Top 5 Office 365 and SharePoint 2013 Resources for Pre-Migration Decision Making

When you’re researching SharePoint 2013 as well as Office 365 plans, there’s a lot of information to sift through. These five Microsoft resources can help, based on the big burning question each is trying to answer. You’ve got to hand it to Microsoft—its teams work hard at documentation (not that said documentation is always clear, but there’s lots of it).

We’ve nipped out our favorites to highlight for you, but if you’d like to see more, head over to the Microsoft web page “SharePoint Online Service Descriptions.”

#1: What SharePoint features are in each Office 365 plan?

At the Microsoft web page “SharePoint feature availability across Office 365 plans,” you’ll find a long, hairy--but useful--table that details what each Office 365 plan includes for SharePoint. The table divides the features into those that are more developer oriented and those that are more IT-pro-oriented.  

#2: What features and functionality have been discontinued or changed in SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint Online?

Check out “Discontinued features and modified functionality in Microsoft SharePoint 2013.” The table tells what’s been changed, any workarounds, and what version (Foundation, Online, etc.) the change in features applies to.

RELATED: Why Migrate to SharePoint 2013?

#3: What features are available in each on-premises version of SharePoint 2013?

Thinking you’ll go the on-prem route? Or just trying to cover all your bases? The table in “SharePoint feature availability across on-premises solutions” shows you what features you get in SharePoint Foundation 2013, SharePoint Server 2013 Standard CAL, and SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise CAL. They're organized so if you lean to the dev or IT side, you’ll know where you stand.

#4: How do I plan for SharePoint Online in Office 365?

At “SharePoint Online Planning Guide for Office 365 Enterprise and Midsize,” Microsoft has divided the planning process into five areas. This is basic stuff, even telling who should be involved at what stage of the planning process. It applies to SharePoint Online Enterprise (E1), SharePoint Online Enterprise (E3 & E4), and SharePoint Online Midsized Business.

#5: What SharePoint Online dedicated plans are available for Office 365 if my organization doesn’t want a public cloud package?

You'll want to look at the two tables in SharePoint Online dedicated plans. One table summarizes SharePoint Online features in each plan, and the other table shows which SharePoint Online plan is included in which Office 365 plan.