Data Migration Options for SharePoint Online

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Michael Kophs
Partner Technology Strategist

Partners,

Typically our conversations about migrating customer data to Office 365 start with messaging, i.e. how do I get my customer’s data from Exchange Server version X, Gmail, Lotus Notes, imap, etc to Exchange Online?  We at Microsoft have many resources to assist you with your messaging migrations, but what about file migrations to SharePoint Online?  What if your customer has an aging SharePoint server on-premises that they want to move to the cloud?  I’ll be the first to admit that we have left partners pretty much on their own when it comes to migrating data to SharePoint Online.  A typical Microsoft response is to recommend expensive third-party tools, which usually are cost prohibitive for smaller customers.

In the below recorded webinar, we discuss partner options for migrating data into SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business.  We are still recommending using third-party tools, however we showcase a few tools that are a perfect fit for partners serving the SMB space!  We now have some very effective SharePoint migration solutions for our small and mid-size customers!

Click here to view a recording of the following webinar:  Tech Dive into SharePoint Online – Migrating and Managing Data 

In this one-hour webinar we discuss the following topics:

Best Practices for moving your customer’s data into SharePoint Online

  • Lead with OneDrive and OneDrive Sync
  • Break up your data into many sites/sub-sites, many document libraries
  • Sync Client has 20k item OneDrive and 5k item SharePoint Document Library limit.
  • User’s typically don’t want to sync “Everything” to their local drive, only the important items.
  • Working with multiple sites and libraries encourages users to take advantage of SharePoint’s robust set of features
  • Don’t Map Drives to SharePoint!!!
  • Use a third-party migration tool
  • Overview of SharePoint Online Limits and Boundaries

OneDrive for Business best practices

  • Built on SharePoint Online (different than OneDrive Consumer)
  • Store personal documents (replace user’s local “Documents” folder)
  • Sync documents to your computer
  • Not designed as a “server sync” backup solution
  • 1 TB of storage per user!!!

File Migration Strategies for SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business

SMB friendly SharePoint Migration Tools

  • In this section we showcase one of our great SharePoint migration partners, MetaVis Technologies.
  • Metavis not only has an SMB friendly SharePoint Migration tool, but they also have a SharePoint Online/OneDrive Management suite that allows partners to provide additional value to your SharePoint Online customers going forward!
  • MetaVis offers a fantastic channel program that allows partners to resell the Metavis migration and management suite giving partners a foundation to build a successful SharePoint practice in the SMB space.

Check out the webinar and let me know your thoughts!