Migrating From Sharepoint On-Premises To Sharepoint Online: Strategy And Key Considerations

Assessing Your SharePoint Environment

Evaluating Business Needs and Requirements

To determine if a migration to SharePoint Online is advantageous, organizations must thoroughly evaluate their current SharePoint on-premises environment and business needs. This involves auditing what features and functions are being utilized, what customizations have been made, the number and types of sites provisioned, integrations with other systems, governance policies, and more. Additionally, current and projected future business requirements around collaboration, document management, workflows, and other SharePoint-enabled processes should be analyzed. This assessment will illuminate what is working well with the existing system and what pain points exist that SharePoint Online could potentially address.

Auditing Existing Infrastructure and Customizations

A comprehensive audit should inventory all existing SharePoint sites, libraries, lists, webs parts, custom solutions, third-party tools, and other modifications. Document the purpose and use cases for each customization to determine if and how they can be migrated or reconfigured in SharePoint Online. Take stock of all integrations between SharePoint, Active Directory, enterprise databases, Office applications, Power Platform, and other critical business systems. Note any deprecated, unsupported, or unstable modifications which may need to be redeveloped prior to moving to the cloud. Quantifying the level of effort for migrations and rebuilds upfront will inform overall timelines and cost.

Planning Your Migration Strategy

Choosing Between Hybrid, Staged, or Direct Migrations

Organizations must decide on the optimal migration strategy based on the complexity of their existing SharePoint environment and business requirements:

• Hybrid migrations synchronize on-premises and Online environments in real-time, allowing for gradual transition while maintaining functionality
• Staged migrations transition subsets of sites over multiple phases on custom timelines
• Direct “lift-and-shift” migrations move the entire environment at once, requiring significant preparation upfront

Each approach has distinct pros and cons regarding effort, cost, and business disruption which must be evaluated. Test migrations of lower-stakeholder sites can gauge results before wider rollout.

Setting Realistic Timelines and Budgets

Carefully assessing the current environment and migration methodology needed will provide the basis for accurate project planning. Build out detailed tasks, roles and responsibilities, key dependencies, and rollout sequencing that aligns with organizational priorities. Estimate effort and durations as precisely as possible for each discrete activity from preparations through post-migration enhancements. Include both internal team members’ time and any external consulting or tool costs. Pad estimates conservatively and anticipate obstacles. Get stakeholder input then lock in finalized timelines backed by leadership support and budget commitments.

Preparing for the Migration

Backing Up and Documenting Existing Sites

Before making any substantive changes on-premises, organizations should comprehensively back up their entire SharePoint environment, including all sites, libraries, lists, metadata, permissions, workflows, customizations, databases, and integrations. Enable SQL Server log shipping and Snapshots for added data protection and ability to roll back if needed. Fully document the purpose and capabilities enabled for each site, library, list, workflow, or application. Note key stakeholders, ownership, lifecycles, usage metrics, and any other critical details that would need to be reconfigured in the cloud environment. Clean up any unused, orphaned, or outdated content to simplify migrations.

Testing and Optimizing for the Cloud

Utilize SharePoint’s built-in pre-scan utilities like SPMT or Sharegate’s Analyzer to detect any incompatible customizations, governance issues, or throttling concerns prior to beginning migrations. Address any flagged errors or warnings based on Microsoft’s recommended best practices for SharePoint Online. Proactively optimize on-prem farms for the cloud by purging unused features, reducing customizations, and right-sizing infrastructure. Pilot test migration sets with non-essential content first before moving business critical sites. Configure throttling exemption policies and ensure adequate bandwidth to accelerate data transfers to the fastest speeds.

Migrating Content and Customizations

Using Built-In or Third-Party Migration Tools

For straightforward migrations, SharePoint’s standalone Migration Tool (SPMT) efficiently transfers content databases with fidelity while Sharegate, Metalogix, AvePoint, and other ISV tools enable more complex migrations. Most tools can map users and permissions, rewrite links, and automatically address common issues encountered. For heavyweight migrations, utilize SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for custom data extraction, transformation, and loading scripts tailored to specialized needs. Develop data validation processes with checksums, logging, and callbacks to guarantee no data loss or corruption. Whether using out-of-box utilities or custom coding, proper tool selection and usage is imperative to streamline efforts.

Recreating Custom Solutions in SharePoint Online

Certain legacy customizations like farm solutions may require redevelopment using SharePoint Framework, Power Apps, Power Automate, Azure services, or other supported alternatives aligned to Microsoft’s cloud architectures. Refactor any code to work with the Azure app model, Office 365 APIs, OAuth 2.0, and modern authentication protocols. For custom workflows, validate Logic App and Power Automate capabilities meet requirements or reuse legacy Visual Studio workflows if needed. Capitalize on cloud-native features like Power BI, Power Virtual Agents, or AI Builder to enhance new solutions. While rebuilding customizations takes effort, future-proofing on supported platforms better enables long-term viability and continuous innovation.

Post-Migration Considerations

Retraining Users and Admins

To ease adoption to the new SharePoint Online environment, educate end users proactively on differences from legacy workflows, updated interfaces, site navigation, modified permissions, etc. Offer self-help job aids and quick reference materials. Conduct hands-on training workshops tailored to different user groups. Ensure help desk teams are well-versed in common post-migration questions and issues. On the admin side, provide detailed handoff documentation covering provisioning, policies, security, lifecycle management, disaster recovery processes, and all other management essentials.

Maintaining and Iterating on Sites

To realize continued value from the new cloud environment, organizations should maintain strict governance disciplines via policies for retention, security, auditing, and change control. Establish site lifecycles, apply metadata requirements, automate content hydration, and implement other managed processes. Continuously iterate on solutions by releasing enhancements aligned to evolving business needs in an agile, methodical fashion. Utilize Microsoft 365’s extensive administration tools, usage analytics, and advanced capabilities to maximize ROI long-term.