SPTechCon 2016 and Open Source SharePoint

This year’s SharePoint Technology Conference, held earlier this month in San Francisco, was buzzing over the open source direction Microsoft has set for SharePoint. Here’s what you need to know.

SPTechCon 2016 was once again chock full of informative and forward-looking presentations from experts in the SharePoint industry. And the hottest topic at this year’s event was the open source future of Microsoft SharePoint.

Yes, that is right. Microsoft is taking SharePoint open source. And that is a good thing for SharePoint users.

Why an Open Source Model Is Good News for Microsoft SharePoint

SharePoint development models have evolved considerably over the last few years. The industry has moved from full trust deployments, to sandboxed solutions, and the app model. Each step along the way made sense given the needs of enterprise users at the time.

But technology moves very fast – and those needs keep evolving. The growing adoption of cloud computing and the proliferation of mobile devices have necessitated a new approach.

Which brings us to client-side development for SharePoint as the ideal way to leverage cloud and hybrid environments while also supporting today’s mobile users.

To embrace these trends and support open source tool development , Microsoft announced the SharePoint Framework earlier this year.

SharePoint is already the most robust information management platform on the market. Going open source will take that to next level, offering organizations even more opportunity for cost savings as well as the additional flexibility, security and extensibility that no proprietary platform can match.

Get Ready for the Open Source Future of SharePoint

The SharePoint Framework is currently a work in progress.  In the meantime, organizations interested in preparing for the future will need to identify an approach to client-side development that brings together and leverages technologies such as:

●  Node JS – JS runtime

●  Yeoman – Web scaffolding tool for modern web apps

●  Gulp – JS task runner to build tasks

●  Handlebars – Templating engineer to convert datasets to HTML

●  Knockout – Simplified dynamic JS UIs with MVM

●  Swagger – Define API

●  Bootstrap – HTML, CSS, and JS framework for responsive sites/apps

The above are a just a few examples. Over the next couple years there will be a lot of changes to how SharePoint solutions are developed, deployed and supported.  It will be an exciting time with many opportunities and innovations across the SharePoint landscape.

Fortunately, Lydon Solutions is ready for the open source future of the SharePoint Framework when it arrives. Our team has in-depth experience delivering client-side JS solutions to our construction industry clients. And our recently released Construction Viz platform leverages Bootstrap to provide a fully-responsive, mobile-first, hosted SharePoint solution.

If your organization is looking to embrace the latest open source evolution of the upcoming SharePoint Framework, Lydon Solutions is ready to be your technology partner. Contact us for free consultation.