SharePoint 2016 and 2019 are out of support — the Microsoft cloud is not the only way out
Extended support for SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 ended on 14 July 2026. No more security updates, no patches, no support. Office Online Server follows on 31 December 2026 — taking with it the browser-based editing of Office documents that many organisations built directly on top of it.
Microsoft offers two routes: the SharePoint Subscription Edition in your own data centre, or Microsoft 365 in the cloud. Both carry a cost that is not only measured in licence fees. The Subscription Edition means a migration, a subscription, and running everything yourself as before. The cloud route means your content moves within reach of the US CLOUD Act — and since the Schrems II ruling that is not a formality for public authorities, universities and regulated industries, but a question you have to answer to your legal supervision.
There is a third route, and it is less work than its reputation suggests. Most of the fear around changing platforms concerns things that do not actually change. Sign-in stays: in your own data centre PowerFolder attaches to the same Active Directory, LDAP, SAML or Kerberos that SharePoint draws on today, and roles and organisational units keep coming from the directory. Office documents are still edited in the browser, through the ONLYOFFICE integration, together and in real time — precisely the capability that disappears with Office Online Server. The route through Outlook stays: the add-in replaces the attachment with a link carrying a password, an expiry date and a download limit. And anyone who mounted folders as a drive gets that back over WebDAV.
What changes is the location. Your content sits either on your own hardware behind your firewall, or in ISO 27001 certified data centres in Germany, with a German contracting party. The Art. 28 GDPR processing agreement is part of the contract, with no separate signature. Every file action lands in a granular audit log that can be kept audit-proof and handed to a SIEM — which a public tender usually requires anyway.
The move runs in waves, not over a weekend. What works: first take stock of where the data and the workflows actually live; then run a pilot with a single team; import the accounts in bulk via CSV, Active Directory or LDAP; then department by department. The old routes are closed only once the new one carries the load. A state ministry with 2,400 staff replaced SharePoint Online this way and was in production after six weeks.
The deadline is fixed; the direction is not. Three ways to try it: download the Community Edition and start on your own hardware — free forever for up to 50 users, no licence key. Start in the cloud if you would rather not run it yourself — servers in Germany, 30 days to try with no payment details. Or discuss your migration if you want to know what this looks like for your environment — we will work it through with you.