In their session on ‘The Evolution of SharePoint: Overview and Roadmap’, Bill Baer and Seth Patton shared the release plan for SharePoint Server 2016 at the Microsoft Ignite, Chicago on 4 May, 2015. Bill Baer is a Senior Product Manager for SharePoint and Seth Patton is Senior Director for SharePoint and OneDrive.

 
Sharing the release history and roadmap of SharePoint, the speaker elaborated that SharePoint evolution has primarily been driven by industry trends. In 2001, SharePoint Portal Server 2001 was largely driven with a need for collaboration, a need that governed SharePoint Portal Server 2003 as well. As industry trends changed, the focus shifted on Enterprise Content Management, which primarily was the basis for Office SharePoint Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2010.

 
SharePoint Server 2013 was based on yet another change in the trend that primarily was Cloud and Enterprise Social. It also became the genesis for Office 365. SharePoint Server 2013 also became a direction to shape SharePoint Server 2016. The trend that will govern SharePoint Server 2016 will be Cloud inspired experiences, where the cloud will decide what the on-premises software will deliver. The speakers also emphasized that the release shows Microsoft’s continued commitment to innovation on Cloud, on-premises and hybrid.

 
The engaging session covered the vision and value of SharePoint Server 2016 and a release timeline of the product.