SharePoint Online Migration Checklist for IT Admins

Is your organization planning a SharePoint Online data migration? The key to a successful SharePoint migration lies in stringent planning well ahead of moving your business data. This can help avoid downtime and erroneous results while enabling faster deployment.

Master a fool-proof SharePoint Online migration with our meticulously shortlisted checklist that addresses every aspect of the migration process. It takes the burden off your internal IT teams from getting overwhelmed and makes it easier for them to coordinate the SharePoint migration.

1. Requirement Analysis

The first step in a SharePoint Online migration is to know the exact requirements.
Strategize the migration timelines, the scope of work, migration responsibilities, computing resources, and choosing a migration partner. This provides a clear picture of what to expect and how to handle any challenges.

2. Audit Your Current Environment and Source Data

Audit your source data to understand where it is stored, to check if it has duplicates, what is the underlying data architecture, its dependencies, etc. By learning this, you get to know which data to prioritize and retain and which to filter out or archive.

Internal IT teams must also inspect the source environment, including metadata, workflows, sites, users, groups, etc., to get a 360-degree understanding of your business data and its associated attributes.

3. Execute a Pre-Migration Assessment

A Pre-migration assessment helps the migration team to evaluate and decide on some of the vital aspects of the SharePoint migration. For example, choose from the list of file features to migrate while transferring data from the source platform to SharePoint Online.

• Shared and embedded links
• Version History
• Comments
• Permissions
• Timestamps
• In-line comments

4. Overcoming SharePoint Limitations

When moving your data to SharePoint Online, your IT team must be aware of the limitations of Microsoft 365. Some of them are:

• No support for certain special characters in file/folder names and paths.
• No support for file names exceeding 400 characters.

In order to overcome these limitations, it is recommended to partner with a trustworthy data migration vendor like CloudFuze that provides robust in-built features to address these challenges.

5. Map Relevant User Accounts

Accurate user mapping across the source and the destination platforms is one of the important points in the SharePoint Online migration checklist. With CloudFuze, you can achieve this through CSV or folder mapping methods.

6. Prepare your Destination Cloud

Before you move your business data from the source to SharePoint Online, it is essential to prepare it beforehand. You can do it in the following ways to ensure a smooth migration.

• Create Microsoft 365 accounts for the shortlisted users, cross-verify licenses, and storage space.
• Pre-provision the user accounts in the destination by creating respective sites.
• Transform your source data into lists, libraries, and folders for easier migration.
• Connect the SharePoint sites to relevant hub sites for easier navigation and tracking.

7. Executing One-Time and Incremental Migrations

While executing large-volume one-time data migration, incremental changes build up in the source as users continue to use the files. Therefore, in order to reflect these changes in the destination (SharePoint Online), the organization must also execute incremental or delta migration after completing a one-time data transfer.

Following this step as a part of the SharePoint Online migration checklist ensures the latest changes are captured.

8. Data Backup

As a critical step in the SharePoint Online migration checklist, it is essential to have a reliable data backup strategy in place to ensure that the data is not lost or corrupted during the migration process. A proper data backup strategy helps maintain the integrity of the data during the migration process. In addition, it provides a fallback option in case of any issues or errors.

9. Pilot Run

Performing a pilot run or Proof Of Concept (POC) before executing the data transfer must be another priority in your company’s SharePoint Online migration checklist. It allows you to identify and address potential issues or bottlenecks before the actual migration starts, minimizing downtime and reducing the risk of data loss or corruption.

A pilot run or POC also allows you to test the performance and scalability of the new cloud environment, giving you a better understanding of how it will function under real-time scenarios.

10.Post-Migration Evaluation

Run a post-migration checklist to evaluate the various parameters of the migration to validate the results. Check for the following during a post-migration evaluation.

• Batch & delta migration validation
• Data size verification across source and target
• Running a comparison delta to cross-verify the accuracy of the files

11.Train End-Users

Switching to SharePoint Online from a different source can be challenging for the end-users to adopt. The SharePoint environment’s new set of processes, workflows, and user interfaces can cause confusion and lower employee productivity. Eliminate this challenge by communicating with the users and giving them hands-on training in the new cloud platform for a smoother transition.

Check out the Microsoft 365 adoption guide, which can help onboard your employees to the new platform.

12. Decommissioning the Source Cloud

Decommissioning the source cloud license is crucial for businesses planning to adopt SharePoint Online and leave the existing source cloud altogether. Not doing so may lead to unnecessary costs and complexities, as your company may end up paying for both clouds. This can make it challenging to maintain multiple licenses and manage IT operations.

Hence, consider decommissioning the source cloud license as an integral step in the SharePoint migration checklist.

Unplanned data migration could end in failure or inaccurate results, causing distress to businesses. But our comprehensive SharePoint Online migration checklist lays out a well-planned strategy and helps optimize migration performance. In addition, it enables your internal IT teams to seamlessly transfer data without data loss or downtime.

Reach out to our team for managed migration assistance.