When Will Teams Replace SharePoint?

It's surprising to often hear, even amongst IT professionals, the belief that Microsoft Teams is somehow going to replace SharePoint.

This betrays a misunderstanding of the role of each of these two platforms.

Having worked with SharePoint since its 2003 public release, I have consistently marveled at two things. First, it's amazing power and Second a rather formal and unattractive user interface.

The role of SharePoint historically has been a place to put files.

Teams on the other hand evolved from the acquisition of Skype and its primary purpose was to facilitate communications.

When Microsoft bought Skype they modified it so that the Teams version would not only facilitate meetings and chat sessions but also provide the additional capabilities of storing chat session histories and allowing files to be passed between individuals during a meeting.

What many don't realize is that Teams itself doesn’t store anything. Its chat histories are stored in Microsoft Exchange and the Files passed between users in meetings are stored in SharePoint libraries.  Now that Teams is promoting “Lists”, It's easy to guess where they are stored. That's right, in SharePoint.

Rather than replacing SharePoint, Teams is completely dependent on it.  It’s more appropriate to think of Teams as a user interface “overlay” on top of SharePoint. Essentially, it's providing a far more user-friendly environment in which to harness the power of SharePoint more conveniently. Teams is the new “icing” on the SharePoint “cake”. Enjoy.