Microsoft 365 Collaboration Services and Likely Future Investment

Many Microsoft 365 collaboration technologies are available to customers, but not all will receive continued Microsoft investment. The technologies listed here all provide some range of collaboration features, such as text discussions, document sharing and concurrent editing, or video conferencing. 

In some cases, Microsoft has formally deprecated technologies (ending development and announcing that they will be retired in the future) or pointed customers to a clear replacement. This chart roughly divides collaboration technologies into three categories: Services built atop Microsoft 365 Groups, which signals longevity of the feature; services that are not built with Groups, but which have a probable lifespan of several years; and collaboration features that have been deprecated or discontinued. 

In other cases, organizations can look at several factors: 

Recent Microsoft investment. How much investment has the technology received over the past one to two years, on a five-point scale? (A half-bar rating indicates that the only recent investment in a technology has been maintenance and servicing.) Heavy recent investment suggests that Microsoft has a longer-term plan for a technology.