Forum Discussion
A generic question about Office 365
Interesting question, I think you are on the right track. My understanding is most new features are born in the cloud and don't correlate with any on-premise equivalent. Exchange Online isn't just Exchange Server 2016 with a slightly different build. There is some crossover with features of course (and a shared codebase) but Office 365 is way ahead of what Microsoft ship to on-premise customers. Some Office 365 features might get shipped in the next on-premise version like Exchange Server 2016 but lots of features are increasingly only available in Office 365. One example I can think of is Focused Inbox, which only applies to Office 365 Exchange Online tenants and users. Microsoft touched on some of these topics with this article - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wbaer/2017/05/16/sharepoint-server-2016-and-beyond/.
Interesting question, I think you are on the right track. My understanding is most new features are born in the cloud and don't correlate with any on-premise equivalent. Exchange Online isn't just Exchange Server 2016 with a slightly different build. There is some crossover with features of course (and a shared codebase) but Office 365 is way ahead of what Microsoft ship to on-premise customers. Some Office 365 features might get shipped in the next on-premise version like Exchange Server 2016 but lots of features are increasingly only available in Office 365. One example I can think of is Focused Inbox, which only applies to Office 365 Exchange Online tenants and users. Microsoft touched on some of these topics with this article - https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/wbaer/2017/05/16/sharepoint-server-2016-and-beyond/.
Yes, the question is interesting. I guess the answer is yes and no, depends on what to understand under equivalent and from which point of view to consider that. Quite many end users don't see any difference after they are moved from on-premises environment to the cloud. Fro IT Pros and developers - yes, there is the difference.
On the one hand, as Cian said, cloud environment is more advanced, more integrated and has more functionality. On the other hand that could be bit less support and more surprises since not everything depends on local IT, especially if you are not on deferred channel.
- Basically cloud versions of Exchange, SharePoint and Skype for Business are going to be ahead of what we will see OnPremises. SharePoint is a clear example: we already have SharePoint Farmework for SharePoint Online, but not yet for SharePoint 2016 OnPremises (it will come in some months)
Cian Allner....Thanks Cian
