If you are still using Microsoft SharePoint 2013 on-premises for your Intranet portal or other business-critical applications, you would be wise to commence planning your migration to SharePoint Online because Microsoft is ending its extended support on 11th April 2023.
Past this deadline, you will no longer receive security patches and other important updates from Microsoft, which means dealing with future support, security, and performance risks on your own.
What are the risks after SharePoint 2013 reaches its end-of-life?
Costly or no technical support.
Without Microsoft’s regular patches and updates, you will be on your own with supporting an obsolete version of SharePoint. This will impact your user’s overall experience if your SharePoint environment (or your applications hosted on it) experiences any kind of ‘bugs’ or failures, resulting in extended downtime to fix an unsupported fix. That is if it Is even possible. You may find a third-party vendor that supports SharePoint 2013 but not without incurring steep support costs.
Increased security risks.
Microsoft's regular patches to guard against modern-day hackers and cyber criminals will no longer be available post- end of life support of SharePoint 2013. This leaves your organisation vulnerable to security breaches, not to mention the possibility of falling out of organisational compliance with industry regulations or standards.
Future application incompatibility.
Your organisation will continue to evolve and require new application functionalities to be added to your SharePoint environment well into the future. But meeting this goal by adding new features to a vendor-retired SharePoint version will be challenging, given its compatibility issues with the latest and modern applications.
Benefits of migrating to SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365
Microsoft SharePoint gives you the flexibility to choose on-premises or online cloud-based deployment models. But if you ask us, the best option is to migrate to the modern SharePoint experience in SharePoint Online. Deployed into Microsoft 365 cloud, you no longer have to consider upfront hardware investment or regular hardware refresh, nor do you need to think about future software upgrades.
You also get to take advantage of these key SharePoint Online features:
- Access to out-of-the-box (OOTB) web parts or tailor them according to your needs.
- Easy integration with Microsoft 365 apps such as Teams, Power Apps, Automate, and Power BI.
- Native integration with employee experience apps such as Microsoft Viva.
- Rapid creation of modern corporate Intranet portal.
- Build rich-looking team sites using its drag-and-drop functionality and pre-built themes.
- Built-in security features for data protection and managing permissions.
- Accessible 24x7x365 on any device.
- FISMA, ISO 27001 compliant, among other regulatory norms.
- Automatic updates with guaranteed uptime from Microsoft.
- Highly scalable.
Modernise your SharePoint 2013 operating environment today!
Ensure your operations don’t get disrupted by an unsupported version of SharePoint. Migrate to SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365 Cloud to stay modern, save on costs, and keep your data secure. Contact our team for a commitment-free discovery call to learn more about your options and how we can help you successfully transition to SharePoint Online in Microsoft 365 cloud.
