Best Practices for SharePoint Migration to SharePoint Online

Migrating from SharePoint Online to SharePoint Online (SPO to SPO) is a crucial process for large scale businesses going through restructuring, rebranding, mergers or expansions. But the migration journey comes with a series of challenges: How do we transfer complex data structures?

How do we minimize disruption to our team? Can we keep all permissions and workflows intact? These questions can be overwhelming.

The good news? With proper planning and following best practices, your SharePoint to SharePoint migration can be smooth. In this blog we’ll go through the best practices to ensure a successful SharePoint migration to SharePoint Online, minimizing risks and maximizing benefits.

1. Set Clear Goals for the Migration

Before you begin, define why you are migrating and what you want to achieve. Are you looking for better collaboration, better accessibility or cost savings? Clear objectives and our industry leading SharePoint to SharePoint migration tool will help you align your migration strategy with your business goals.

Questions to ask:

• What problems are you solving by moving to SharePoint Online?
• What specific SharePoint Online features will you be using?
• How will the migration support your long-term business growth?

2. Audit Your Current SharePoint Environment

Before you begin the migration, audit your source and target SharePoint tenants. This includes:

• Active Content: Identify which files, lists and libraries are active and which can be archived or deleted.
• Customizations: Review any custom workflows, web parts or third-party integrations for compatibility with the target tenant.
• Metadata and Permissions: Map existing permissions and metadata to the target tenant.

A detailed audit to migrate SharePoint to SharePoint will help you simplify the migration process and avoid unnecessary data transfer.

3. Choose the Right SharePoint Migration Tool

For high-scale firms, manual migration is rarely feasible. Our professional SharePoint migration tool automates and simplifies the tenant-to-tenant migration. Increase your chances of a smooth SharePoint migration by working with an experienced Microsoft implementation partner. CloudFuze is a Microsoft Gold Partner and a trusted name for SharePoint strategy development and migration leadership.

Our Tool Features:

• Handles large data volumes and complex environments.
• Preserves metadata, file structures and permissions.
• No downtime to business.
• Custom user mapping paths using CSV mapping for permission replication.
• One-Time Migration for bulk data transfer.
• Delta Migration for transferring only recent changes.
• Preserve sharing permissions, timestamps & file versions.
• Migrate external shares and links with ease with HyperLink Fixer.
• 100% success, 0 data loss.

We perform large scale migrations and ensure data integrity and business continuity, regardless of the migration’s size and complexity. Also, our dedicated migration manager (available with our managed migration service) will handhold you team throughout the journey.

4. Scalability and Compliance

Widely established companies need a future-proof migration plan that fits those scales with them and meets industry regulations. SharePoint Online has compliance tools for finance, healthcare and manufacturing industries.

Tips:

• Use Microsoft Compliance Manager for data governance.
• Use SharePoint Online’s scalability to grow without extra infrastructure costs.

5. Communication Plan

Migration impacts everyone in your organization. Therefore, keep stakeholders informed of the migration timeline, benefits and any downtime.

What to do:

• Have regular updates with department heads and IT teams.
• Train end-users on SharePoint Online features.
• Share a clear plan of what to expect during the migration (including timeline and downtime).

Our team at CloudFuze ensures that the entire process of transferring SharePoint to SharePoint is done with zero data loss, no disruption, and full scalability for future needs. Explore our tenant-to-tenant migration success stories and see how we’ve helped businesses like yours.

6. Run a Pilot Migration

A pilot migration helps IT admins identify issues before the full migration. Choose a subset of data or a single department to test the process.

During the Pilot:

• Validate folder structures, metadata and permissions.
• Test file sharing and co-authoring.
• Get feedback to refine the process.
• Analyze performance to optimize for the final rollout.

Our SharePoint Migration tool makes pilot migrations easy for IT admins with intuitive dashboards to test metadata preservation and user permissions. This migration gives you performance insights and sets expectations for the full migration.

7. Monitor and Optimize Post-Migration

Completion of the one-time migration does not conclude the entire migration journey. Post-migration monitoring ensures everything works as expected.

Post-Migration Steps:

• Verify Data: Check migrated content for completeness and accuracy.
• Optimize Performance: Tune SharePoint Online settings for performance.
• Provide Ongoing Support: Answer user queries and train on advanced features.

Check out our SharePoint Migration tool FAQs to get started.

8. Work with Tenant-to-Tenant Migration Experts

High-volume and data sensitive migrations can be complicated and time consuming. Therefore, work with a certified and proficient migration service for a seamless transition with no downtime. CloudFuze is an enterprise-level SharePoint migration to SharePoint Online provider offering:

• Full migration support.
• Custom solutions for multiple tenant consolidation.
• Experience with large data volumes.
• Unified organization structure post-merger.

Conclusion

Moving from SharePoint Online to SharePoint Online (tenant-to-tenant) proves crucial for businesses aiming to modernize their workflows and operations. Follow these tips and big companies can have a smooth migration, data integrity, no downtime and maximum ROI.

Ready to migrate your SharePoint environment to SharePoint Online? Request a Demo and take the first step toward transforming your tenant-to-tenant migration strategy today!