Great news...I think!
While this is really good news for teams whose data is creaking the 1TB site collection limit, and where data has to be segmented by design to fit, it also rings alarm bells for the SharePoint savvy.
The risk
The introduction of this far greater limit could mean that customers will start a mass dumping of shared drives into one big site collection without a migration plan. While the mass uploading in itself is not all bad, as it gets the data indexed and creates a legacy location at speed, it does however remove the necessity imposed by the current limit to carefully consider and plan how and where your data is stored. The risk is that it will cause businesses to simply kick the retention planning can down the road.
The mass dumping of data into the Cloud exposes companies to the following risks:
- Poorly or simply unconsidered SharePoint Information Architecture planning
- Unpredictable scaling of data - "Just save it, we have plenty of space!"
- Clutter and Confusion - Who owns what and where?
- Multiple sources of the truth - Space to store everyone's favourite version
- A missed opportunity for engagement with teams and delivery of business process
The planning of migration, document life-cycle, and retention, are key stages in any SharePoint Online Migration, and skipping these stages leads to unplanned migrations, and ultimately, poor engagement on yet another "file share" location. SharePoint is so much more than document storage, and when used properly will keep employees collaborating and engaged indefinitely, removing the need for the all too common bi-annual IT system replacement.
Getting it right
Taking the time to plan your migration to SharePoint Online gives you the ability to review, segment and define content owners, carefully consider the data going into the cloud and where and how it can be seen, create permission and usage plans, and help teams to engage and collaborate with clutter free, relevant data at their fingertips.
Conclusion
So why no massive announcement on this feature? Let's remember that the licencsng has not changed, just the scale, so if you do an unplanned migration, you will still have to pay for the storage you use. It is not a part of the E3 plans or Business premium office 365 plans - you still only get 1TB in the package deal.
So, more is most definitely more and that's great, and for Enterprise SharePoint Online customers it will make a huge difference. It certainly makes planning less constrained and that has to be good, but let's not miss the opportunity to get things right first time and migrate and continue to develop SharePoint online in a planned and continually evolving way. Let's make sure we keep focused on doing the right thing for your business, rather than just the easy thing.
It is great news and well done Microsoft for listening to feedback.
Business Cloud Integration Ltd offers Cloud, SharePoint and Office 365 consultancy in Cambridge, delivering solutions that increase company productivity, streamline and automate business processes, and simplify and enhance collaborative working.
Visit our website to find out more.
_________________________________________