I’ve played “Little Red Corvette” on a loop for the last few hours, so it is no wonder how I got the inspiration for this blog post (RIP, Purple One). “EOL,” or end of life, is (sadly) a reality for music icons as well as physical infrastructure, operating systems, apps, and browsers.

In the last couple of weeks, Rogue has received requests from several clients for upgrade and migration assistance. Microsoft ended its core support of SharePoint 2010 back in October 2015, which means warranty claims have been ignored, no one will install it, and there will be no more security or enhancement code released for the 2010 version. Organizations on SharePoint 2010 are eager to upgrade to 2013, SharePoint Online, or SharePoint 2016 while their budgets are still brimming with the nascence of the second quarter.

Microsoft discloses its support lifecycle, which is helpful in planning upgrades. Rogue recommends that organizations budget for upgrade and migration before core support on a version ends so that our clients are able to take full advantage of Microsoft’s no-cost incident support and warranty guarantees for the life of the product. Additionally, upgrading from one version to the next is much more cost effective than upgrading from a ripe EOL version to the latest (e.g., from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013).

We have established that change is hard, so why does Microsoft compel change with product EOL? A product without innovation will become stagnant. Consumers love variety. This is why I have a Top 40 station on Pandora and get excited when a new one-hit wonder is included in the rotation. New versions of SharePoint build upon the classic content management foundation with improved features. SharePoint has evolved from a document repository to a collaboration and workflow management system, growing the product’s market share and creating competition that inspires continued innovation that benefits users.

Thanks for reading!

M

 

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