While upgrading SharePoint preserves existing structures with minimal disruption, migrating SharePoint offers a fresh start with enhanced capabilities. This guide will help your business decide whether to upgrade SharePoint or fully migrate to SharePoint Online, as well as identify the right strategy for digital workplace transformation.
In brief:
- An upgrade keeps your existing environment while a SharePoint migration involves moving content to an entirely new environment
- Choose upgrades for version changes and migration for platform switches or restructuring
- SharePoint Online offers better flexibility, security and lower costs than on-premises
- Common challenges include time constraints, URL issues, potential data loss, customization compatibility, and user adoption
- Successful implementation requires governance policies and user training
Microsoft SharePoint has been a powerhouse in the data management and business intelligence systems space for years now, with many leading organizations using it to power their enterprises. Often, a company faces a difficult decision: upgrading their existing SharePoint environment or migrating to SharePoint Online.
Here, we break down the differences between the two approaches and why pursuing one over the other makes sense.
What Is the Difference Between a SharePoint Upgrade and a SharePoint Migration?
An upgrade involves updating your existing SharePoint environment by switching to a newer version. When upgrading, you don’t change platforms. A SharePoint upgrade enhances your existing infrastructure without changing your core architecture or taxonomy, which refers to the hierarchical structure used to organize your data.
Migrating SharePoint involves moving content to a new environment altogether. For instance, a migration may involve moving data from SharePoint 2010 On-Premises to SharePoint Online.
It’s not surprising then that, in some situations, a migration may require you to move data from a completely different platform and into Microsoft 365 SharePoint.
For instance, you may have a file server holding large amounts of data, and you want to use SharePoint instead. In this situation, you’d have to move data from your file server into your new environment to migrate SharePoint site data.
Common Misconceptions About SharePoint Upgrades and Migrations
Many people believe that upgrades involve a complete overhaul. But this is not true. The goal of an upgrade is to be less disruptive than a comprehensive overhaul. In many situations, an upgrade may involve less manual work than you expect because there are relatively few — if any — changes to your existing infrastructure.
On the other hand, people often underestimate the complexity of migrating SharePoint. It may seem fairly straightforward, but moving to SharePoint, whether this involves a single server or a SharePoint farm, often involves intricate data mapping and significant planning.
When to Choose a SharePoint Upgrade
A SharePoint upgrade is best when you’re moving between two on-premises versions of SharePoint. For example, you may need to upgrade from SharePoint 2016 to SharePoint Server Subscription Edition (SPSE).
When you upgrade, you can typically keep the same taxonomy and site structure. For instance, suppose you have three versions of a company website — one in English, one in Spanish, and another in Swahili. When upgrading, you typically wouldn’t have to restructure the data in SharePoint that feeds the pages of each site.
This is particularly helpful if the data feeding each site all have the same taxonomy. You keep the same structure in SharePoint, and after the upgrade, each page on the English, Spanish, and Swahili sites remains the same.
When to Choose a SharePoint Migration
A migration is necessary when moving from a legacy version of SharePoint, or one that’s no longer supported, to a more modern version. Of course, it’s also necessary when moving data from a non-SharePoint content management system or file repository.
Let’s say a manufacturing company has large amounts of data regarding the components they produce, and they’ve decided to use it to build an ecommerce site. To let customers choose and purchase products, as well as see their specs, colors, and other details, the company would need to give each type of data its own category. This step would need to happen before their SharePoint to SharePoint migration or before bringing data over from another platform.
Once migrated to SharePoint, however, the data in each SharePoint file could be used relatively straightforwardly to populate pages in the ecommerce site.
Benefits of SharePoint Online
Instead of being locally hosted like SharePoint On-Premises solutions, SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service.
A SharePoint Online migration comes with several benefits, especially if you’re moving from a different repository or making the move to the cloud for the first time. Benefits include:
- Flexibility. With SharePoint Online’s cloud tools, you can easily connect data sources to their destinations and configure how information appears and gets used in different ways.
- Scalability. SharePoint Online’s scalable architecture allows you to add new data categories and expand your infrastructure in virtually any way you need.
- Smooth collaboration. SharePoint Online integrates with Microsoft 365 services, making collaborating across different apps easy for many stakeholders.
- Lower infrastructure costs. For organizations moving from on-premises solutions to SharePoint Online, the need for purchasing and maintaining dedicated hardware cannot be eliminated.
- Enhanced security. SharePoint Online’s security tools protect information from attackers using a combination of multiple solutions provided by Microsoft, such as encryption and role-based access.
- Better compliance. You can configure SharePoint Online to align with compliance requirements, ensuring data is stored properly and is only accessible to those who need to see or work with it.
- Performance impacts. To make your system work smoothly and quickly in SharePoint Online’s cloud environment, you can optimize your content and the design of your infrastructure. For instance, you can adjust file sizes and set up direct, automated connections between time-sensitive data and their destinations.
