Office 365 (O365) is Microsoft’s subscription-based cloud service which has been a game changer in terms of providing a seamless user experience through its applications across desktop, mobile devices or the cloud for next generation messaging, collaboration, networking and analytics features. The SaaS services, bound by regulatory compliance, 99% SLA, zero to low maintenance cost, and ever-expanding feature set make it an attractive offering. Workloads include SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, Skype for Business, OneDrive for Business, and many more.
In this article, we will provide a comparison analysis (cost and feature wise) between SharePoint 2013 (an on-premise version) and SharePoint Online (SPO - part of Office 365 offering) workloads of similar volume to provide the justification to move to cloud.
Measuring cost-benefit of SPO
Organizations making ‘the leap’ to the cloud through Office 365 rollout might be challenged in quantifying the cost benefit of deploying such a solution to their financers. One way is to compare the differences in the product licensing pricing for the traditional on-premise systems versus the newer Office 365 ‘subscription’ model (user-license-wise fees). However, given the expanding suite of products and services in Office 365, it might not be a justifiable approach. So, in order to provide a quick and easy reference, we will analyze cost benefit of the SharePoint (2013 and online versions) workload, based on the following factors –
Our comparison methodology considers industry productivity factors, typical scenarios gleaned from our own delivery experience and real-world scenarios. The example scenario is assumed to be bound by the following volume and factors:
SharePoint 2013 volumetric details considered for migration:
Additional factors:
Based on the above scenario and our estimation techniques, in the below paragraphs we have demonstrated the cost benefit of SharePoint 2013 and the online version
1. Upgrade cost:
For SP 2013, mainstream support ended on April 10, 2018 while the extended support will end on April 11, 2023. With a proposed SP 2019 release, currently we are behind the curve and it is imperative to upgrade at the earliest. Contrary to it, the SPO version does not need any regular update as Microsoft pushes all changes and releases directly as per their defined roadmap. Given in Figure 1 is a comparative analysis of the different cost factor for an upgrade/migration to the next version.
Figure 1: Comparative analysis of cost for upgrade
2. IT labor cost:
Figure 2 demonstrates the year-on-year labor cost (support and migration) incurred for both the environments.
Figure 2: Labor cost for SP 2013 and SPO support
The support cost for SPO will always be less than on-premise one, as the entire IT infrastructure is hosted in Microsoft datacenter and SPO has least option of customization options. Given the migration of legacy content to SPO was done in Y1, we can expect Y2 to be the break-even year with an decreasing support cost as governance, accelerators etc. are rapidly deployed.
With minimal upgrade cost and reduced IT labour cost, SPO is clearly the next version of SharePoint that customers ideally should migrate to . With Office 365, organizations are now able to accelerate the deployment of the latest versions of Microsoft and partner solutions, decrease technology costs, increase business and IT user productivity, and stay up-to-date with the latest features and solutions.
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Arindam Ghosh
Consultant, Application Engineering and DevOps Microsoft, Wipro
Arindam has 14 years of experience in cloud and native technologies. He currently works with global clients for defining their IT strategy, which helps them to align their business goals related to Office 365 and Azure. During his career, he has been involved in multiple delivery and presales activities spread across different domains such as knowledge management, supply chain management and industries such as IT, communication and energy.
