I recently ran across a blog post where many SharePoint experts were asked their opinions on what they think SharePoint will bring to 2012. After reading the article I had to pause a minute and think about what I think it will bring.

Last year saw a lot of upgrades from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010. I had the opportunity to speak to the Wisconsin SharePoint User Group in Milwaukee in January. At the session attendees were asked how many of them were already on SharePoint 2010, how many were in the process of upgrading, how many were planning on upgrading this year, and how many planned on not upgrading.  The results were interesting. Only one attendee indicated they were making the choice to not upgrade - all others said they would be upgrading this year. The vast majority was already on 2010, or has already started the process to move to 2010.

It would appear that this year, or at least the first half of this year, will also be filled with upgrades. It seems that organizations with a more complex environment are waiting longer to upgrade than those with a less complex environment. This means that while I envision fewer upgrades, I envision more time upgrading for the next year.

Of course, that means that the organizations that were less complex now have time to become complex. I have already started seeing requests from them to add functionality. They are able to dig deeper into taxonomy, governance, document management, business intelligence and many other specific features that 2010 has now integrated into the 2010 environment. Companies seem to be stepping back and saying, “OK, now I have SharePoint, how am I going to best use this?”

I envision these requests continuing throughout the year which will lead right into the release of the next version of SQL server. As organizations look into that, it will further integrate business intelligence features (such as Reporting Services) into SharePoint, so I am expecting a larger focus on that as well.

Let’s not forget that Microsoft announced early details for the SharePoint conference for next year. I believe this to be a prelude to beginning to release information about the next version of SharePoint.

I should also mention that there is a large push to the Cloud and Office 365. From what I have heard about the offerings, it is not going to need much of a push. What I have seen leads me to believe that it may quickly become a “pull” from organizations more than a “push” from Microsoft.

What does all this really mean? It means that this year will be very exciting and busy; it seems there is a little something for everyone to focus on. I can’t wait to see what 2012 truly brings. As the blog post that started this train of thought for me states “…this will be a very interesting journey! …”.