Migrating SharePoint content needs extra care to avoid the risk of errors, data loss etc.
Migrating SharePoint is the process of transferring data from an older version of SharePoint to a relatively newer version. There are many reasons for migration. Deprecation of some features in the old version, encountering many difficulties in maintaining all the data in the old version are just some of those. Whatever the reason, it is always beneficial to migrate to the latest version of SharePoint.
8 Effective Measures to take before Migrating SharePoint Content
1. Be clear about your requirement
Before migrating, it is always productive to have a clear idea of what you want to migrate. Drafting a clear idea about how, when, and where you want the data to migrate eliminates many complications that will arise when the actual process begins. This ultimately results in a waste of time and money.
2. Analyze your content
Since you’ve already resorted to migrating SharePoint site , it is not a bad idea to get your data in order before doing so. Analyze your data thoroughly and remove unused and unnecessary content so that your migrated content is entirely up to date and ready to use.
3. Consider migrating to O365
It is not a great idea to migrate directly to the newest version of SharePoint like SharePoint 2016 from an old version like 2003 or 2010. This is because there are a lot of features that are deprecated in the latest version and mapping all the templates will be a tedious task.
While SharePoint on-prem has its own benefits and advantages, SharePoint Online or O365 will always be a great choice as it offers so many different features and templates, has great security to your content and the best part, it can be accessed from literally anywhere in the world.
4. Establish a timeline
Establishing a pragmatic timeline is highly recommended. Let’s see why- When your entire mounts to around 100 GB, it is impossible to migrate it completely within a short period. Even if it is finished in a limited period, it is bound to have many errors and this raises other complications like loss of data etc., So, have a deadline that is more practical and less unrealistic.
5. Do a Pre-Migration check
Resolving issues before-hand saves a lot of time and a great way to prevent post-migration complications. Consider doing a pre-migration check so that you’ll have a clear idea about the errors that are going to arise and how much of the data can be migrated without any difficulty and how much will be unsuccessful.
6. Have a migration strategy
Ok, this is by far the most important thing to keep in mind before migrating your content. Make a proper strategy and stick to it. Sort your data into different categories and migrate in a systematic way. Categorize your data so that you can migrate the data which you want to migrate first and the rest can be migrated later. Not having a good strategy in place will only lead to confusion and chaos.
7. Decide the type of migration
There are different kinds of templates in SharePoint and migrating SharePoint data along with those templates needs work. Organize your data and migrate accordingly. Choose Object migration if you want to migrate an entire site and choose Content migration if you want to drill down and migrate just the data not its template and so on. You can opt for Teams migration as well.
Also, be sure to give clear URLs of both, the source and the destination sites. If you are migrating from SharePoint to SharePoint or File System to SharePoint or a Cloud service to SharePoint, ensure that their respective URLs are correct while establishing a connection.
8. Give confirmation
If you’re still working on the content that is ready for migration and unknowingly the process started, there will be a huge loss of data and a lot of time and effort will go in vain. So, give a confirmation to the team that is working on migrating the data to avoid any complications.
Following these measures will ensure a successful migration of your content and reduces unnecessary stress post-migration.
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