Note: the information
in this blog post is based on the information presented and available on public
forums. The actual product SharePoint 2016 can have difference from what is
available. Please do take time to check the new features when the product is released.
The same article with updated by other community member is also available at Technet Wiki.
Past few weeks been really busy, catching up Build and
Ignite conferences (virtually through channel 9). One of the session which I
have been waiting was What’s new in SharePoint 2016.
After the session, I thought to pin down my thought which
might be helpful for quick summary to look out for what to expect in SharePoint
2016 (release is still a year later, a lot can change).
I would love to make points which makes it easier to read
rather than reading the entire paragraph.
·
Release milestones: Public beta – Q4 2015,
public download – Q2 2016 and a release candidate (RC) in between.
·
The design, development and maintenance for
SharePoint 2016 going to inherit from cloud DNA.
·
Focusing on content management, team
collaboration, user experience across devices and how the cloud can be blended
into existing on-premises scenario.
·
New and improved capabilities will be delivered focusing
on
o
Improved User Experience
§
Improved mobile experience
§
Personalized insights
§
People-centric File storage and collaboration
§
Power of Office graph and Delve (via hybrid)
o
Cloud-inspired infrastructure
§
Improved performance and reliability
§
Hybrid cloud with global reach
§
Support and monitoring tools
§
Simplified user experience and integration with
products like next version of Win Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server 2016.
o
Compliance and Reporting
§
New DLP
§
Enable data encryption
§
Improved Analytics and reporting
·
Microsoft taken SharePoint online, modified to
suite on-premises. Components which were not available are back ported.
New information available for SharePoint 2016 can be
classified in 4 categories –
1.
Management of platform
·
System requirements
o Hardware
Requirements
Installation Scenario
|
Memory / RAM
|
Processor
|
Hard Disk
|
Single Server*
|
16-24 GB
|
64-bit, 4 cores
|
80 GB
|
Farm Server
|
12-16 GB
|
64-bit, 4 cores
|
80 GB
|
Database Server
|
Refer system requirement for 64-bit version of SQL Server
2014 Service Pack 1 or SQL vNext
|
*There is no built in SQL Server. You need to install a separate SQL
Express/Developer or any other edition even for development server.
o Software
Requirements
§
Any one of Windows Server 2012 R2 | Windows
Server 10
§
Windows Management Framework 3.0
§
Application Server Role
§
Web Server (IIS) Role
§
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 (in on Windows
Server 10, then Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.6)
§
Update for the .NET Framework 4 (KB2898850)
§
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client
§
Microsoft Identity Extensions
§
Microsoft Sync Framework Runtime v1.0 SP1 (x64)
§
Windows Server AppFabric v1.1 (MS is planning to
end AppFabric, but it will be supported for SP 2013 and 2016).
§
Windows Identity Foundation v1.1
§
Microsoft Information Protection and Control
Client
§
Microsoft WCF Data Services.
·
Upgrade and Migration
o Upgrade
path is from 2013 to 2016
§
Upgrade 14.5 mode site to 15 mode and then
upgrade
§
Allow the same database attach upgrade process
o Migrate
Content to 2016 (using migration APIs or partner tools)
·
Auth N-Z
o Windows
Identity over SAML claims
o Trying
to normalize on oAuth/OpenID standards
·
SMTP Connection
o Allow
using non-default ports
o Allowing
to use STARTTLS connection encryption.
2.
Reliability, Performance and scalability
·
Moving from SharePoint 2013 based job enable /
disable to predefined set of logic executing on a machine (Termed as MinRole
Topology)
·
New Server Roles in SharePoint 2016
o Special
Load – custom service applications, services, third party components which are
outside of MinRole Topology
o Web
Front End – services end user requests. Servers are optimized for low latency
o Search
– service application provisioning, indexing service and other search
components.
o Application
– services backend jobs or requests triggered by backend jobs. Servers are optmized
for high throughput
o Distributed
Cache – servers distributed cache for the farm.
o Single
Server Farm – for development purpose, configure (excluding SQL Server) all
services on one server.
·
New Service categories in SharePoint 2016
o User
Services
o Robot
Services
o Caching
Services
·
Server Role and Health Analyzer
·
Patching Updates
·
Improvement in boundaries and limits
o Content
DB size up to TB’s (not yet identified the limit)
o 100K
sites per site collection
o List
view threshold > 5000 items
o Upload
file size up to 10 GB and removed character restrictions
o Search
scaling up to 500 M items.
·
Better File Performance
o Use
BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) to better file performance
·
Fast Site Creation
o Create
faster site collections at database level using the standard site template
saved as site.
o Remove
feature activation overhead
·
User Profile Service
o Bi-directional
sync using external FIM service. No built in FIM anymore.
·
Project Server
o Still
require separate Project Server Licensing, but SharePoint and Project Server
content database is merged.
·
Durable Links
o New
sharing URLs are resources Id based, thus renaming file, moving file will not
break the link already shared.
3.
Analytics (Insights and Data)
·
Real time data analysis on various parameters
o Usage
§
daily active users
§
Weekly active users
§
Usage by browser
§
Usage by agent
§
Usage by OS
o Storage
§
Storage by site template
§
Daily storage
§
File type
§
Storage breakout
o Health
Reports
o Network
o Portals
4.
Cloud Experience
·
Compliance Center
o This
showcase the feasibility of bringing same compliance system to on-premises
which works well in O365 with Azure RMS.
o Discover
and preserve with hybrid eDiscovery.
·
Cloud Search Service Application
o This
unifies the on-premises and cloud data search from one search center.
o This
also add value to Office Graph / Delve to extend the presence on on-premises.
o This
can also leave search running in cloud only while indexing from on-premises and
online.
·
Extranet
o Making
easier to maintain and publish sites to Internet.
o Using
O365 Identity federation services.
·
Team Sites
o Separate
the data in either on-premises or in cloud
o Follow
sites, documents or people in on-premises and master the information in cloud.
o Allowing
ODF files creation.
·
Scenario Picker
o Hybrid
deployment automation
o Select
the Hybrid configuration required and use automated and wizard driven
information to setup Hybdrid (forget the lengthy procedures and PowerShell
scripts to run)
