At the Microsoft Ignite conference it was announced they will be retiring Skype for Business Online and it will be replaced with Teams. The official service shut down date for Skype for Business Online will be July 31, 2021.
This means that existing tenants that are using Skype can continue using it until they are able to transition to Teams. Yet… Microsoft has said for new customers, starting on September 1, 2019, they will only configure new Office 365 tenants with Teams.
Now this is a good thing. Microsoft has already made huge progress in developing Teams since first announcing the takeover in September 2017. All the feedback and data (over 19 million monthly active users in over 500,000+ organizations), indicates that Teams has been successful with their customers.
We can expect to see the number of users of Team grow now that there is a firm retirement date set in place for Skype for Business Online.
Teams New Feature List Will be Expanding All the Time
The list of new features in Teams since 2017 has been staggering and Microsoft is finalizing the last remaining set of features to be an easier move.
These features include;
Shorter retention periods (down to one day) for compliance records
Better interoperability between Teams and Skype consumer, (due 1Q of 2020)
Dynamic 911
Preparation for Retirement
Here’s what you can expect as the retirement date approaches for Skype for Business Online.
You will see a huge effort from Microsoft helping Office 365 tenants using Skype for Business Online to move over to Teams. Microsoft does not want a substantial number of reluctant movers left as July 31, 2021 draws near.
Microsoft will work out edge case scenarios for those that have Skype for Business on-premises servers and that want to have a hybrid organization.
ISVs will speed up the delivery of more Teams phone and room devices to help customers switch out old devices designed for Skype for Business Online.
Note that Teams is very different from Skype for Business Online… and switching a 1-for-1 replacement isn’t a good strategy. You need to consider migration services, data governance, compliance, and more.
It’s much better to work with a Microsoft Partner and figure out how teams fits in your overall technology strategy. Put together a roadmap that will help you deploy Teams and empower your organization.
Contact JourneyTEAM today for information about teams. 801.565.9199 | info@journeyteam.com