The biggest challenge for IT decision makers is to select between SharePoint Online and On Premise. out of two variants of SharePoint it is always beneficial to consult with a SharePoint expert before taking any decision to ensure maximum ROI.

1. Whitepaper
SharePoint Online vs On Premise
Prepared By
Amit Wadhwani
Ignatiuz Software Pvt. Ltd.
Tel: 484-876-1867 | Fax: 484-206-4141
Last Modified On: March 30, 2016

2. Whitepaper
SharePoint Online vs On Premise
Ignatiuz Software Pvt. Ltd.
484-876-1867 | www.ignatiuz.com | info@ignatiuz.com
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3. Whitepaper
SharePoint Online vs On Premise
Ignatiuz Software Pvt. Ltd.
484-876-1867 | www.ignatiuz.com | info@ignatiuz.com
Introduction
One of the biggest challenge for IT decision makers is to select between SharePoint Online and On
Premise. Both the variants of SharePoint are better than the other subject to the specific needs of the
business. It is always beneficial to consult with a SharePoint expert before taking any decision to ensure
maximum ROI.
Feature Comparison
There are innumerable features of Office 365 for Education that make it a must have for the institutions.
Few of the major features are listed below:
Feature SharePoint Online SharePoint On Premise
Infrastructure Resides in cloud servers at the
Microsoft Data Centers.
The entire SharePoint Server Farm
needs to be installed within corporate
network.
Maintenance The maintenance for hardware and
software is done by Microsoft
including maintaining all security
patches.
There needs to be an in-house/
outsourced IT team to manage
SharePoint and applying patches and
updates.
Accessibility SharePoint Online provides limited
access resulting into lack of
customization capabilities. In other
words, it just provides with pre-
configured features.
Grants full access to the super admin
to customize any SharePoint feature as
needed. Gives extensive access for
server side code and client side code.
Business
Continuity
Microsoft ensures 99.9% uptime along
with redundancy and failover plans for
its data centers.
This is largely dependent on the
internal infrastructure and capabilities.
Standard
Compliance
This is verified by third party authors in
case of SharePoint Online.
Standard Compliance needs to be
looked after by internal maintenance
team.
Storage Runs on Microsoft’s Cloud servers,
offering low cost storage options. Site
collection can have up to 100 GB data.
The data is stored locally and can be
expensive to maintain. On the other
hand, it offers scalable storage options
for large enterprises.
Development Full trust solution cannot be deployed-
Only Sandbox solutions possible with
scope up to the site collection level.
Public facing website with much of
customization is not possible. Custom
“Managed Path” allowed. More
control cannot be delegated to power
Full trust solution can be deployed-
Features in farm solutions can have
scope as wide as the site collection,
web application, or whole farm. Public
facing website with much of
customization is possible. Custom
“Managed Path” allowed. More

4. Whitepaper
SharePoint Online vs On Premise
Ignatiuz Software Pvt. Ltd.
484-876-1867 | www.ignatiuz.com | info@ignatiuz.com
users and maxim privilege level is Site
Collection level.
control can be delegated to power
users.
Search Allows full text query. Limited access to query.
InfoPath Forms InfoPath Forms is available in specific
Office 365 plans, namely E3, E4 and K1.
A separate license needs to be
purchased for using InfoPath Form
Services resulting into additional costs.
Claim Based
Authentication
Claim based authentication is not
available in SharePoint Online.
Supports SQL, LDAP and AD
authentication.
Managed
Accounts
Managed accounts are not available in
SharePoint Online.
Managed accounts access is provided
under SharePoint admin services.
Logs Does not provide any kind of usage
reports and logs.
Provides usage logs and reports to
monitor system performance.
Alternate Access
Mapping
Not available Provides a map requests where the
URL of a Web request received by
Internet Information Services (IIS)
differs from the URL that was typed by
a user
Health Analyzer Not available Site collection pre-upgrade health
check examines a site collection and
then generates a report listing ay
potential upgrade issues and how to
address the issues
Pros  High uptime and low costs
 No need to maintain high end
internal IT infrastructure
 Microsoft’s data backup assurance
 Allows global access
 Managed service (SaaS)
 Scalable to an extent
 Controlled performance
 Scalable to a great extent
 Low bandwidth requirements as it
runs locally
 High customization capabilities
 Full access to server and database
 Easy migration and backup
 SSO with LDAP and AD
Cons  Consumes high bandwidth as
everything is in Cloud servers
 Limited customizations
 Limited storage capabilities
 No server access
 High cost for IT infrastructure and
staff
 Disaster recovery depends highly
on internal resources and
capabilities
 Scaling up/down involves high cost

5. Whitepaper
SharePoint Online vs On Premise
Ignatiuz Software Pvt. Ltd.
484-876-1867 | www.ignatiuz.com | info@ignatiuz.com
Server Architecture
SharePoint On Premise

6. Whitepaper
SharePoint Online vs On Premise
Ignatiuz Software Pvt. Ltd.
484-876-1867 | www.ignatiuz.com | info@ignatiuz.com
SharePoint Online