Insights

SharePoint Sever 2010 is approaching end of support and organisations still running any 2010 instances need to rapidly act before extended support ends.

Microsoft products all follow a standard release cycle having five years of standard support in which the product receives enhancements, updates and security fixes and then five years of extended support. During extended support, products only receive security patches and fixes so the solution will not modernise but remains secure. Once extended support ends, the product no longer receives critical security patches, which means that any vulnerabilities that are found after this date can be exploited and expose the organisation to security risks.

Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 was due to reach end of extended support this week but it has been automatically extended to 13th April 2021, however this does not leave much time for those still running 2010.

What are your options?

There are two main options for organisations looking to migrate from SharePoint Server 2010:

• SharePoint Server 2019
• SharePoint Online

SharePoint Server 2019

If you need to remain on-premise then you can upgrade to SharePoint Server 2019, however this will need to be a staggered approach – first upgrading to 2013, then 2016 then 2019. However, if you are not restricted to remaining on-premise then it is worth considering migrating to:

SharePoint Online

This would most likely be part of Office 365, which many organisations are already using or Microsoft 365 (which also includes Windows 10 and the advanced security features in EMS). The recent pandemic has forced organisations to rapidly modernise their infrastructure and operations to enable remote work, so it is worth considering moving to SharePoint Online. The modern SharePoint experience offers a mobile-friendly, modern and intuitive experience that most users have come to expect today – and is included within Office 365 licensing.

End of SharePoint 2010 workflows

Microsoft also announced the retirement of SharePoint 2010 workflows, which have been removed from new tenants since 1st August 2020. From 1st November 2020 existing 2010 workflows will no longer work, and as a popular solution that was heavily adopted by many organisations, this will equally pose a major issue to those that do not modernise.

Organisations can update to 2013 workflows, however as these also follow the same support pattern, this will be a short-term solution for a large effort. Instead, it is recommended to modernise and adopt Power Automate – the new workflow automation solution with SharePoint and Microsoft 365. All Microsoft 365 licenses include the use of Power Automate and Power Apps for the purpose of customising and extending Microsoft 365 applications.