint 2016 is a knowledge and document management platform developed by Microsoft and released on 1 May 2016. SharePoint 2016 is used for a variety of purposes, such as setting up websites or serving as an online tool for collaboration within a group or organisation. Employees can collaborate securely, productively and efficiently on any device at any time. 

What is SharePoint?

SharePoint is a tool for organising, managing and streamlining all knowledge, information and processes within an organisation or company. The tool makes it possible to create data, news or other information per department or team through interactive team sites. Here, users can edit, share or organise these files, providing structure in the workplace. It is also possible to use SharePoint to automate all kinds of tasks or business processes when linked to Power Automate and Power Apps.

SharePoint has a clear interface thanks to its libraries. Here, documents can be easily stored and these documents are enriched with metadata. SharePoint's libraries have version control, which saves every digital file. SharePoint also offers possibilities to exchange information, calendars, tasks and surveys.

How do you use SharePoint?

SharePoint was originally developed as a DMS (Document Management System). It helps users store documents and provides them with metadata. SharePoint is currently so much developed that it has been given a role on the intranet. This allows users to create a central landing page for sharing information within the organization. Think of news items, birthdays but even protocols and policies. Although other packages exist for the intranet, they also often require new licences. SharePoint, on the other hand, is included in the Microsoft licence and the platform integrates with other Microsoft applications. As a result, SharePoint can actually be seen as a central hub made available for users to share documents and information. It thus promotes collaboration and communication within the organisation or company.

When SharePoint is used to create websites, colleagues can see key information within a glance. A SharePoint site is a collection of content based on a chosen group of people, such as a specific work group or department. The page can be completely formatted according to the company's house style and the user has the freedom to share information themselves. Some examples include: Videos, documents, calendar with important dates or news items. 

Features SharePoint 2016

Microsoft often releases updated versions of their products after a number of years. The newer version come with some new features that were not there before. Thus, SharePoint also has a few important feature compared to its predecessor. These are named and explained below.

Media Preview

It is possible in SharePoint 2016 to preview videos and images when the user hovers over them. This allows the user to easily take a quick look at what the file contains and therefore, this eliminates the need for the user to click on the file itself to view the content.

Large files

Earlier versions of SharePoint did not support large files. Files larger than 2047 MB could not be uploaded on the platform. With the release of SharePoint 2016, this has changed to 10,000 MB. For most users, this is a big step forward as most files do not exceed 10,000 MB. However, it is not advisable to store large files in SharePoint. Saving large files can take a long time, but this is down to internet speed. However, while uploading large files, it is wise to take into account that it may be interrupted.

Complete privacy

Hackers nowadays have more and more tools at their disposal and this is a big problem for companies with sensitive information. For this reason, Microsoft has decided to improve encryption connections in SharePoint 2016. Transport Layer Security is supported in SharePoint 2016. This provides an increase in privacy and data encryption between two communicating applications. 

Mobile Experience

The mobile experience in older versions of SharePoint was not good for many users. This was due to the lack of responsive design. SharePoint 2016 features a user-friendly mobile version with excellent design and navigation. This ensured that users could access SharePoint from anywhere, meaning users could meet remotely or complete tasks together.

SharePoint 2016 End of Life

SharePoint 2016, like all other Microsoft products, has an End of Life (EoL) date. This means that Microsoft's products are only supported for a certain period of time. Once this end date has passed then the user can still use the product, but all support Microsoft offers for the product expires. The support can be divided into two types: regular support and extended support. SharePoint 2016 was provided with the regular support until 13 July 2021, which means SharePoint 2016 gets new updates and enhancements regularly during period. Users will also get technical support and security updates during this period. When the regular support expires after 5 years, SharePoint will only have the extended support. This consists of security updates only. Extended support for SharePoint 2016 will end on 14 July 2026.