Leading up to the migration of our data from SharePoint 2019 to SharePoint Online, many tasks had to be done to ensure a seamless and smooth migration that is completed swiftly. In the following some of the crucial tasks we performed are addressed.

 First, this scenario provides a rare opportunity to clean up and sort through old files that have existed on SharePoint for a long time and that are not needed anymore in the future.

Although this is a chore for most, it is an important step in reducing the total number of files and the volume of data to be migrated.

Additionally, the migration allows for adapting the SharePoint architecture. While it is possible to keep the “old” SharePoint on-prem architecture in SPO, we decided to update our architecture based on the new architecture paradigms of SPO, e.g., replacing site collections with hub sites, making use of the modern site types (team and communication sites), associating hubs with other hubs, etc.

We first documented the architecture of our old SharePoint environment, applied the changes, and then created it in SPO. As part of the architectural modifications, we altered the navigation between sites and created a new access rights model as well.

For improving the end-user experience, it is good practice to work on site themes, site templates, and modern page layouts in advance so that the environment has a consistent look and feel after the migration.

Regarding the selected migration tool, it is significant to test its capabilities with various test cases before migration to estimate the duration and avoid any problems during live migration. This also helps in getting acquainted with different functionalities and pre-requirements of the migration tool.

Lastly, before the migration, the whole SharePoint farm, e.g., SharePoint Servers and databases, should be backed up, to avoid data loss and -in the worst case- to recover the old environment.

In the next part, we will deal with experiences we made during our live SharePoint migration.