SharePoint 2016 New Features

We’ve been hosting and developing around SharePoint since SharePoint Team Services 1.0.  That’s a loooong time!  That’s why we are excited about the SharePoint 2016 new features. If you didn’t already know, SharePoint 2016 is scheduled to hit the market later this spring. This new version should compensate for some of the missing features that Office 365 now has. It also promises a better user experience, greater integration, better compliance, and new services – both on-premises and in the cloud.

Here’s a rundown of new features that you can expect in SharePoint 2016:

Access Services. New Access features are available when you deploy Access Services in SharePoint 2016. Get support apps for Office, Access app upgrades, the Cascading Combo box, and much more.

Compliance Features. New compliance features for SharePoint 2016 include the document deletion and in-place hold policies. The policies allow you to delete documents in your OneDrive for Business sites after a set period of time, and administrators can now preserve documents, email, and other files.

Customized Web Parts. The compile time for customized XSLT files used for Content Query, Summary Links, and Table of Contents Web Parts is improved.

Document Library Accessibility.  Get new document library accessibility features including landmarks to make page navigation easier, keyboard shortcuts, improved call out reading, and more.

Durable Links. Resource-based URLs now retain links when documents are renamed or moved in SharePoint 2016.

Encrypted Connections. SharePoint 2016 supports TLS 1.2 connection encryption by default. It can also support TLS 1.2 connection encryption when you’re connected to other servers.

Fast Site Collection Creation. Get templates that work at the same rapid level as an SQL server, reducing the round trips that are necessary between the SharePoint/ SQL servers.

Filenames Expanded to Support Special Characters. Use some special characters in file names that were previously blocked such as the &, ~, { and } characters. This also goes for any file names that contained a GUID, file names with leading dots, and files names longer than 128 characters. Unfortunately, % and # are still not allowed to be in file names.

Hybrid in SharePoint 2016. Hybrid in SharePoint 2016 allows you to integrate your on-premises farm with Office 365 productivity experiences, allowing you to adopt the cloud at your own pace. You can also have a single profile in Office 365, and all of your profile information will be stored there in one easy spot.

Identify and Search for Sensitive Content. Get the same data loss prevention capabilities as Office 365. With this new capability, you can search for sensitive content across SharePoint 2016, SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.

Image and Video Previews. Preview images and videos when you post them to a document library in the latest version of SharePoint. Just hover over the image of video or click on them to have a look.

Information Rights Management. SharePoint 2016 provides Information Rights Management (IRM) capabilities to secure information by encrypting and securing information on SharePoint libraries with OneDrive for Business. This function will work for OneDrive for Business and also for other libraries in your business that have been enabled for IRM capabilities.

Large File Support. Upload and download files larger than 2,047 MB. Compare that to SharePoint 2013’s 250 MB default maximum file size.

MinRole. MinRole is a new feature in SharePoint 2016 that allows a SharePoint farm administrator to define each server’s role in a farm topology. It will configure the services on each server automatically based on the server role so you won’t have to.

Mobile Experience. Want to access SharePoint on your phone? Great news! SharePoint 2016 will offer an improved mobile navigation experience, making it easier to navigate. You can also switch from mobile to PC view, which is also touch-enabled.

New Controls for Working With OneDrive for Business. Click a control at the top of your document folder to create new Office documents, upload files, synchronize your files for offline use, share your files, and more.

Open Document Format (ODF). Create new files in a document library and save them as ODF files. This allows users to edit the new file with whatever program they choose.

Project Server. Several new Project Server features are available in SharePoint 2016. Find more information here.

ReFS File System Support. SharePoint 2016 now supports drives that are formatted with the ReFS file system.

SharePoint Business Intelligence. SharePoint 2016 now supports SQL Server 2016 CTP 3.1 and the Power Pivot add-in and Power View.

Sharing Improvements. Many new sharing improvements are available, including a create and share folder, sharing hint, improved invitation mail, the ability to let members share, and more.

Site Folders View. Find a new Site Folders view, which lets you access the document libraries in sites that you’re following.

SMTP Connection Encryption. SharePoint 2016 supports sending email to SMTP servers that use STARTTLS connection encryption. You might need to take a few steps to set up SharePoint, but you can configure SharePoint to use SMTP connection encryption always after doing so.

SMTP Ports (Non-Default). This adds support for SMTP servers that use TCP ports other than the default port.

Web Application Open Platform Interface Protocol (WOPI). Now you can rename files, create new files, and share files from within the WOPI iframe on the browser page.

 

Laurie Head is Vice President Market/ Communications at AIS Network.