The realities of SharePoint migration to the cloud
Constant questions about migration are a very good measure of interest in the SharePoint platform. In the past, all changes represented upgrades to new on-premise versions, so the upcoming transition to the clouds will not be as easy as previous updates.
The severity of the problem for customers with long-term SharePoint operating experience depends on the intensity of use, the degree of customization of the platform, and commitment to third-party solutions. These factors can slow down or even disrupt migration.
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One of the largest SharePoint migrations to SharePoint Online was implemented by Microsoft for internal needs, with all plans and solutions prepared well in advance of the process. Microsoft IT (MSIT) developed a detailed methodology, determined the content of each farm, groups and individual sites and worked out an understanding of the further application. The working group classified, prioritized, and mapped a place in the migration for each site based on workload data, business outcome, and architectural complexity.
Migration consultant and expert Dorind Reis of the American company Gtconsult notes the presence of several approaches. The “Lift and Shift” method is an approach when you save the entire SharePoint structure and simply migrate to a new environment, most often Office 365. However, as an option, this technique is applicable when upgrading from SP2010 to SP2013.
According to the expert, the Map and Restructure approach is much more common. In this case, the structure changes, the content is reorganized and redistributed to more convenient locations. There are cases when the SharePoint environment becomes a file repository, where everything needs to be cleaned up and made applicable to the user. Most migrations require restructuring due to the development of the organization and the emergence of new ideas and plans to create a new environment.
Why is migration to Office 365 so slow? This problem is the No. 1 concern for large organizations. There are many reasons. Microsoft uses a variety of methods to protect users and the integrity of server farms, including load balancing and virus scanning. All of them can affect the speed of the migration process itself.
In addition, the performance of SharePoint Online is not only limited by the channel width and data transfer rate. A multi-user environment, despite the separation and security of data, has activity limitations that can affect other customers, whose goal is to maintain the quality of service for all users.
To help solve this problem, Microsoft has developed a migration API that provides increased bandwidth between SharePoint Online and Azure. During the announcement of the Ignite community, the manufacturer was presented with a description of the product. Unfortunately, they did not provide a clear picture of the possibilities and limitations of the new Migration API.
According to reports of Western experts, the novelty does allow you to quickly migrate to Office 365, but is intended primarily for content. Transferring lists, libraries, and sites requires the manual creation of all elements and the creation of migration batches for proper routing to destinations.
Benjamin Niaulin, an expert on migration and Office 365 MVP, noted that there is nothing more pleasant than to look at the Gigabytes of information migrating to Office 365 after you have fully configured and prepared the process. However, it would be a mistake to consider it a simple and easy process, especially if you need to reorganize and restructure SharePoint. According to the expert, the new API is focused on Microsoft partners who will build migration solutions. It is the partners who will provide the final customers with the necessary detail and flexibility combined with the high speed required to transfer significant amounts of data to Office 365.
As Reis points out, even the use of third-party vendor tools with the new API leaves the need for manual labor to set up the migration process. According to experts, the migration API is better suited for simple data transfer using the “Lift and Shift” method. The “Map and Restructure” approach will require packaging each data item with certain requirements, for example, specifying the specific URL or GUID of the exported object, the path, and disabling data compression.
Using Azure processes can increase speed, but here you lose control over basic migration options. Security, metadata and versioning are limited. When you create packages for each of the transferred data blocks, there is a potential risk of losing one of the parts. Therefore, for complex migration with restructuring, when design and configuration are as important as content transfer, traditional approaches, including the development of scripts and specialized packages, remain the preferred options. Using the migration API in such cases can create more problems than benefits. It is to simplify integrated migration that third-party solutions are being created.
Can the new API be used without third-party solutions? Of course. However, specialized solutions give the user more control and reduce the risks of migration. In the next article I will try to make a review and comparison of such decisions.
Based on materials from www.cmswire.com
The severity of the problem for customers with long-term SharePoint operating experience depends on the intensity of use, the degree of customization of the platform, and commitment to third-party solutions. These factors can slow down or even disrupt migration.
')
One of the largest SharePoint migrations to SharePoint Online was implemented by Microsoft for internal needs, with all plans and solutions prepared well in advance of the process. Microsoft IT (MSIT) developed a detailed methodology, determined the content of each farm, groups and individual sites and worked out an understanding of the further application. The working group classified, prioritized, and mapped a place in the migration for each site based on workload data, business outcome, and architectural complexity.
Migration consultant and expert Dorind Reis of the American company Gtconsult notes the presence of several approaches. The “Lift and Shift” method is an approach when you save the entire SharePoint structure and simply migrate to a new environment, most often Office 365. However, as an option, this technique is applicable when upgrading from SP2010 to SP2013.
According to the expert, the Map and Restructure approach is much more common. In this case, the structure changes, the content is reorganized and redistributed to more convenient locations. There are cases when the SharePoint environment becomes a file repository, where everything needs to be cleaned up and made applicable to the user. Most migrations require restructuring due to the development of the organization and the emergence of new ideas and plans to create a new environment.
Why is migration to Office 365 so slow? This problem is the No. 1 concern for large organizations. There are many reasons. Microsoft uses a variety of methods to protect users and the integrity of server farms, including load balancing and virus scanning. All of them can affect the speed of the migration process itself.
In addition, the performance of SharePoint Online is not only limited by the channel width and data transfer rate. A multi-user environment, despite the separation and security of data, has activity limitations that can affect other customers, whose goal is to maintain the quality of service for all users.
To help solve this problem, Microsoft has developed a migration API that provides increased bandwidth between SharePoint Online and Azure. During the announcement of the Ignite community, the manufacturer was presented with a description of the product. Unfortunately, they did not provide a clear picture of the possibilities and limitations of the new Migration API.
According to reports of Western experts, the novelty does allow you to quickly migrate to Office 365, but is intended primarily for content. Transferring lists, libraries, and sites requires the manual creation of all elements and the creation of migration batches for proper routing to destinations.
Benjamin Niaulin, an expert on migration and Office 365 MVP, noted that there is nothing more pleasant than to look at the Gigabytes of information migrating to Office 365 after you have fully configured and prepared the process. However, it would be a mistake to consider it a simple and easy process, especially if you need to reorganize and restructure SharePoint. According to the expert, the new API is focused on Microsoft partners who will build migration solutions. It is the partners who will provide the final customers with the necessary detail and flexibility combined with the high speed required to transfer significant amounts of data to Office 365.
As Reis points out, even the use of third-party vendor tools with the new API leaves the need for manual labor to set up the migration process. According to experts, the migration API is better suited for simple data transfer using the “Lift and Shift” method. The “Map and Restructure” approach will require packaging each data item with certain requirements, for example, specifying the specific URL or GUID of the exported object, the path, and disabling data compression.
Using Azure processes can increase speed, but here you lose control over basic migration options. Security, metadata and versioning are limited. When you create packages for each of the transferred data blocks, there is a potential risk of losing one of the parts. Therefore, for complex migration with restructuring, when design and configuration are as important as content transfer, traditional approaches, including the development of scripts and specialized packages, remain the preferred options. Using the migration API in such cases can create more problems than benefits. It is to simplify integrated migration that third-party solutions are being created.
Can the new API be used without third-party solutions? Of course. However, specialized solutions give the user more control and reduce the risks of migration. In the next article I will try to make a review and comparison of such decisions.
Based on materials from www.cmswire.com
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/264447/
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