Given the varying data needs of enterprises, today the challenge of managing tons of digital content within the organizations, especially when different departments have varying data needs, the prominence is on 'whether to manage it on-premise or online'?
The comparison between the two forces IT teams to comply to an enterprise content management platform that can serve as a consolidated repository for the content and also a place where users can easily retrieve and interact with.
While the market offers various products to address this need, SharePoint continues to be a popular platform among those who work with Microsoft products. With its every upgrade or new release, clients are facing a tough choice between SharePoint 2016 vs SharePoint Online as an option when it comes to the different flavors of the platform available to them.
While cloud seizes to allure and there is a big push to move to the cloud to leverage its scalability and flexibility, Microsoft consistently innovates with both its online and on-premises platforms. On closer look at what each offer and lack in terms of capabilities and features, it makes more challenging for IT to decide between the two options and forces them to reconcile what to expect in terms of differences between the two platforms.
Those just starting out with enterprise content management may generally be more willing to consider SharePoint Online as their platform of choice and may find it cost-effective given its SaaS based pricing model, while existing enterprise clients tend to lean more toward SharePoint on-premises when they have invested significantly in their infrastructure.