Microsoft’s Mobile First, Cloud First Strategy has made SharePoint 2016 the first on-premises server release based on SharePoint Online. This means that as long as you want to run from the cloud you will have less and less options.

With all the new changes, is SharePoint 2016 more intelligent than all the other SharePoint versions?

In order to find a possible answer I will summarize what has been added or removed and what is waiting to be deprecated in this new SharePoint version:

Authentication

  • SAML authentication becomes a first class citizen (default). This will simplify the infrastructures that are using third party like F5, for NLB or Proxy, as there is no need for ADFS servers.
  • The Active Directory authentication is added on the future deprecation list.

Search

  • A unified index for on-premise and cloud content.
  • Delve and Office Graphs will be available only in Hybrid environments as these functionalities will be provided by Office 365.
  • For the infrastructures that are not using hybrid scenarios there will not be a major change.

UPA

  • Removed built-in FIM Service. For User Profile service, you will need to setup FIM (Forefront Identity Manager) as a separate server outside of the SharePoint Farm. We will see if it is a good or bad thing by removing MIISClient outside SharePoint servers.

By this change I hope that 90% of user profile synchronization issues will be removed.

Distributed Cache

  • New features have been added that are switching NTLM authentication between SharePoint and Cache cluster.
  • Changes to the authentication and a new transport layer are ending up with a service that can now offer up to 99.99% uptime.
  • Support for AppFabric (outside SharePoint) will stop in 2017, but even after this date your application using AppFabric will still continue to work. Microsoft has assured customers that they will continue to support AppFabric as part of SharePoint.

Project server

  • SharePoint content database will merge with Project database.
  • How the supportability will work in this scenario as today both products have different supportability rules:

     Project – you are discouraged to make manual changes in the database: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ms504195.aspx (Project Server         programmability)

Developers are strongly discouraged from directly accessing the draft, published, or archive tables through SQL Server queries in the Project Server database. Making direct changes in any of the tables in the Project Server database can damage referential integrity and interfere with database access through the Project Server Queuing Service.

    SharePoint – your environment is unsupported if you are making any manual changes in the database: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/841057 (Support for changes to the databases that are used by Office server products and by Windows SharePoint Services)

Data analysis and reporting

  • There are new changes in how SharePoint records and displays data analysis.
  • New SharePoint logging API will be added on top of Analytics Processing Component.
  • SharePoint 2016 will provide real user monitoring using advanced telemetry for: Services, Actions, Usage, Engagement, Diagnostics

Upgrade

  • There is no direct upgrade path from 2010 to 2016 (sites and databases must be running in 2013 mode).
  • The upgrade process is the same as 2010 to 2013 (2013 databases are attached to a new 2016 Farm and are upgraded).

Patching

  • The binaries have been reduced and the patching (installing a Service Pack or Cumulative Update) could be done with zero downtime.

SharePoint Designer 2016 

  • No new version of SharePoint Designer 2016. SharePoint 2016 will continue using the old SharePoint Designer 2013.

InfoPath

  •  InfoPath is also deprecated, but SharePoint 2016 will continue to use it. Regarding supportability it will continue to be supported by April 2023.

Additional information regarding system requirements, deployment scenarios and other changes in the following article http://blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer/archive/2015/05/12/what-s-new-in-sharepoint-server-2016-installation-and-deployment.aspx (What’s new in SharePoint Server 2016 Installation and Deployment)

With all the new changes and features, SharePoint 2013 still remains the heart of new SharePoint version.

SharePoint Server 2016 will become generally available in Q2 2016, with a public beta planned for Q4 2015.

Source of this article:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/wbaer/archive/2015/05/12/what-s-new-in-sharepoint-server-2016-installation-and-deployment.aspx (What’s new in SharePoint Server 2016 Installation and Deployment)

https://blogs.office.com/2015/04/16/sharepoint-server-2016-update/ (SharePoint Server 2016 update)

http://thuansoldier.net/?p=4383 (A lot of updates about Microsoft SharePoint 2016)

http://www.intelogy.co.uk/blog/intelogy-blog-post/primary/2015/05/08/Insights-on-SharePoint-2016-IT-Pro-announcements-from-Ignite Insights on SharePoint 2016 IT Pro announcements from Ignite

http://www.infragistics.com/community/blogs/mobileman/archive/2015/07/23/what-is-appfabric-and-what-is-it-doing-in-sharepoint-2016.aspx What is AppFabric and What is it Doing in SharePoint 2016?

http://connectedsystems.com/news/Latest%20News/SharePoint-2016-new-and-deprecated-features.aspx SHAREPOINT 2016 NEW AND DEPRECATED FEATURES

http://www.learningsharepoint.com/category/sharepoint-2016/ SharePoint 2016 : New Features and Enhancements