The enormous stature of SharePoint is evident to the organizations or individuals who rely on it for their business operations. Businesses that have shifted to SharePoint are aware that it provides vast opportunities to manage data files & for collaborations. However, even with high flexibility to integrate, create, or store data, users often require migrating data for different purposes.
SharePoint migration between the same tenant or different tenants requires a lot more precision, as simple copy/paste might not work here. With the amount of data it comprises, you must prepare a constructive action plan with strategies, analysis, supervision & execution.
“Digital cabinet for businesses”
This is the name of SharePoint, which is given by technical experts due to its caliber to improve your organization’s productivity. Still, you may think that for a successful migration of SharePoint data, why do users need a reliable SharePoint-to-SharePoint migration tool.
How complex is SharePoint migration initially?
To highlight the entire migration in SharePoint, you need to assess each element it consists of. This obviously changes the entire connections and structure of the ongoing business & tasks. It means you need to migrate all the files, permissions, users, and more to SharePoint, which usually derives from business purposes.
However, how do we deal with situations where the data is in bulk and stored in different locations? This problem is very common, yet time-consuming to partition the data to avoid duplicacy. If you think that SharePoint migration is easy, it is not the truth as per the discussions above and SharePoint migration challenges which we will discuss in this article.
Analyze the key scenarios for SharePoint migration
Organizations of any business size who are enrolled with SharePoint often understand the concept of migration. The circumstances may differ, under which you plan to move your entire business to the same or different SharePoint tenant. There are some of the everyday situations highlighted below:
- Old SharePoint version: A delay in the upgrade from an outdated SharePoint version to a new one is not the ideal way to operate. It can comprise various issues such as security, compatibility & collaborations.
- Combine different SharePoint: Businesses usually work with different SharePoint environments for their specific departments. So, SharePoint migration is required when you want to merge all under one SharePoint to get proper control & security.
- SharePoint on-premises to SharePoint Online: Office 365 has provided businesses with a more flexible & advanced platform to work over the cloud. It is common that you want to move or synchronize your on-premises SharePoint to SharePoint Online.
To achieve this feat, you need to perform a complete migration of each SharePoint data to SharePoint Online.
- Better management: One of the major issues businesses faces is unorganized data or unwanted data overstuffing over SharePoint environment. That’s why you may want to migrate all the essential data to a new well-structured SharePoint tenant for better management & boost performance.
- Project collaboration: Various business projects require the proper exchange of SharePoint’s data files or information. To streamline a more efficient workflow, SharePoint migration is the best option to work on common ground.
Pre-migration practices before SharePoint migration?
A step-by-step process is necessary to get suitable results in the migration of SharePoint data without any difficulties. Directly jumping on to the migration may ruin the whole process or can even damage the data. It’s better to know about the things you should do before; some of them are:
- Complete backup: Data protection is the utmost priority, and it is usually performed with the help of data backups. Even though data backup is not restricted to take only during the SharePoint migration but also frequently for high protection of your data.
- Create strategy: SharePoint to SharePoint migration is a vast process, and effective strategies play a vital role in its execution. You need to plan everything from the basic to the advanced level to make sure that each component is migrated successfully.
- Cleanup: Due to the extensive flow of data, your SharePoint environment has various data that are not currently useful or duplicate files. So, you must check & remove unwanted data before migration to get an organized environment in destination SharePoint.
- Configure destination: If you are moving the data to the same or different SharePoint tenant, it is necessary to set up the destination as per source for quick adaptation. The range of stages for this setup includes user-mapping, assigning permissions, give roles to users, etc.
Without this configuration, the results may occur differently than you expect from your SharePoint migration.
- Post-migration check: Once you complete the migration process, it is suggested that you check the proper functionality of the SharePoint environment in the destination. This process is a must for you to eradicate any possible complications to occur in the near future.
Why have a reliable SharePoint migration tool?
The plan to move data from such a big platform as SharePoint requires a trustworthy method. When you try to find easy ways for this migration, there are not many options available other than SPMT or some other automated tools, like Kernel Migration for SharePoint.
Initially, the primary purpose that drives this search is to have a suitable solution for SharePoint-to-SharePoint migration, which will help minimize the issues. Eventually, this is not the only benefit you avail of from a trusted solution; you also get relief from a long process.
Common benefits of a SharePoint migration tool are:
- Data integrity: A major benefit that a migration tool will offer you is the protection of information status as it was in the source. Also, it easily moves all the items, including metadata, sites, lists/libraries, etc., without any changes in the structure.
- Save time: SharePoint migration tool mainly works on a specialized algorithm that enables the output to come more quickly & accurately. On the other aspect, if it has a better interface for users to operate through which the execution process also becomes shorter.
- Easy to map users: A reliable migration tool usually provides the feasibility to map users easily between source and destination SharePoint tenants. The manual approach can go very hectic and slow because you need to map each user individually, without a miss.
- Compatibility for on-premises & SharePoint Online: When you have a specialized SharePoint migrator, it offers numerous benefits like the smooth migration from on-premises to SharePoint Online.
