ECM Connections Article on Migration Planning

One of my articles was just published in the ECM Connections newsletter on the nature of SharePoint migrations, with guidance on how to properly plan for a move to SharePoint 2010. The article was written in support of Axceler’s latest product release, Davinci Migrator for SharePoint 2010, which provides a comprehensive planning platform for migrations. Here’s a quick introduction to the article:

With the release of SharePoint 2010, many organizations are seriously considering the move from SPS2003 or MOSS 2007 to the latest platform. But migrating your production SharePoint environment can be a daunting task. The fact is, migration can be a roadblock rather than the express lane to moving forward with your SharePoint strategy. The high degree of customization many organizations have performed, coupled with their desire to reorganize and transform content means they cannot just move things as-is to the new platform. Unfortunately, there is no simple "drag-and drop" migration. It is a phased, iterative, and error prone process that needs to be properly planned.

Between the Microsoft-provided overview of how to plan for an upgrade/migration and an understanding of the content and end user requirements, administrators recognize that there's a lot of room for error. This is not a small task — not something to be tackled over a weekend. Migrations are much like an iceberg: what you see on the surface is the technical move: data bits, content, using in-place or database attach (or some hybrid method). Underneath the surface, however, is the majority of the migration effort — the planning activities that determine what is to be moved, transformed, scheduled, and eventually administered. Ignoring what is below the surface of the iceberg is dangerous, and can ultimately capsize your project.

You can download the full in PDF here.