Suppose you’re business working with the SharePoint 2013 sites for past couple of years and you now want to make a move to the upgraded version. How do you plan to make this transition smooth? What are the tips and practices to follow to migrate SharePoint site?
Most businesses migrate SharePoint sites within same or different tenants for a variety of reasons. It includes upgrading to SharePoint Online, maintain consistency across all sites within an organization, etc. However, it is usually seen as an overwhelming task due to the complexity involved.
To conduct a seamless SharePoint migration from start to end there are a few considerations that every business must undertake. This article mentions a well-defined checklist for SharePoint site migration and some tips to execute the process effortlessly.
Reasons to migrate SharePoint site
Before we move further, let’s see some situations when a business might consider tenant to tenant SharePoint site migration.
- If you plan decommissioning of legacy systems (old SharePoint versions), SharePoint site migration is a significant step.
- Migrate SharePoint sites to maintain consistency among all sites within a SharePoint environment.
- Eliminate unnecessary cost through consolidation of multiple sites into one SharePoint tenant.
- To upgrade to the latest version of SharePoint (SharePoint 2019 or SharePoint Online) so that they can access latest features and security updates.
- When businesses plan mergers/ acquisitions or rebrand themselves, the SharePoint administrators often consider cross tenant SharePoint site migration.
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Checklist for a SharePoint migration
Step by step procedure is the only thing that can make SharePoint migration an easy job. There’s a lot that you need to consider while you execute the data transfer. To help perform an error-free process, we’ve presented a migration checklist you can consider.
Determine the project scope
Learning about the project scope gives an idea of how you want to process the migration. With this you’ll be able to acknowledge the goals that you want to achieve through site migration.
Prepare a content inventory
Initiate the process with the source environment analysis. Evaluate all the data stored in the source to see what all you need in the destination, what you can get rid of, how to organize content in the destination, and how to redefine permissions and access control. This step is substantial as it helps to resolve the complexity involved.
Create a migration plan
Don’t forget to create a migration plan that list details about permission mapping, backup strategy, and how to mitigate risks experienced during migration.
Establish migration strategy
It is important to find out the strategy you plan to follow to migrate your SharePoint site. You can follow manual upload of site contents or use Microsoft’s SharePoint Migration tool (SPMT). However, SPMT doesn’t support tenant to tenant SharePoint Online migration.
Switch to reliable SharePoint migration services to avoid the restrictions of native approaches. With a professional SharePoint migration tool, you can migrate entire SharePoint site, list, or library along with permissions, versions, and workflows.
Communicate and test
Make sure to convey the migration plan to your team members and stakeholders to avoid productivity loss and downtime. This provides them with enough time to learn how to use the upgraded platform.
Run multiple pilot migrations to assure that you do not receive any errors in actual migration.
Post-migration support
SharePoint migration services do not end with the execution of the migration process. It requires appropriate post-migration care to establish that all the data is moved safely and is also accessible. Don’t forget to decommission old system once new environment is completely accepted.
Challenges faced during SharePoint site migration
When you migrate your SharePoint site, there are several SharePoint migration challenges and issues that you need to resolve and see how it enhances the process.
- User adoption: If you perform SharePoint tenant to tenant migration without informing your users ahead, they’ll be unaware of what the platform is. Due to this, the users often take a lot of time to get familiar with the interface.
- Data accessibility: Due to inadequate user permissions, you may face complications in accessing data post migration.
- Voluminous data: For organizations with large volumes of data accumulated, it might be difficult to manage efficiently. However, if the process lacks proper management, you’ll have to spend hours finding the required document from the pile of data.
- Bulk migration: When the data for migration is huge, it would be better to choose incremental method of migration and a professional SharePoint migration tool to avoid hiccups in the process.
- Metadata preservation: Preservation of metadata, such as location, date, attributes, etc. shows a big challenge when you migrate a SharePoint site.
Tips for a seamless SharePoint migration
Even though there are quite a lot of challenges faced by the users when they migrate SharePoint site between tenants, there are some tips you can follow. These tips will help you sort out the process and attain a successful migration.
- Make sure to do a data cleanup to remove any outdated, duplicate, and irrelevant content from the site.
- Perform data migration in batches. This will help you run an error-free migration.
- Prepare the destination environment to align the information and its structure as per your business objectives.
- Include post-migration maintenance and monitoring in your strategy to verify that the platform is working efficiently.
- Request feedback from the users after migration to see if you need to make any adjustments.
Wrap up
Seamless SharePoint migration is easy when you thoroughly plan and take precautions to avoid any hassles during the process. follow the above-mentioned guide and use a professional SharePoint migration tool and you’ll be able to effortlessly avoid any barriers in the way. Grasp this opportunity and make the most out of your SharePoint tenant-to-tenant migration.
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