A recent report stated, “more than 30,000 organizations, with Fortune 500 companies in the majority are now on SharePoint”. Undoubtedly, SharePoint is a major content management platform now and this prominence is due to the ease-of-use and accessibility it delivers to the users. Migration from legacy systems to cloud-based solutions like SharePoint can completely transform the way your organization functions. However, the journey to accomplish this is not always as smooth as expected.
There can be hurdles in the way causing issues like data loss, disorganization of data, damages to the site structure and what not. Let’s go through the challenges that can lead to complicating the process of SharePoint data migration. We’ll also learn about the effective solutions to escape from them and have a successful SharePoint migration.
Common SharePoint migration challenges
There are many reasons that explain the need to migrate to SharePoint, such as version upgrade, moving to cloud, mergers, business expansions, etc. To make sure of a smooth transition, you need to be mindful of the challenges that can disrupt the process. Here are some of those:
Not knowing migration scope & objectives
Most of the time the challenges faced during SharePoint data migration is because the organization is not aware of their migration objectives. Not knowing the scope is a reason for commotion in the migration process. This means you might migrate unnecessary data or even miss the crucial files in the process.
Complexity due to data volume
When the source environment has a huge volume of data, there can be complications during migration of data. Outdated or duplicate data in the source environment leads to content inefficiency in the destination SharePoint environment. The higher complexity is directly related to time-taking data migration.
Incompatibility of the destination environment
Destination environment requires thorough preparations before moving data. If the required permissions are not assigned, and security policies are not in place, users can face the compatibility issues. The incompatibility between a source and destination environment often results in data corruption, data loss, broken links, etc.
Migration of permissions and metadata
Migration of metadata (author, creation date, modification date, file type, etc.) and associated permissions (access control) needs utmost carefulness. Irregularities in the transfer of these attributes, leads to loss of information and access to a lot of content.
User adoption
When users are not informed of the change before planning, the migration comes as a shock rather than a business improvement. Due to this, they take longer than expected to adopt the new platform causing a significant business downtime.
Solutions to achieve successful migration
We now know what can be the possible issues during SharePoint migration. How to avoid these SharePoint data migration challenges? Let’s go through some effective solutions that help in achieving a successful data transfer.
- Organize and cleanup data
The first and foremost solution to an error-free migration is proper organization of data. Before you move, get rid of outdated, irrelevant, and duplicate data from the source. You should organize the data in multiple folders and subfolders for better access. It will assure consistency and integrity of the migrated data.
- Migrate in batches
To avoid errors, migrate data in multiple batches rather than transferring everything at once. You can easily manage and monitor these small batches and resolve errors when encountered.
- Prepare destination environment
Make sure to configure the destination environment, assign necessary permissions, get yourself a data backup strategy, and run pre-migration analysis. It will help you find and resolve the possible errors in time.
- Focus training your users
It is important to inform the users and stakeholders about this change before the execution. Provide them with all the materials and proper training to get familiar with the platform. This would help in making the move seamless.
- Get reliable migration tools
Businesses that rely completely on the native methods and utilities for the data transmissions face errors in the process. This is why it’s crucial to have a professional SharePoint data migration tool to migrate data quickly and successfully.
Conclusion
SharePoint migration can be intimidating if it lacks proper planning and research. Familiarity with the SharePoint migration challenges should be an essential consideration for a consistent data transmission. It helps to mitigate any risks and issues that might disrupt day-to-day functions of the organization otherwise. This article sheds light on some common challenges that you can resolve with the solutions provided.
With the proper knowledge of the possible challenges, effective migration strategies, and the best practices, you can certainly optimize the migration process. To attain a hassle-free process, use a reliable SharePoint data migration tool like Kernel Migration for SharePoint that helps to migrate everything (files, folders, lists, libraries, permissions, etc.) to a SharePoint site. It allows you to migrate data from multiple sources to SharePoint with utmost precision and integrity.
