OneDrive for Business Migration Best Practices to Follow – Complete Project Plan
Summary: This technical guide explains OneDrive migration best practices to help the users smoothly carry out a stress-free execution. Stay with the write-up till the end to know the ins and outs of the entire process. However, this post will be updated time-to-time, so you’re requested to check back often.
Organizations these days support a remote workforce. In fact, most of them shifted permanently to work in a remote environment. Either way, having a collaborative platform to share information and work together in real-time becomes critical to maintain productivity. And, what could be a more convenient collaborative platform than OneDrive to store & access shared work files?
However, company merger and acquisition scenarios leave the organizations in a situation where they have no choice but to migrate their data(including OneDrive) within Microsoft 365 to better manage the data.
Since carrying out the OneDrive data transfer in Office 365 can be an overwhelming task, knowing the best practices could be a real help.
What are the Best Practices to Consider for Successful OneDrive Migration?
Whatever may be the reason to migrate the OneDrive, the process seems tedious. Because there are so many things you need to consider. Such as;
- What data do you have and determine its location?
- Deciding what you really want to move and what needs extra consideration(for instance regulatory compliance)
- When do you want to perform the migration and how are you going to communicate the same with the staff?
- More importantly, how will you migrate your data(i.e. which method you are gonna use)?
So, you need to plan everything out beforehand to avoid any glitches during the migration, and hence, we have discussed OneDrive migration best practices.
Here is the list of OneDrive Migration Best Practices:
- #1. Analyze Your Current Workload Environment
- #2. Determine Time Line & Perform Risk Analysis
- #3. Inform & Train Your End Users
- #4. Choose Right Migration Approach / Method
- #5. Verify Migrated Data in Destination Account
- #6. Take Help from Professionals (If Required)
#1. Analyze Your Current Workload Environment
Organizations have years of data- some of them could be unuseful. Thus, you need to assess your current environment and decide which data you want to keep and which you want to get rid of. After finalizing the workload, you can easily ensure the respective time, it might take to transfer all data to the destination account.
Also Read: How to Migrate Exchange Mailbox to Office 365? Top 5 Ways
#2. Determine The Time Line and Perform Risk Analysis
While perming the migration, be practical and define a realistic time frame based on the amount of data you need to move and priority.
By this, you will be able to determine cutover dates and address risks such as legal holds or eDiscovery issues. Or, some general hurdles like holidays, important business meetings, and/or event dates that you may want to consider.
#3. Inform the End Users
Informing and training the end users about the utilization of OneDrive for Business efficiently is the real success. So, it is always one of the best practices of OneDrive migration to train your employees of end users, who are going to utilize the application on a daily basis. As it can really create a major difference in productivity and overall collaboration.
#4. Choose The Right Approach/Method
Some organizations use a traditional manual approach for OneDrive data transfer. However, usually, in that case, the volume of data to be migrated is less. So, you can say that the manual approach is suitable if you have less OneDrive data to migrate.
On the other hand, some business units deal with TBs of data, and migrating them through the traditional approach is not feasible. Hence, opting for a modern approach to automate the process is the OneDrive migration best practice.
So, let’s discuss both manual and automated methods for your reference.
Must Read About: Office 365 Cutover Migration
Steps to Execute the Process Manually
- Step 1. First, log in to your source OneDrive account.
- Step 2. Select the required files & folders and download them to your local computer.
- Step 3. Next, sign in to your destination OneDrive account.
- Step 4. After that, you need to upload the saved files & folders.
It may seem easy but when you have Tera Bytes (TBs) of data to migrate, imagine how much it’s going to take to download the same. By going this way, you may end up wasting hours or even days downloading and uploading a huge volume of data.
Furthermore, after going through all the hassle if you don’t get the desired result, then it could be quite frustrating.
Hence, it’s always better to be on the safer side and choose a reliable and trusted method. Let’s have a look at the same.
The Best Practices for OneDrive Migration is to Choose the Ideal Approach
We’re living in a digital era where technology is advancing day by day. So, when planning to copy OneDrive files to another OneDrive account (that is to be enterprise-level), the best practice would be to use automated software like Migrator Wizard OneDrive Migration Tool. It not only automates the process but also ensures integrity and security throughout the entire process.
Through this, you can not only migrate data in bulk but also ensure maximum protection and integrity of your crucial data.
Now, let’s get familiar with the simple software steps.
Step 1. Download the tool from the given link and launch it on your system.
Step 2. Choose the Source and Destination as Office 365.
Step 3. Scroll down and tick the Documents checkbox.
Step 4. Make sure to enable Migrate Document Permissions and Use Group Mapping for the migration.
Step 5. Enter Source credentials and Validate the same.
Step 6. Fill in the Destination credentials and Validate the same.
Step 7. Specify users through ‘Fetch users’, ‘Import users’, or ‘Download Template’.
Step 8. Once again Validate the required permission and then click on Start Migration.
After following the above steps, the tool will automatically begin the migration process and transfer OneDrive data to the desired destination.
Additional Benefits of Using The Software as One of the OneDrive Migration Best Practices
Apart from being able to migrate OneDrive data in bulk, the tool maintains the folder hierarchy at the destination.
Secondly, the tool is capable to migrate permissions and documents to another OneDrive account.
In addition to that, you can apply a Date Filter to migrate only specific data from a defined time frame. Plus, you can set priorities and based on that perform the migration.
Further, the software supports Delta migration. That means you will be able to migrate newly arrived data with ease.
However, suppose some data items are skipped during the initial run of the OneDrive data transfer. Then, through the Re-run migration option, you can easily fetch and migrate the missed items without duplicacy.
You may find it helpful: How to Migrate Exchange Server 2013 to Office 365 – Most Sophisticated Way
#5. Verify the Migrated Data in the Destination Account
It is one of the OneDrive migration best practices to ensure and verify the data moved to the destination. In this way, you can eliminate the chances of data loss. For instance, if any data is left behind, then you can use the smart features of the above tool to re-run the migration to migrate the leftover data to the destination account.
#6. Take Help from Professionals
We understand that sometimes data migration in OneDrvie can be really challenging, as it requires technical know-how, and hence, it is always suggested to consult reliable and professional cloud migration services. You can discuss your custom requirements, migration workloads, and timeline to ensure everything goes by plan. Moreover, it will ensure zero business downtime and data loss scenarios, that’s why it is included in OneDrive migration best practices.
Bringing It Altogether
Considering the complexity involved in executing OneDrive data migration, a strategic and planned approach proved to be a beneficial component to mitigate possible errors. Hence, this article explained OneDrive migration best practices to help you achieve a successful data transfer in Microsoft Office 365.
Pro-Tip: If you are a non-technical user or carrying out the migration for the first time then it is suggested to opt for the modern automated method.