Who still runs on-premises SharePoint
SharePoint became the document and intranet platform for many mid-size and large organizations. Years of work went into team sites, document libraries, approval workflows, InfoPath forms and custom web parts. In some companies the SharePoint farm is the system for contracts, quality documents, HR forms and project tracking, and everyone has forgotten that it is a server.
What goes wrong when nobody is looking after it
- Support has ended or is ending. SharePoint 2010 ended on April 13, 2021 and 2013 on April 11, 2023. SharePoint Server 2016 and 2019 reached the end of extended support on July 14, 2026.
- The farm administrator has left. Nobody knows the service accounts, search configuration, backup scheme or patch level.
- InfoPath and Designer workflows. Forms and workflows built with tools that are retired or retiring, and that must be rebuilt rather than moved.
- Custom solutions. Farm solutions, full-trust web parts and timer jobs that do not move to the cloud as they are.
- Content sprawl. Years of sites, libraries and permissions, much of it unused and some of it sensitive.
- Underlying servers are aging too. The Windows Server and SQL Server versions beneath the farm have their own end-of-support dates.
Support and takeover options
On-premises SharePoint is Tier B, taken on by arrangement with a SharePoint specialist. The Takeover Assessment is read-only: inventory the farm topology, versions and patch level, list site collections by size and last use, catalogue custom solutions, forms and workflows, and verify that a restore works.
Options after that:
- Stabilize. Documented farm, tested backups and restore, patch plan and a person to call. Ongoing Support is arranged case by case.
- Upgrade. Move to a supported on-premises edition where content must stay inside your walls. Fixes and Upgrades.
- Migrate. Move content to SharePoint Online, rebuild workflows and forms, retire what is not used. Modernization and AI.
If the farm is down, Emergency Recovery is the first call. It covers outages from errors, crashes and neglect.
Inventory before migration
The decision-making numbers come from an inventory: how many site collections, how many gigabytes, how many have been touched in the last year, how many custom solutions and how many InfoPath forms and workflows. These numbers separate a short, tool-driven content move from a long redesign. Many organizations find that a large share of their content can be archived rather than migrated.
Forms and workflows are the hard part
Documents and lists move fairly well with migration tools. InfoPath forms, SharePoint Designer workflows and custom code do not. Each has to be understood, then rebuilt on a supported platform or retired. We prioritize by use, so the five processes people rely on every day are moved first.
How we work
Tier B and C stacks are by arrangement with a stack specialist. We scope each in writing and tell you plainly when we are not the right fit. Every engagement starts read-only. Write access is set out in a signed agreement first, and a person reviews every change before it reaches a live system. Work is AI-assisted and human-reviewed, and we explain how at the start.
Related stacks
See Lotus Notes and Domino, Microsoft Access and ASP.NET and .NET Framework.
Request a quote for your SharePoint farm and tell us the version, roughly how many sites it holds and who administers it.