Building information library in 2010 - soon upgrading to 365

Question

I am not an IT professional nor am I an expert, but I am leading a project in our company to build a comprehensive information library where white papers, capabilities and other internal shared information can be stored and accessed in an organized and widely available way. We will use metadata to properly tag and organize the documents. (Please note! I use the term library not in the purely Sharepoint meaning but as a general collection of information).

We currently have SP 2010 but sometime in the unidentified future (likely next 3 years) we will be upgrading to 365 (I apologize, I may be using the terms incorrectly: it might be "Online" not "365" but I am not sure).

My concern is that we will build a great library in 2010 which will then be obsolete when we upgrade to 365.

Questions: 1. Is there any chance that metadata in 2010 will not map correctly in 365 (e.g. will be metadata categories change and we will have to re-enter data)?

2. Are there any other concerns I have not yet identified? What questions should I be asking?

3. Are there good reasons why I should hold off on this project altogether until we upgrade? We really can't afford organizationally to wait, but the tech side will dictate in the end.

Thank you very much! Obviously I can discuss this with our IT team but I would like outside opinions as well. Appreciate your time.

Answer 1

As long as you don't use any custom solutions (3rd party or developed in house) your library will easily migrate to SharePoint Online.

There are slight differences in allowed characters for SP one prem and online so it would be good if you check those out.

Sharepoint 2019 on prem and Sharepoint online are running on the same code base . You are running 2010 but it is still supported to migrate content from 2010 to 2019 and it will be possible to sharepoint online.

Things to avoid when you will be designing your on prem solution. Do not use custom javascript. Although still possible in Sharepoint online Depending on your company policies custom scripts may be disabled so you will not be able to migrate any functionality that is based on them.