Microsoft 365 Cloud Migration

Overview

Cloud migration is every bit as popular now as it has been for the last several years. Many people are still migrating up from shared drives and building their first cloud intranets, while others are migrating from their first SharePoint cloud intranet to a new (hopefully better architected) site collection.

While the cost savings remains compelling, it is still true that most organizations are not ready for migration.

• Most SharePoint intranets are not structured the way the organizations would prefer on a going forward basis

• Many of the libraries and sites in the current intranet have not been maintained and need to be curated before they can be moved.

• Current document storage may not be legally compliant. Policies and rules may need to be applied to the new intranet libraries.

This situation is so pervasive the we have developed a standardized procedure the results in a clean and orderly migration. Additionally, you end up with a refined intranet that better supports the organizations requirements and is much easier to use.

An Overview of the JFD Migration Process

1. Review/create a goals and scope specification for the new intranet.

   Creating a one or two paragraph document that establishes the purpose of the intranet along with some general guidance that limits the expansion of the project is a basic first step.

2. Review the current intranet for "value".

   Power shell commands and third-party products make it easy to achieve a comprehensive overview of the documents contained in the intranet as well as their age. Worksheets that display document and library activity are used to curate and consolidate the documents to be migrated.

3. Create a blueprint for the new intranet.

   A blueprint is created for the new destination intranet that incorporates "lessons learned" and typically results in a smaller overall site collection with fewer libraries due to a better understanding of metadata and list views.

4. Identify basic document "content types" with "retention rules".

   At this point there is a prime opportunity to implement "records management". This is because as documents are transferred into the new environment, most third-party software products enable you to automatically place much of the new metadata. This can save a lot of time compared to applying the metadata in a more manual fashion later.

5. Deploy the new intranet.

   Because the intranet has already been designed and architected as a blueprint, deploying it is a process of assembly rather than discovery. Because all of the sites, libraries and lists are already understood (right down to their names) the deployment goes very quickly.

6. Deploy the supporting support sites (Search, E discovery, security and compliance).

   Create and connect the special sites that provide the enhancements for search, e-discovery, compliance, archiving, and classification.

7. Apply the appropriate content types to the new libraries.

   You only want to apply the content types that any given library actually needs considering the documents it will be storing.

8. Migrate the curated content into the new intranet

   Doing this with a third-party tool will typically allow you to apply a significant amount of new classification metadata during the transfer process.

9. Train the users.

   Effective implementation of a records management system is dependent on striking the appropriate balance between the systems sophistication in the organization's willingness to learn how to use it. Keeping the system as simple as possible while providing simple, convenient video training is the key to success.