Find best SharePoint to SharePoint migration tool
Utilization of solid technology is very important for your SharePoint migration process as it will play a main role in running the process smoothly. Once you conclude your strategies for business data migration, the selection of the right utility becomes a priority to avoid data loss or another mishappening.
However, there are multiple versions of SharePoint 2001, 2010, 2019, and SharePoint Online, which also outline the need to choose appropriate tools. Usually, as per basic industrial trials, most businesses depend on the inbuilt SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) and a reliable third-party SharePoint Migration tool. Let’s discuss about both in detail:
Solution 1. Use SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT)
SPMT is well known among SharePoint users, as it is a free & simple utility by Microsoft that enables a smooth SharePoint migration from on-premises to SharePoint Online. Explore the benefits of this tool and know about the functionalities it uses to migrate data to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams.
Features of SPMT
It is beneficial to go through the range of features SPMT offers, so you would know what it can offer. Checkout the feature mentioned below:
- Data migration from your on-premises SharePoint to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams with entire data.
- Bulk migration is allowed with the help of SPMT tool, so that you can transfer multiple files to destination at once.
- Version support in SPMT is high, as you can easily migrate data from SharePoint version 2013, 2019 to SharePoint Online.
- Permission of the data files from source SharePoint is migrated to destination SharePoint which allows users to access them immediately.
How to use SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT)
The process is quite simple to execute where you can begin with the download and installation of SPMT tool. With multiple options to process, you can opt for site migration, list and document library migration, workflow migration and perform bulk migration using CSV & JSON file.
The process is quite complicated and may require proper help for execution. So, follow the step mentioned below for SharePoint migration using SPMT:
Step 1. Install SPMT in the system.
Note: Also, you need to check the SharePoint site access permissions to users and groups before migration.
Step 2. Login with Office 365 credentials.
Step 3. Click on Add new migration to begin with.
Step 4. Under Select a method, choose the preferred method to process SharePoint migration.
Step 5. Now, select the suitable migration type, under Select your migration type.
Step 6. You need to enter the link of the source SharePoint Site.
Step 7. Sign in to your SharePoint account (source), if you’re not logged in.
Step 8. Select the migration option from, Only this site or This site and all subsites for filtered migration.
Step 9. Now, choose the destination as SharePoint to paste this migration.
Step 10. Enter the link of destination SharePoint site, where you want to migrate.
Step 11. Now, you need to review your migration with your name and assigned source & destination link.
Step 12. Configure preferred settings.
Step 13. On the next page, choose more settings options along with Advanced setting to filter migration.
Step 14. Your migration process will start, so you can wait till it gets completed.
After the completion of this process, you can check at the destination, if your SharePoint-to-SharePoint migration is done or not.
Limitation of SPMT:
With the capability to help you with SharePoint migration, there are some demerits that SPMT tool includes. Find the below:
- Only migrate on-premises SharePoint to SharePoint Online.
- Unable to migrate large or complex metadata.
- Possible to fail support on specific files.
- Issue with permission mapping for users.
- Incomplete migration reports
Method 2. Employ third-party automated SharePoint migration tool
Once you get to know about the extensive process and SPMT limitations, it somehow demotivates the use of the manual approach. Organization deeply examines their needs for important & large SharePoint data migration. For a more convenient approach, businesses prefer to use an advanced SharePoint migrator that can offer complete SharePoint migration on one platform.
Which third-party tool to trust?
Flooded with numerous online options, Kernel Migration for SharePoint remains the ideal choice for businesses. This tool works on the latest technology to support all versions of SharePoint for successful migration.
It is considered the best SharePoint migration tool because it offers complete migration including site collection, list & libraries, versions, permissions, and metadata. There are various features that you can use to streamline your migration for better results & quick results.
Features of Kernel Migration for SharePoint
Explore all the key features within the tool that cater to your multiple requirements in one place. Some of them are mentioned below:
- Easy migration of site contents & metadata, which includes permissions, site pages, version history, templates, etc.
- Pre-migration analysis that helps you to check the possibility of errors in the migration process.
- Real-time tracking to monitor the ongoing SharePoint migration process and stop it if any errors are found.
- Bulk migration feature helps you to migrate data from the public folders, & SharePoint sites/lists/libraries using a CSV file at once.
- Scheduler feature allows you to plan your migration, so you have the option to execute a migration now or schedule it at a particular time.
Conclusion
Issues with SharePoint-to-SharePoint migration are well-acknowledged among businesses or users operating on Office 365. To help you find the best SharePoint migration tool, we have discussed all the necessary pointers you must know in the above article.
However, we have also provided the two most suitable SharePoint migration tools for your migration, SPMT & Kernel Migration for SharePoint.
As SPMT is Microsoft’s inbuilt utility, it has some restrictions, as mentioned above, and if your requirements match, you can opt for it. But if you are looking for an automated solution for quicker & better results, then try the suggested third-party solution.
Avail the free trial version of opportunity now!
