Business Pain Points That Migration Tools for SharePoint Miss

After rounds of discussion with your stakeholders and C-suite executives, if your organization is researching to choose a SharePoint Online migration, your team must read this. Though seemingly straightforward, it comes with a myriad of challenges that most migration tools for SharePoint fail to address.

CloudFuze is an industry-leading migration tool that overcomes the gaps in SharePoint migration and its associated business pain points. In this post, let us delve into the business challenges in SharePoint migration and how CloudFuze can help solve the issues.

Lack of Pre-Migration Analysis

In most business scenarios, generic migration tools proceed with the data transfer without performing a thorough pre-migration analysis. This can result in unforeseen challenges that would lead to migration failures.

Your internal IT team must audit the source data and understand the dependencies and structure. It is essential to filter out unwanted user account data to reduce server load and shorten the migration timeline.

It is also important to finalize which file features (comments, version control, metadata, timestamps, etc.) to retain while moving the data from the source to the destination cloud. However, as most migration tools for SharePoint cannot meet these requirements, it is recommended to opt for reliable third-party tools like CloudFuze to execute an in-depth pre-migration assessment for SharePoint Online migration.

Inability to Move the Right Permissions

Yet another challenge in moving your source cloud data to SharePoint Online is failing to retain the same access levels in the destination. This creates security concerns as unauthorized users can access the files/folders with incorrect permissions. It can also delay business operations when the migration tool restricts access to a file or folder to the concerned team.

To overcome this issue, utilize a SharePoint Online migration tool that is well-equipped with the capability to map the exact permissions between the source and the destination clouds.

Unable to Overcome Specific SharePoint Online Migration Limitations

Traditional and generic migration tools for SharePoint cannot fully address the specific limitations while moving files from any source cloud to SharePoint Online. For example, handling unsupported special characters, file/folder names, and restricted file size limits.

Robust and competent third-party migration tools for SharePoint Online have built-in features that can overcome these limitations. Check how CloudFuze’s features can address SharePoint Online restrictions.

Failing to Prepare the SharePoint Online Environment

Before initiating the migration, your team must prepare the destination environment by creating the respective SharePoint Online Sites, lists, and libraries. It is also essential to check whether the correct configurations are set to ensure seamless data transfer.

A versatile SharePoint Online migration tool extends its functionality to include this preparatory step for optimum compatibility and performance.

Shortcomings in Error-Handling

One of the common business pain points during SharePoint migration is gaps in error handling. Some tools halt the entire migration process once they encounter any error or sometimes even ignore it without estimating the severity of the underlying issue.

Reliable migration tools for SharePoint, like CloudFuze, have auto-retry mechanisms when facing any issues like API throttling error, ensuring steady data transfer. It helps detect and fix defects as part of its efficient error-handling process.

Non-Tailored Migration Solutions

A one-size-fits-all approach does not work for data migrations, as each business has unique needs. Unfortunately, most generic migration tools for SharePoint fail to cater to these individual requirements.

Leveraging a third-party SharePoint Online migration tool that provides customized migrations helps in meeting distinctive migration needs.

Not Maintaining Metadata and File/Folder Hierarchy

In a bid to speed up the migration process, some SharePoint migration tools fail to maintain metadata and file/folder hierarchy between the source and the destination clouds. It results in non-uniform structure and data discrepancies due to a lack of metadata and other vital information.

Your internal migration team must utilize a SharePoint Online migration tool that can verify the SharePoint Online Sites, lists, libraries, and author names. In case of missing values or incorrect file/folder structure, the tool must migrate the values or raise an error to alert the team.

No Generation of Extensive Migration Reports

Without comprehensive migration reports, businesses are left to wonder if the migration has been successful or not. Migration tools with no reporting feature cannot help organizations monitor and validate the data transfer.

Some of the best SharePoint Online tools, like CloudFuze, can generate extensive migration reports. It can assist users in validating data integrity and volume and rectify any potential errors.

No Provision for On-Premises Migration

Some businesses might have data migration restrictions that need the migration tool to transfer data through a local network instead of a cloud server. This is mainly due to security concerns and data protection policies specific to a particular region.

Your shortlisted migration tool must be flexible to move files either through on-premises or cloud servers based on individual requirements.

SharePoint Online migrations can be challenging to execute due to several challenges that come their way. But using the right migration tools can help alleviate the risks and issues.

CloudFuze is a leading cloud data migration tool that helps businesses achieve seamless SharePoint Online migration by transferring files from any source cloud (Dropbox to SharePoint Online, Egnyte to SharePoint Online, etc).

Reach out to our data migration team for more details.