Cloud Data Migration Strategy for Businesses to Move a Lot of Users
Businesses (SMBs, MSPs, and Enterprises) planning to move a lot of users and their data from one cloud to another need a solid cloud data migration strategy that addresses all the challenges. Businesses must also have the room and buffer time for changes that may be necessary for tackling unanticipated roadblocks.
1. Segregate Active and Non-active User Accounts
One of the fundamental and primary aspects of cloud data migration strategy for businesses planning to move a high volume of users is segregating active and non-active user accounts.
Since the primary goal for businesses is to keep migration expenses in check, IT teams can identify all the non-active user accounts and archive them. This approach helps lower the number of users and the size of the data to migrate and reduce the overall migration cost.
2. Understand the User Role Changes in the Destination Cloud
IT teams of businesses planning to migrate a lot of users must have proper clarity on user role changes that occur in the destination cloud. For example, content manager and contributor user roles in Google Shared Drive will have editing permission, while commenter and viewer will have viewing permission in SharePoint Online during Google Shared Drive to SharePoint migration.
You can learn more about user role changes in this SharePoint Online migration guide.
3. Map User Data to the Right Folders and Sites in the Destination
Getting the mapping part right is also one of the critical aspects of cloud data migration strategy for businesses of all sizes. It is crucial to map the user accounts and their data to the correct folders and sites in the destination clouds.
For example, when migrating source cloud data to SharePoint Online during Office 365 migration, mapping the users to the relevant SharePoint Sites is critical for ensuring a highly accurate data transfer.
4. Customize Mapping for New User Accounts Created in the Destination
Auto-mapping user accounts become a challenge if several new user accounts have been created in the destination cloud. The best cloud data migration strategy to overcome this challenge is to customize the mapping process. Using CSV format and mapping source user accounts to relevant new user accounts in the destination cloud is one of the best approaches to take.
5. Transfer All the Collaboration Features
Businesses must transfer all the features linked to the user data to ensure collaboration and productivity continuity in the destination cloud. For example, when migrating Google Drive to OneDrive, the IT team must factor in metadata, permissions, embedded links, external shares, file versions, and shared links transfer.
6. Retain User Account Hierarchy in the Destination
The cloud data migration strategy for businesses must also prioritize the retention of user account hierarchy in the destination cloud to maintain the structure of the information flow. Retaining user account hierarchy with a feature-rich business migration tool, such as CloudFuze, also helps IT teams retain the collaboration flow in the destination cloud.
7. Monitor and Validate the Migration with Reports
It is important for the IT teams to monitor the migration as it progresses regularly. Validating the entire one-time migration after it is completed is also equally important. IT teams must look for key insights in data migration reports to validate the accuracy of the migration.
8. Transfer Incremental Changes with Delta Migration
No business cloud data migration strategy is complete if it does not include delta migration for incremental changes transfer. Transferring incremental changes with delta migration is especially important for business migrations that take a lot of time, for example, six months or one year.
