SharePoint Classic is Retiring, Are Your Sites Ready?

By 2026,?SharePoint?2013, 2016 and 2019 will reach end-of-life

Microsoft has been preparing users for years to move to Modern. We can help them overcome the hurdle.?

This post reviews why software end-of-life is necessary and why it's a good thing to move on.

What does end-of-life mean, and why does Microsoft do this?

End-of-life support for older SharePoint sites means that Microsoft will?no longer provide regular updates, security patches, or technical support for those specific versions.?Implementing software end-of-life is?essential?for software vendors. It ensures security, compliance, performance, and ongoing vendor support. Software companies implement these policies to allocate resources effectively, drive innovation, rationalize product portfolios, and align with market dynamics.

While ending support for older versions of SharePoint may cause concern for organizations heavily reliant on these sites, it presents an opportunity for growth, enhanced security, and improved productivity. The reason is that when IT moves everyone's sites, most of those sites will be migrated to?Modern Experiences.?

Modern Benefits

When our clients decide to (or are forced to) move to?SharePoint Modern, they will benefit from:

• Enhanced Collaboration:?The latest versions of SharePoint offer?advanced collaboration?features, including real-time co-authoring, improved document management, and integrated communication tools. Embrace the opportunity to foster a more collaborative and productive work environment.
• Modern User Experience:?Modern provides intuitive interfaces and responsive design, optimizing usability across devices. Users will enjoy an?improved experience, resulting in higher engagement and efficiency. Layer in GAI, new layouts, and the ability to build custom web parts, and you've got a?scalable?and?inviting?solution.?
• Security and Compliance:?Microsoft is one of the most secure content management platforms and they achieve that status by constantly updating the platform to protect from threats. Migrating to a supported SharePoint environment guarantees?regular security updates?and?improved compliance?with data privacy regulations. (As always, make sure you understand how you share... and you know what ISN'T secure? PDFs.)
• Site Owner Empowerment:?With modern features such as drag-and-drop interfaces, intuitive page layouts, and easy content management, site owners can take ownership of their sites, make real-time updates, and deliver engaging experiences to users without relying heavily on IT or developer support.
• New modern features:?intelligent search, Power App and Power BI integrations are some of "plug and play" features of modern. Users can also embed Forms and?Yammer?for better engagement and easily build News and Events lists and pages to help communicate with their communities.?

"It’s generally a good practice to position yourself with where Microsoft is going. Modern is the future, Classic is the past." -?Mark Rackley, M365 Architect

Your clients may get "lifted and shifted" to Modern by IT, and they may not like it

A "lift and shift" migration refers to the approach of moving an old SharePoint site's content to a Modern site container without significant modifications. Understandably, IT's focus is compliance, security and cost-savings, and so the faster they get sites moved, the better. This is not a bad thing! IT must prioritize risk reduction above all else. Still, there are drawbacks to moving content this way:

• Limited Optimization:?This approach often involves replicating the existing infrastructure, configurations, and architecture in the new environment. This means that any?inefficiencies?or performance?bottlenecks?will persist.
• Incompatibility with Target Environment:?Not all containers are the same, and differences in underlying technologies, configurations, or infrastructure can lead to?compatibility issues.?
• Missed Cost Savings: The new environment may offer?scalable infrastructure?or?pay-as-you-go pricing?models, and a moved site or app may not be optimized to take advantage of these features.?
• Limited Scalability:?Without optimizing the application for scalability in the new environment, organizations may face?performance?limitations as the site tries to grow.
• Missed UX Opportunities: Clients?miss the chance to?take advantage of the?latest features?and capabilities of the target environment, especially improved user experience and site performance.?
• Maintenance Complexity:?Carrying over the existing?technical debt?to the new environment can increase maintenance complexity. The app or site will be?harder to maintain.
• Not future-focused:?Clients may face difficulties in?adopting new technologies?or taking advantage of evolving best practices due to a site or app's legacy architecture and design.

How Consultants Make This Easier and More Successful

Obviously, the deprecation of software and migration to new versions is a large Change Initiative. Since these initiatives are often owned and executed by IT, there can be a?lack of focus on end-user adoption and support. IT may be resistant to outside support due to in-house expertise, familiarity with the platform, a belief it will not be too complex, reliance on existing Microsoft support, past successful migrations, and, most importantly, budget and time constraints! Many of the IT groups I work with recognize user experience isn't ideal, but there are higher priorities they need to focus on. That's where my team comes in!

My colleagues and I?can support these complex initiatives by augmenting IT resources, providing strategic consulting, and working with Business Units during and after the migration. This last provides the organization the most value, since IT may not have time to support Site Owners and business units in maximizing their new Modern site. Most importantly, we can scale resources and support to?meet our clients where they are. Some key services that my colleagues and I offer are:

• Change Management and Communication, resulting in better user adoption and satisfaction
• Training and Performance support, resulting in maximizing use and lowering support requests
• User Experience Design and M365 Development, resulting in optimized sites and improved user performance
• UX Testing and?Quality Assurance,?resulting in high-quality products and experiences, with less iteration and error

Help me understand with a case study

The Effects of Lift and Shift Migrations

A mid-sized manufacturing firm decides to migrate its legacy SharePoint sites to a modern platform using a lift and shift approach. With limited in-house expertise and resources, the IT team takes on the migration project themselves. They simply copy and move the existing sites to the new platform without making significant changes to the site structure or user experience.?While the content is successfully transferred, the migrated sites retain the outdated design, navigation, and functionality of the legacy system. Users struggle to adapt to the new platform and find it challenging to locate information or collaborate effectively.

The lack of proper change management, user experience design, and user training results in low user adoption and productivity. Employees become frustrated with the new platform and resort to using alternative tools or workarounds, hindering collaboration and business processes.

Without a structured approach to optimize the migrated sites, the company misses opportunities for improved efficiency, streamlined workflows, and enhanced user experience. The IT team faces ongoing challenges in managing and maintaining the migrated sites due to the inherent limitations of the lift and shift approach. Additionally, frustrated end-users use their budgets to purchase additional third-party software that duplicates what's available in Microsoft, increasing cost and technical debt for the company. All cost and time savings were lost from the initial migration.

Business Impacts?

Companies should plan not just on migrating from deprecated versions of SharePoint, they should also plan on modernizing. Those that wait will risk increased remediation costs, limited time for planning and testing, strained IT resources, reduced adoption, and disruption of business operations.??

What now?

Whether you partner with experts like myself, or work with internal resources, it's time to start planning your migration and (hopefully), modernization. Those heavily using older versions of SharePoint would do well to plan for a slow and steady 1-2 year push. Whatever you do, don't overlook how important user experience and adoption will be in positive longterm ROI of the migration.