SharePoint migration is always on the checklist for all businesses and organizations who are always looking for the latest advancements in security, collaboration & communication. Constant efforts to grow is a given in any business. In the struggle to stay relevant to the changing environment and work culture, SharePoint has become a must have utility. The collaborating platform, SharePoint, is helping businesses of every scale, big or small.
Migrating different data objects, such as documents, lists, libraries, Sites, workflows, metadata, conversations, etc., from one platform to another is a challenging task. You need proper planning, accurate mapping of data and users, correct assignments of roles & permissions, complete data integrity, and original file/folder hierarchy to accomplish a successful SharePoint data migration.
With this blog, you will get to learn the most common problems a SharePoint administrator faces during the migration. This information will help you in transferring SharePoint data easily across different tenants and environments.
Why does SharePoint Migration?
Several advantages are linked to migrating data to SharePoint. The top reasons that make the businesses choose SharePoint to handle document sharing, team collaboration, and communication are:
Latest Features: Microsoft SharePoint Online always provides the latest and updated features to its users. Integration of artificial intelligence to help users carry out various manual tasks is the perfect example of Microsoft’s consistency in updates.
Enhanced Security: Multi factor authentication, Data Loss Prevention, granular access control, virus detection, file encryption, and more keeps organization’s data secure from any form of threat.
App Integration: SharePoint, being a part of Office 365 environment enjoys easy integration with several other Microsoft apps. For example, integration with Power BI allows us to perform deep data analysis and bring out useful information from the data in SharePoint.
Better Collaboration: Without any doubt, SharePoint is among the top collaborative platforms in the market. Real-time data sharing and team communication boost user’s productivity. With the latest release, SharePoint has made adding and communicating with external users easy.
Multi Device Access: The accessibility and consistency of using SharePoint is same across multiple devices, like laptops, desktops, tablets and mobile phones. You can easily manage the majority of the tasks from any device at any time.
Virtual Reality: Space in SharePoint allows users to create virtual tours of your project by using the 2D and 3D web parts. This enhances the user's interface and aids with employee training, project discussions, interactive presentations, and more.
Challenges in SharePoint Online Migration?
Several issues or errors can arise during SharePoint migration. To prevent a failed migration, you must address the following challenges before initiating the data transfer.
1. Planning: It’s the most basic yet the most important part of any migration. A proper flow of operations must be defined. You also need to address the limitations of SharePoint Online, such as inability to handle special characters and URL length issues. Also, you must discuss what will be the cost of the whole data migration operation.
2. Migration Type: You must decide whether you want to migrate complete data in one go or want to take it in batches. Transferring files in batches will allow you to access SharePoint even during the migration and will help to avoid server’s downtime. You can also choose hybrid SharePoint Server to integrate the functionality of both SharePoint On-Premises and SharePoint Online. Discuss with your team and pick the migration type most suitable for you.
3. Data Analysis: After figuring out the mode of migration, analyze the data. SharePoint has a ton of data stored in multiple sites, lists, and libraries. For an effective migration, you must categorize all this data. Also, take note of how much data will be migrated in total. Based on the size of the data you have to configure the destination storage. Let’s say you need to migrate 100GB of data. Then, the destination SharePoint Online Server must have more than 100GB free storage space. Less storage space will most likely result in incomplete data transfer or corruption.
4.
Choosing Date & Time: You can’t
just pick any date for migrating SharePoint data. The Date and time are crucial
in maintaining minimum server downtime. Schedule the migration for the date
when the load on the server will be minimal. To schedule a migration, you have
to use a professional third-party SharePoint migration tool.
5. Transfer File Attributes and Permissions: Migrating data is the number one priority, but along with data you also need to migrate metadata like file creation date, author name, file version history, etc. Furthermore, to avoid setting up permissions and access rights again after the migration, permissions migration is crucial.
6. User Training: After you have successfully migrated all the SharePoint content, you will be presented with another challenge i.e. employee training. If you are migrating from On-prem SharePoint to Online SharePoint, then updating to the new technology will not be hard. However, if you have migrated from another environment, such as Google Workspace, then you have to train your employees correctly to maintain uninterrupted workflow.
How to Solve the SharePoint Migration Challenges?
Error-free migration of SharePoint requires deep analysis and planning. After reviewing all the challenges given above, you will be able to transfer your data. To aid you with migration you can also utilize two tools from Microsoft. These tools are:
SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT): If you are planning to migrate data from On-Premises SharePoint to Online SharePoint, then SPMT tool is your best option. The tool allows you to select single or bulk migration. You can use filters to migrate specific data. SPMT tool also allows to transfer file share permissions and automatic user mapping.
Migration Manager: When you migrate data from sources outside Microsoft environment like Goggle Workspace, you can rely on Migration Manager. It can easily handle large scale data migration from several sources with support for multi-threaded migration. You can control Migration Manager directly from Microsoft 365.
How to Schedule SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online Migration?
SPMT tool does not allow you to schedule the migration. Migration manager do have the scheduling feature, but unfortunately, it does not allow to add SharePoint as a source. Therefore, your last hope is to rely on a third-party tool like Kernel Migration for SharePoint.
The SharePoint Migration Tool supports scheduling. You can configure a date and time, and the migration will begin automatically. Kernel SharePoint migrator allows users to migrate data from On-Premises to Online SharePoint and from SharePoint Online to SharePoint Online. You can also send data from multiple sources, like Google Workspace, File System, Public Folder, and cloud storage to SharePoint.
You get combined benefits of both SPMT and Migration Manager in the Kernel Migration tool. Whether you want to migrate Permissions, File version history, or metadata, the tool handles it all.
Conclusion
With this blog, we get clarity on the various challenges faced by a user during a SharePoint migration. Only after addressing the problems discussed above, will you be able to migrate SharePoint data without data loss. For SharePoint On-Premises to SharePoint Online, use SPMT tool. In case you have to migrate data from sources like G Suite and BOX then you must rely on Migration Manager. For an easy migration with features like scheduling, data filters, user mapping and maintaining original folder hierarchy, use Kernel Migration for SharePoint.