An Overview of Hybrid Integration Between SharePoint Server and Office 365
As you may already know, Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud and SharePoint Server 2013/2016 on-premises can work together in many ways. These are commonly referred to as hybrid features because they integrate the functionality in SharePoint Online and SharePoint on-premises. Microsoft offers the following table as a quick overview of the integration between the SharePoint Server and Office 365.
| Non-Hybrid | Hybrid | |
| OneDrive for Business | OneDrive for Business is available in Office 365 but there is no link to it from SharePoint Server. If you’ve deployed MySites, users may have a second OneDrive for Business in SharePoint Server. | OneDrive links are provided in SharePoint Server which direct users to OneDrive for Business in Office 365.
(See Plan hybrid OneDrive for Business for detailed information.) |
| Site following | The followed sites list in Office 365 tracks followed SharePoint Online sites. If you’ve deployed MySites, a second followed sites list in SharePoint Server tracks followed SharePoint Server sites. | Followed sites from both locations are consolidated in the SharePoint Online followed sites list. SharePoint Server links to the followed sites list redirect users to the SharePoint Online followed sites list.
(See Hybrid site following for detailed information.) |
| Document following | If you’ve deployed MySites, the followed documents list in SharePoint Server tracks followed SharePoint Server documents. | Hybrid document following is not available. If you use hybrid OneDrive for Business, the SharePoint Server followed documents list will be hidden from users. (Note that if you configure hybrid search and you have Delve, you can favorite SharePoint Server documents.) |
| Profiles | Users have separate profiles in SharePoint Server and in Office 365. | Profiles exist in both locations, but SharePoint Server links to users’ profiles redirect profiles in Office 365.
(See Plan hybrid profiles for detailed information.) |
| Extensible app launcher | Users see a different app launcher in Office 365 and in SharePoint Server. | There are still separate app launchers, but the SharePoint Server app launcher includes several tiles from Office 365.
(See The extensible hybrid app launcher for detailed information.) |
| Search | Separate search indexes and search centers for SharePoint Server and Office 365. Users must search from SharePoint Server to find items stored there and they must search form Office 365 to find items stored there. | Search results between the two locations are combined in one of two ways. Cloud hybrid search crawls on-premises content and indexes it in the search index in Office 365. Users can search the Office 365 index from either location. Hybrid federated search combines search results from each search index in a single search center.
(See Hybrid search in SharePoint for detailed information.) |
(Source: Microsoft Corporation)
The hybrid features in SharePoint use redirection. What this means is that if you are in SharePoint Server 2016 on-premises and try to use a feature, in a hybrid environment you will automatically be redirected to the equivalent feature in Office 365. For example, if you are not in a hybrid environment and click on OneDrive in SharePoint, you will be taken to SharePoint Server One Drive for Business but if you are in a hybrid environment and click on OneDrive you will be redirected to OneDrive for Business in Office 365. In other words, the redirection feature is smart and is designed to integrate the on-premises and cloud environment seamlessly.
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