How SharePoint and Office 365 Evolved (2013–2019): Lessons That Still Matter
Between 2013 and 2019, SharePoint and Office 365 changed more than in any other period of their history. On-premises farms gave way to hybrid and then cloud-first deployments. Farm solutions gave way to add-ins and then the SharePoint Framework. InfoPath and SharePoint Designer gave way to Power Apps and Power Automate. Yammer, Office 365 Groups, Delve and finally Microsoft Teams reshaped how people collaborate.
I followed that transition closely as a SharePoint developer and consultant, attending conferences and webinars and keeping notes along the way. This page condenses those notes into the lessons that still matter today, with what each technology looks like now and where to go next.
Contents
- From on-premises to hybrid to cloud
- How SharePoint development models evolved
- Search and information architecture
- Social collaboration: Yammer, Groups, Delve and Teams
- Workflows and forms: from SharePoint Designer to the Power Platform
- Security, identity and compliance
- Dashboards and business intelligence
- Making SharePoint strategic
- FAQ
From on-premises to hybrid to cloud
In 2014 and 2015 the big question for most organisations was “When do we go to Office 365?”. The choice was rarely all-or-nothing. Many companies ran hybrid deployments: SharePoint 2013 farms connected to SharePoint Online through hybrid search, hybrid OneDrive and shared identity. Hybrid was powerful, but it brought real challenges: directory synchronisation, extranet authentication for partners, certificate management, and two sets of features to support.
The decision framework still holds: compare SharePoint Online, on-premises and hosted options on compliance, customisation needs, total cost and the pace of innovation you want. Most organisations have now moved to SharePoint Online, but regulated industries still run SharePoint Server Subscription Edition. Read my comparison of SharePoint Online vs on-premises for the details.
How SharePoint development models evolved
SharePoint 2013 introduced the app model (later renamed SharePoint Add-ins): SharePoint-hosted and provider-hosted apps, often deployed to Microsoft Azure, which moved custom code out of the farm. Debates about apps vs farm solutions filled conference agendas, and tools such as SPCAF made code quality analysis part of the SharePoint developer’s toolkit.
The Office 365 Developer Patterns and Practices (PnP) initiative then showed how to provision sites and apply branding remotely with CSOM and the REST API, rather than with feature stamping. In 2017 the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) arrived: client-side web parts and extensions built with TypeScript and modern JavaScript tooling. SPFx is still the recommended model today, and add-ins have been retired in SharePoint Online.
Next steps: set up your SPFx development environment, and see my classic SharePoint development notes for legacy SP.JS and server object model snippets.
Search and information architecture
SharePoint 2013 merged FAST search into the core product, enabling search-driven publishing with Content Search web parts, result sources, query rules and display templates. Good search always depended on good information architecture: consistent content types, managed metadata and a navigation structure that end users understand.
Today Microsoft Search and Microsoft Graph power search across Microsoft 365, and Copilot builds on that same index. Your IA and permissions decide what Copilot can find. For deeper analytics on how people use your sites, see tracking modern SharePoint usage with Google Analytics.
Social collaboration: Yammer, Groups, Delve and Teams
Microsoft acquired Yammer in 2012 and spent the following years working out how enterprise social fitted alongside SharePoint. Office 365 Groups (2014) introduced a shared identity across a mailbox, a calendar, a SharePoint site and a Planner plan. The Office Graph and Delve brought personalised, relevance-based discovery. External collaboration with partners became much easier in SharePoint Online.
In 2017 Microsoft Teams brought it all together: chat, meetings and channels built on Microsoft 365 Groups, with SharePoint providing the file storage behind every team. Yammer has since become Viva Engage. For governance scripts, see PowerShell scripts for SharePoint, Teams and Microsoft 365.
Workflows and forms: from SharePoint Designer to the Power Platform
SharePoint 2013 workflows (built in SharePoint Designer and running on Workflow Manager), InfoPath forms and third-party tools such as K2 and Nintex handled approvals, agreements and e-signature processes for years. Microsoft’s Project Siena experiment in 2014 was an early sign of what was coming. It evolved into Power Apps, while Microsoft Flow became Power Automate.
SharePoint 2010 and 2013 workflows have now been retired in SharePoint Online, and InfoPath 2013 reached the end of support in July 2026. If you still rely on either, migration should be a priority. Start with the Power Apps training guide, the Power Automate tutorial and the guide to business process flows.
Security, identity and compliance
Information Rights Management (IRM) let administrators restrict printing, copying and downloading from SharePoint libraries. Office 365 Threat Intelligence and Azure Active Directory extended identity and data security controls to the cloud. Extranet scenarios pushed organisations towards federated identity and guest access.
Today these capabilities live in Microsoft Purview (sensitivity labels, data loss prevention and retention) and Microsoft Entra ID (conditional access and access reviews). They are essential groundwork before rolling out Microsoft 365 Copilot. To audit guest access, see extracting SharePoint external users with PowerShell.
Dashboards and business intelligence
Before Power BI, SharePoint dashboards were built with Excel Services, PerformancePoint, Visio Services and SQL Server Reporting Services, often fed by SharePoint lists and SQL databases. Choosing the right metrics for a SharePoint deployment, such as adoption, active sites and content growth, was a recurring theme.
Power BI replaced most of these tools. See Power BI dashboard examples, data visualisation best practices and Power BI tips and tricks.
Making SharePoint strategic
The most useful sessions from this era weren’t about features. They were about making SharePoint strategic: tying the platform to business outcomes, investing in adoption and end-user training, managing the estate with tools such as ShareGate and PowerShell, and designing solutions that last. The consultant’s role also changed, from building custom farm code to configuring, governing and extending a cloud platform.
Those lessons apply directly to today’s Power Platform and Copilot programmes. See building a Power Platform Center of Excellence and why most Copilot projects fail.
FAQ
Is SharePoint 2013 still supported?
No. SharePoint Server 2013 reached the end of extended support in April 2023. Supported options are SharePoint Server Subscription Edition on-premises, or SharePoint Online.
What replaced SharePoint Designer workflows?
Power Automate replaced SharePoint Designer workflows. SharePoint 2010 workflows were retired in SharePoint Online in 2020, and SharePoint 2013 workflows followed in April 2026.
What replaced SharePoint Add-ins (apps)?
The SharePoint Framework (SPFx) for user interface extensions, and Microsoft Graph or Azure-hosted services for back-end integration.
