Classic versus Modern SharePoint

There is an idiom that states the more things change, the more they stay the same. In the world of SharePoint, many familiar concepts have existed for a long time, but there have also been many changes over the years. With SharePoint Online, those changes are occurring at a rapid pace.

It’s been a privilege to see SharePoint change and mature over the years, from its earliest days as an extension to the on-premises Office Online Server to becoming a server-based product of its own to becoming a set of services in the cloud that forms the backbone of file sharing and collaboration.

This chapter is designed for the person who has been a part of that history and worked with on-premises SharePoint but is new to the world of Microsoft 365 (M365) and SharePoint Online. Maybe you’ve been an architect, an admin, a developer, a trainer, or a frustrated user. Cool! I’ve been there too. As with all technical books, this one sits along a point in that timeline, with a view of the past and a fleeting moment to be current at least or future-facing at best.

On the SharePoint timeline sits a pivotal divide. It is kind of like BC/AD or BCE/CE. We’ll call it C/M – the divide between classic and modern SharePoint. In many ways, this divide can be seen as the divide between SharePoint on-premises versus SharePoint in the cloud. The dividing line is not quite that crisp, however. It is on that blurry line on which our first planning exercise begins, as we explore the following topics together:

• Modern building blocks
• The classics
• A mixed skyline
• The paths to modern
• Hybrid workloads
• Additional features
• IT governance
• Planning document

By the end of the chapter, we will have reviewed the five core areas most impactful to users of SharePoint Online. We will have looked at modern sites and web parts, ways to get from classic to modern, and the ability to combine the worlds of SharePoint Server and Office 365 by using hybrid mode.