By Laurie Head
AIS Network VP, Marketing Communications
The word on the street is that folks are going to have to wait until (drum roll, please) 2015 for the release of SharePoint 2015. (Big sigh, right?)
In the meantime, as announced in March, SharePoint 2013 Service Pack 1 is Microsoft’s latest release to SharePoint Server 2013 on-premises. SP 1 is just one step that Microsoft is taking to support those customers who have deployed SharePoint 2013.
While SP1 includes performance, reliability and security fixes, it also helps IT teams cope with some of the most common scenarios faced when moving to the cloud – helping them deploy cloud-based workloads in their organization faster and with less complexity, while providing them with the control they demand.
In his March 3 SharePoint product blog, Microsoft senior product marketing Bill Baer described some of the major SP1 improvements to SharePoint 2013 on-premises:
“Seamless hybrid connection to OneDrive for Business in Office 365. We’re making it easier for SharePoint 2013 on-premises customers to use OneDrive for Business in the cloud alongside their existing SharePoint deployment. In SP1, new functionality allows an IT administrator to selectively configure redirection of OneDrive for Business, sites, and pages to the cloud while providing familiar IT controls. By combining OneDrive for Business and existing hybrid solutions, such as Search, IT can deploy rich cloud-based experiences for users and maintain control and visibility of the content users create.
Support for Yammer as the chosen social network, making it easier to replace the default Newsfeed. Organizations of all sizes are using Yammer. SP1 makes it easy for IT to replace the out-of-the-box SharePoint 2013 social experience (Newsfeed) with Yammer. Using simple controls in SharePoint 2013 Central Administration, IT can choose to activate (or deactivate) Yammer, redirecting users to their established Yammer network.
Support for JSON Light in OData v3 requests. SP1 includes notable improvements that support developers. SP1 introduces support for JSON Light, allowing developers to choose which level of metadata they would like in a response: no metadata, minimal metadata, or full metadata (previously the only option in SharePoint 2013).
Additional fixes. In addition to the new functionality that SP1 provides, this service pack includes a number of fixes designed to improve your experience with SharePoint 2013. It also includes all cumulative updates through December 2013 and public updates through February 2014. The list below identifies all the 2013 fixes that have already shipped, including cumulative updates and public updates. All of the fixes on this list are included in the SharePoint 2013 SP1 release. In addition to the fixes listed below, SP 1 contains additional fixes for each product.
- Security and Non-Security Updates for January 2014–Released January 14, 2014
- Office 2013 December 2013 Cumulative Update (KB 2912738)–Released December 10, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for December 2013 (KB 2916204)–Released December 10, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for November 2013–Released November 12, 2013
- Office 2013 October 2013 Cumulative Update (KB 2887714)–Released October 8, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for October 2013 (KB 2892139)–Released October 8, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for September 2013–Released September 10, 2013
- Office 2013 August 2013 Cumulative Update (KB 2873346)–Released August 13, 2013
- Non-Security Updates for August 2013–Released August 13, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for July 2013–Released July 9, 2013
- Office 2013 June 2013 Cumulative Update (KB 2855356)–Released June 11, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for June 2013–Released June 11, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for May 2013–Released May 14, 2013
- Office 2013 April 2013 Cumulative Update (KB 2832224)–Released April 9, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for April 2013–Released April 9, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for March 2013–Released March 12, 2013
- Office 2013 February 2013 Cumulative Update (KB 2802843)–Released February 12, 2013
- Non-Security Updates for February 2013 (KB 2810076)–Released February 12, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for January 2013–Released January 8, 2013
- Security and Non-Security Updates for December 2012–Released December 11, 2012”
Have questions about hosting SharePoint 2013 in the cloud? We can help. AIS Network provide a full range of Microsoft SharePoint managed services in addition to hosting. Contact us to learn more!