SMART Migration for Teams: Comprehensive Migration and Content Management Solution
The SMART Migration for Teams is an all-in-one solution that transforms the traditional migration process by addressing a wide range of tasks beyond simple file transfer. It is designed to streamline migration workflows, provide robust content management capabilities, and enhance collaboration throughout the process. With SMART Migration, users not only migrate files, but also manage content, validate migrations, provision new sites, and much more.
The product is ideal for organizations seeking to improve their migration strategy, whether for moving files from on-premises systems, cloud storage, or other platforms to SharePoint Online. Its integration with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Online makes it an easy-to-use, scalable solution for complex migration needs.
General Overview: Beyond File Migration
SMART Migration does more than just move files; it covers the full lifecycle of a migration project. The solution incorporates several essential tasks, allowing teams to perform migrations, manage content, validate results, and automate much of the migration and management process. This holistic approach ensures that your migration project is not only successful, but optimized for the long term.
The product is built to enable:
- File Migration: Transfer content from a variety of sources (on-premises file shares, cloud storage, SharePoint, etc.) to SharePoint Online Document Libraries.
- Content Management: Automate content deletion, metadata assignments, and folder restructuring.
- Site Provisioning: Create SharePoint sites and libraries with preloaded content, tailored to your organizational needs.
- Validation and Reporting: Ensure that your migration is error-free and fully validated with robust reporting tools, including PowerBI integration.
Job Types: Flexible and Versatile
SMART Migration supports multiple job types that cater to various migration needs, offering flexibility in managing migration tasks:
1. Discovery + Migration (Including Lift & Shift)
The Discovery + Migration job type is at the heart of the product. It allows users to discover source content and then migrate it to SharePoint Online Document Libraries. This job type is fully customizable and can accommodate complex migration scenarios with advanced metadata handling, content reorganization, and incremental updates. For projects that require simpler migration, the Lift & Shift option allows for a traditional, straightforward migration where files are simply replicated from the source to the destination with minimal configuration.
- Lift & Shift: For simple migrations where advanced optimization and validation are not needed, the Lift & Shift option enables users to quickly move files from source to destination without extra steps.
- OneDrive Migrations: A new option now supports OneDrive migrations. By specifying the source and destination user principal names (UPNs), users can easily migrate OneDrive content across different users and environments. This simple and direct approach is perfect for moving individual user data from one OneDrive account to another.
2. Delete Jobs
Delete jobs use proxy files (placeholder files) to specify which files need to be deleted from the source system. By placing proxy files into a “Delete Job” folder, users can delete the referenced files either permanently or by moving them to the recycle bin (in SharePoint environments). This ensures that only the intended files are removed, providing an extra layer of control during the migration process.
3. Site Provisioning
SMART Migration offers site provisioning capabilities for creating new SharePoint sites directly from the migration system. Users can:
- Automatically Generate Site URLs: With the use of incremental counters, prefixes, and suffixes.
- Clone Existing Sites: Reuse templates from existing SharePoint sites to create new ones.
- Preloaded Content: Automatically include files and folders in the libraries of newly created sites.
- Permissions Management: Easily manage permissions by creating groups in Microsoft Entra and SharePoint.
4. Validation Jobs
Validation jobs ensure the integrity of the migration by comparing files in the source system with their counterparts in the destination. This job type reports on any missing or updated files, and supports two-way validation for content in both the source and destination. It also allows for cross-tool validation, enabling checks for migrations performed by other tools (e.g., Microsoft SPMT), ensuring comprehensive validation of the entire migration process.
5. Reporting and Analytics
SMART Migration includes a dedicated “Report” Library where all job types can generate standardized reports. These reports are uploaded as Excel files and designed to facilitate easy analysis and tracking. The reports use a consistent layout across all job types, making it easy to work with data from any source or migration.
Key reporting features include:
- Excel Report: The report includes file names, folder paths, and metadata in separate columns, enabling users to perform detailed analysis and create pivot tables. This structure helps to quickly understand the migration status and identify any issues.
- PowerQuery (.ODS): An ODS file is automatically created to facilitate consolidated reporting across multiple sources. The ODS file contains embedded PowerQuery MCode that can be used directly in PowerBI or Excel to create customized reports and dashboards.
The PowerQuery MCode is stored in the properties of the ODS file, making it easy to integrate the report data into various reporting tools for real-time analysis.
SMART Migration Key Features
- Centralized Collaboration Hub: All migration projects are managed through a Microsoft Teams channel, providing a central point of collaboration for migration teams.
- Cross-Tool Migration: The product supports multiple data sources, including file shares, on-premises SharePoint, SharePoint Online, Amazon S3, and Azure Blob Storage, enabling cross-system migrations.
- Flexible Job Management: Various job types (Discovery, Migration, Validation, Delete, Site Provisioning) are supported, allowing users to perform a wide range of tasks within a single migration project.
- Incremental Discovery: New files can be discovered and added incrementally to the migration process, ensuring that no files are left behind.
- Error-Free Migration: Robust error tracking ensures that the migration process runs smoothly and that no files are left in an incomplete state.
- Simplified OneDrive Migrations: Migrate OneDrive data by specifying source and destination user emails (UPNs), making it quick and easy to transfer content between user accounts.
Conclusion
SMART Migration for Teams is a comprehensive migration and content management solution designed to handle everything from simple file transfers to complex, multi-source migrations. It enables easy collaboration, ensures error-free execution, and provides advanced reporting capabilities for detailed tracking and analysis. With features like Lift & Shift, OneDrive migrations, and site provisioning, it meets a wide range of migration needs, whether for a single user or large-scale enterprise environments.