Microsoft packages its Office applications in many ways, including Microsoft 365 subscriptions, Office LTSC bundles, the web-based Office Online, and more. Now, the company has announced that it is getting rid of one SKU of Office apps in about a year.
The specific version of Office getting the axe towards the end of 2026 is Office Online Server. For those unaware, this is a variation that allowed enterprise customers to use browser-based versios of Office applications hosted in their on-prem environments rather than Microsoft"s cloud servers. It served as a decent option for customers who want to host everything on-prem while still allowing their tenants to leverage modern applications.
Microsoft"s rationale for this retirement is that it wants to modernize its productivity experiences by focusing on cloud-first solutions. Office Online Server does not fit into this vision so it is being killed off on December 31, 2026.
Following this date, Office Online Server will not receive security patches, bug fixes, technical support, or compliance guarantees. As such, Microsoft has recommended impacted customers to switch to Microsoft 365, which is more aligned with its cloud-first vision. That said, it is important to note that this retirement date does not impact the support agreements for other products, such as Exchange Server Subscription Edition, which integrate with Office Online Server. On that note, Microsoft says:
For organizations using SharePoint Server Subscription Edition or Exchange Server Subscription Edition, Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise and Office LTSC 2024 remain supported desktop clients for viewing and editing documents hosted on those servers.
If your organization uses Office Online Server to host Excel workbooks in Power BI Report Server, that functionality will no longer be supported. Alternatives include viewing workbooks in the Excel desktop application or migrating to the Power BI service.
Microsoft has emphasized that a move to Microsoft 365 will bring several benefits, such as real-time collaboration, automatic updates, continued security and compliance, integration with other cloud-powered products like Teams, Outlook, and SharePoint Online, along with access to Microsoft 365 Copilot (obviously). Although the end of support date is still well over a year away, the Redmond tech giant has encouraged impacted customers to kick off their transition processes as soon as possible, as it may take some time to migrate away from the existing on-prem solution.