SharePoint 2016 Features
In this article, I would like to highlight the features of SharePoint 2016. This information was collected from the Ignite session conducted by Microsoft.
Here is the official The Evolution of SharePoint: Overview and Roadmap resource link from MSDN.
Release by 2016-Q2
SharePoint 2016 is expected to be released the Quarter-2 of 2016.
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Look And Feel
I can't find any huge difference in SharePoint 2016 Look And Feel. Here, the Tiled UI will continue.
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On-Premise is here to stay
Microsoft promised that SharePoint 2016 will have an On-Premise version. There was a rumor about discontinuing the On-Premise version from 2016 onwards. But customers have reasons for data that can't be on SharePoint Online.
Search with Delve
SharePoint 2016 will have Search with Delve app. Delve is a new way of searching and presenting contents based on the user's interest. Delve's root goes to Office 365.
Delve can present information from Exchange, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint Online and Yammer based on user's interactions. Please find the references section to learn more about Delve.
Farm Solutions will be supported
Farm Solutions will be supported. This should enable 2010 and 2013 codes to be migrated to 2016. This will be done with the least amount of upgrade to CSOM. But, as said earlier, App Model / CSOM will be the preferred development model.
OneDrive
SharePoint 2016 will have improvised support for OneDrive. This is part of Microsoft's Hybridization movement for On-Premise.
Hybridization is bringing cloud features to On-Premises, rather taking On-Premise customers to Online versions.
Yammer
Yammer will be integrated with SharePoint 2016. This is also a part of Microsoft's Hybridization movement for On-Premise. Additionally, the External User interaction will be added to Yammer for enabling external users such as customer/vendor communications.
Office Graph
Office Graph is the core component that will enable Delve Search and Hybridization feature. But Office Graph will be residing in SharePoint Online and Hybrid Connectivity from SharePoint 2016 will be provided.
Responsive UI
There are improvements to the default responsive user interface that enabled SharePoint 2016 better view ability in mobile devices.
Hardware Requirements
It is great to see that the hardware requirements will be similar to SharePoint 2013. This will save a lot of $ for developers and administrators who recently invested in hardware for SharePoint 2013.
Online Patching
Administrators would really like this feature. SharePoint 2016 allows applying patches while being online. No need to take the servers off and users can continue working while patches are applied. Zero Downtime!
Expanding Boundary Limits
SharePoint 2016 expanded boundary limits on content database size, list view items count and so on. This should save shredding-jobs from the Administrators and Developers.
User Profile Service Application will be removed
User Profile Service Application will be removed. I am not clear about the details of Active Directory synchronizing and, accordingly will play with the preview version for understanding this.
References
Summary
In this article, we have explored SharePoint 2016 features.