Being able to commission SharePoint Online sites for institutional users is a benefit in itself, but for Institutions currently running their own SharePoint on-premise servers, there are even more potential gains...
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Self-service site creation and deletion is delegated to IT staff in the Institutional Administrators group in Blue AD, giving your IT staff full control of the site creation and deletion process.
SharePoint on-premise users
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Save on licensing costs – Sharepoint Online is already paid for as part of the University's EES Agreement.
- Save on hardware costs by not operating your own servers.
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Eliminate the maintenance burden – free-up some time for your IT staff, who won't be maintining your SharePoint servers.
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Join the future! SharePoint Online is rapidly becoming the industry standard:
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it will be easier and cheaper to procure external consultancy
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third-party vendors are now moving away from providing and supporting plug-ins for SharePoint on-premise.
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Important caveats
- SharePoint Online cannot be used for public facing (anonymously accessed) websites – Microsoft requires that all users authenticate with a Microsoft account.
- Server side code must use the new 'Add-In' model, and it is therefore not possible to use a URL that is not:
https://universityofcambridgecloud.sharepoint.com/Sites/<sitename>
Is SharePoint Online right for your Institution?
UIS offers a course that aims to cover topics that will assist institutions in evaluating SharePoint 2013 or Online for their institutional requirements.