SharePoint 15 - What's Next?

*** UPDATE - July 18th****  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc303422(v=office.15. See also http://imperfectit.blogspot.ca/2012/07/sharepoint-2013.html

So you finally finished migrating all your SharePoint 2007 and WSS 3 sites to SharePoint 2010. Congratulations! The bad news (or good depending on how you look at it) is that the next version of SharePoint is right around the corner. Microsoft are very adept at keeping partners who've seen it quiet, but this is what's known so far. Keep in mind that all of this is based on leaks, and we won't know anything for sure until Microsoft announces it.

• SharePoint 15 (as it's currently called) is scheduled to be Released to Manufacturing (RTM) November 12th. Only people who are involved in the Microsoft Technology Adoption Program (TAP) will have access to the bits before that. There are rumors the Beta will be realesed June 13th. 

• SP 15 will include an application marketplace similar  to what you use with your mobile devices.
• It will be better able to handle multi-tenant installations so hosters can get environments up and available faster and more securely. It will also make it easier to sell apps built on SharePoint to multiple companies.
• It will be built to use an Oracle back-end (just kidding). Make sure you're running the latest version of SQL to speed your migration.
• There are rumors there will be a an education module which allows schools to setup a virtual learning environment. Details here are murky.
• More integration with Silverlight.
• Built-in Information Rights Management.
• Expansion of the cloud SharePoint offering (Office 365) and integration of on premise and cloud based SharePoint. It's clear Microsoft want to remove any objections companies have to moving their SharePoint environments into the cloud.
• Better support and integration for mobile devices.
• Simplified development tools. We would assume this means a new version of SharePoint Designer?
• Tighter integration with the next version of Office (Office 15).
• Expansion of the social networking capabilities. Weather this means a re-vamping of the existing My Sites or a complete overhaul is unclear. Maybe integration with Microsoft's partner Facebook? 
• Minimal Download Strategy (MDS allows websites to take much less bandwidth than with traditional technologies.)
• Site versioning (an extension of the existing document versioning).

So, lots to look forward to, but also a lot to wrap your head around. We'll continue to update this post as more information becomes available. In the meantime, you can subscribe to this twitter feed: http://twitter.com/#!/NextSharePoint and visit the following sites:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-development/sharepoint-15-arriving-early-2013-according-to-leaked-ms-roadmap-015162.php
http://www.cmswire.com/cms/information-management/sharepoint-15-complete-with-app-marketplace-coming-late-2012-014682.php
http://redmondmag.com/articles/2012/04/01/whats-next-for-sharepoint.aspx

Be sure to let us know if you've heard anything we haven't mentioned here.