Microsoft Confirms Drop of Public Website SharePoint Feature

December 30, 2014

Microsoft has confirmed the rumors that everyone has feared – the Public Website feature of SharePoint is being discontinued. Customers are being encouraged to move to third party options that integrate with SharePoint. ZDNet breaks the news and covers the details in their article, “Microsoft Confirms it is Dropping Public Website Feature from SharePoint Online.”

The article discusses how the transition will occur:

“New customers signing up for Office 365 as of January next year won’t have access to Public Websites in SharePoint Online, Microsoft officials acknowledged in a new Knowledge Base support article published on December 19. Existing customers using SharePoint Online Public Website will continue to have access to this feature for a minimum of two years following the changeover date, Microsoft execs said.”

Interested parties will not be surprised by the news, as rumors have swirled for some time. However, it is a difficult transition for those who relied on the feature. It seems that SharePoint went through a season of trying to be all things to all people, but that did not seem to pan out the way they anticipated, and now they are scaling back. Stephen E. Arnold keeps a close eye on SharePoint on his Web service, ArnoldIT.com. Keep an eye on his SharePoint feed to see what feature may be next on the Microsoft chopping block.

Emily Rae Aldridge, December 30, 2014

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