Since the conception of file sharing, we have been using it to store and manage files within the File System.
It’s been very handy to share files with colleagues across the organization and work on them. But at the same time, we all experienced many limitations with file shares in terms of security, search, sharing, and large data management. As the data and users grow, it becomes harder to collaborate and manage those files when you need to find something. It’s a nightmare.
Limitations of File Shares
- No direct option to attach the required metadata to the folders/files. Remember, how lengthy we used to name our files to maintain metadata information in the name itself like “Employee Onboarding – Avengers – Infinity war – Asgardians – Guardians of the Galaxy Team”.
- Deep and duplicate folder structure/hierarchy always causes confusion and sometimes, we get lost in the complex folder hierarchy while retrieving the documents we want.
- For every new version of the document, we end up duplicating the existing files and renaming them by appending version1, version2 or some other identifiers like timestamps to the file name which often causes confusion with whom the latest version of the file is and who is working on which version of the document. Sometimes, your team might end up working on old versions.
- Limited accessibility. We cannot directly access our content from anywhere, any time.
- Most important, security. Without proper security management, your documents are vulnerable to unauthorized access and other security attacks.
In this modern age, we need a better solution that not only overcomes all the above-mentioned limitations but also provides an efficient way of file management, security management and best in class collaboration features that makes your job very easy.
There are many collaboration tools out there in the market but, the best one amongst them is SharePoint, a web-based collaboration platform by Microsoft that offers a secure way to store, organize, share and access information from anywhere and any device.
SharePoint is available in two flavors, On-premises and Online. Below is an overview of the benefits of moving your content to SharePoint online.
- Access data anywhere at any time. Access and manage data across the world from any device at any time.
- Secure your data with the available out of the box permission levels or create your own custom permission levels and control who have access to what and what actions they can perform on documents.
- Share content securely even with the users outside of your organization.
- Attach metadata for the documents and create views to view and manage required data by applying filters and groups by options based on those metadata.
- Efficient document version management. Easily track the latest version of the document and all its previous versions would be available at the same location hiddenly attached to that document and can be easily viewed on a button click. Your team always knows what the latest version of the document is.
- Document Check-in and check out features to avoid conflicts when multiple people are editing the same document and prevent unexpected overwritten of files.
- Leverage the use of Microsoft flows or SharePoint workflows and automate the manual processes and achieve customer requirements.
- Easy and fast google like search experience. Search the document by its name or any attached metadata and easily find your documents.
- Configure alerts and get notified through emails whenever a change is made to the document by other users.
- Enable auditing features and track all the changes that happened on your documents.
Moving from File Share to SharePoint is a challenging task if you haven’t properly planned things.
Here are a few of the challenges that one must consider before making a move:
Challenges in Migrating to SharePoint
- Folders and file names in the file system can contain special characters and blocked extensions that may not be supported in SharePoint.
- If the URL/name of the file/folder exceeds the maximum allowed characters of your SharePoint version, those items will be failed to migrate.
- Bringing the document properties associated with office files to SharePoint.
- Able to attach the desired metadata for the files/folders during the import to SharePoint.
- Able to perform incremental migrations to migrate only new or modified content from file share after initial migrations and option to schedule them to run in less busy hours.
- Able to handle files/folders that are created by users who no longer exist in the organization.
Surely, you need an expert when moving content from File System to SharePoint who not only has an idea about the constraints and the challenges but also knows how to overcome them and achieve an entire smooth flow of the migration.
You’ll always have the option of hiring an expert and paying him/her a huge amount. But when they are unable to meet the requirements or expectations, and suggests you to go for a tool, you’ll be paying for the tool as well. A more easy, hassle-free and economical alternative for this problem is to directly get a tool that is smart and achieves all your migration needs and saves your pocket so that you could happily become a Santa for your loved ones for this Christmas.
Like many collaboration tools, there are many migration tools available in the market for migrating content from File System to SharePoint. But again, choosing the best one among them decides your fate of the migration.
Choose a tool in such a way that it not only overcomes all the possible challenges but also has rich capabilities that ensure easy, fast and seamless migrations. One such tool is the Saketa SharePoint Migrator.
Here are a few of the benefits of Saketa SharePoint Migrator:
Benefits of Saketa SharePoint Migrator
- Inventory and pre-migration features to scan and get information about the total volume of data, the number of files and folders and the possible errors and warnings that might occur at the time of migrations.
- Schedule your migrations and run them at the specified intervals. For example, you can schedule to run migrations during hours that are relatively less busy.
- Post Migration feature validates the migrated items by comparing them with the source and generates an in-detail summary report of the items that are migrated successfully and the items that are failed to migrate.
- Attach required metadata to the files/folders that are being imported to SharePoint which helps you to classify your data according to your company’s taxonomy and easily search and find them.
- PowerShell cmdlets that are provided along with the tool to achieve automation and custom migration requirements.
- Turbo Migration feature enables you to speed up your migrations by leveraging Microsoft Azure.
Saketa SharePoint Migrator also supports migrations from multiple sources such as cloud to SharePoint, SharePoint to SharePoint and Export from SharePoint to File System.
There are also many other advanced and cool features available in Saketa SharePoint Migrator that enables you to migrate data without any stress.
To install, contact our support team or click https://saketa.com/migrator/migrator-download/.
Happy Migration.