Challenges to SharePoint Migrations and How to Overcome Them
While there are some challenges with SharePoint migrations, overcoming them is fairly straightforward in many cases. For instance, some organizations have to deal with:
- Time constraints. The best way to overcome time constraints is to plan ahead using a detailed, time-based task map. This makes it easier to understand how long your migration may take and when you may need to dedicate overtime or weekends (if necessary) to hit key deadlines.
- URL issues. If you have static URLs in your current system, you can use a SharePoint to SharePoint migration tool to replace them so your system can work seamlessly with SharePoint.
- Data loss and content integrity. The risk of losing metadata during your migration should not be ignored. Microsoft’s SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to protect your documents, lists, and libraries while preserving metadata and permissions.
- Customization compatibility. Your custom code might not migrate smoothly, resulting in a failed migration. Analyze your SharePoint environment carefully to identify your customizations and dependencies before the migration.
- User adoption and change management. Like during any major organizational changes, be sure to communicate with employees the need for the change and how it will affect them. Then, build a robust training strategy and identify employees who can serve as SharePoint Ambassadors.
SharePoint Online vs. SharePoint On-Premises
As has been the case for several years, organizations face a choice about whether SharePoint Online (SharePoint’s cloud platform) or SharePoint On-Premises (the platform that IT staff manages in an organization’s own data center) is the better option to meet their needs. Both let you deploy a multitenant server to store, share and manage content.
The two platforms have several significant differences:
So, then, how to decide?
If you’re building a scalable intranet, go with SharePoint Online. It cuts costs and reduces complexity by saving the time and money that would otherwise be spent on creating the necessary infrastructure. It has many multipurpose features, including documentation and collaboration, centralized management, user- and support-friendly design, more protection, and integration into existing applications.
On the other hand, SharePoint On-Premises is the way to go if you have a dedicated infrastructure in place and if the intranet would only be available on your business network. It’s a solid match if you require high compliance standards and levels of customization, more storage space than Microsoft provides, and more control over your SharePoint farms architecture.
A third option is a hybrid model, which allows SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and the SharePoint server to communicate securely. That allows you to get the best of both worlds in the short term.
But it may not be the best long-term solution because on-premises services and technologies are subject to loss of support, costly repairs, and greater security concerns than a fully online SharePoint deployment. Instead, if your business does not require the hands-on control of an on-premises system, you might view it as a way to ease the transition to SharePoint Online.
Best Practices for a Smooth SharePoint Migration
To simplify and streamline the migration process, here are a couple best practices you should employ:
- Migration assessment and planning. Analyze your current environment and establish the goals of your migration.
- Data transformation and structuring. Your data transformation may focus on implementing consistent file formats or getting rid of duplicates. Restructuring data may be necessary if your current environment uses a different data map from what you want to implement in SharePoint.
Migration Tools
Microsoft provides tools to help your SharePoint migration go smoothly and avoid challenges such as URL issues, data loss and content integrity, and customization compatibility. Chief among them are:
- The SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) copies files from your on-premises document libraries to shared files to SharePoint in Microsoft 365 while protecting permissions, site descriptions, and managed metadata.
- The SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool (SMAT) runs in the background while identifying potential migration issues and provides recommendations to fix them.
- Migration Manager allows you to migrate from other platforms, including Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and Egnyte.
In addition to these Microsoft tools, many other tools on the market allow for more complex migrations, such as custom workflows, third-party integrations, or extensive content restructuring.
For example, Enterprise Bridge can help with migrations from Atlassian’s Confluence platform to SharePoint, while ShareGate’s user-friendly interface provides advanced capabilities that protect metadata, permissions, and version histories.
The Role of Governance and Adoption in Migration Success
Your governance strategy is foundational to a smooth SharePoint transition, regardless of whether you migrate or upgrade. A governance system is still necessary even if you use a sophisticated SharePoint migration tool that organizes and helps you control your data.
An effective governance policy includes:
- How content is managed, including adding and deleting it, the types of content allowed, and from which applications and other sources it can originate.
- Security rules, such as who has access to different areas of SharePoint, who can make changes to data, and encryption protocols.
- Compliance alignment, including rules governed by HIPAA, GDPR, SOX, and other standards. Compliance would also include internal requirements. For instance, you may establish requirements around whether uploads have to be approved by content managers or web admins.
Another key consideration is training users and other stakeholders. At first, a new version of SharePoint can feel foreign to new users — even if they’ve used it in the past. In many cases, the point of contention isn’t SharePoint itself but how the environment is structured. Dedicate considerable time to teach users how to navigate your file structure and get the most out of SharePoint’s features.
Other stakeholders should also understand how SharePoint works and what it does for your organization, even if they don’t use the software themselves very often. This is particularly important for those in charge of data security and compliance. Understanding the kinds of data that move through your system and how it’s protected from attackers and compliance slipups can go a long way toward making stakeholders feel comfortable with your new infrastructure.
How to Get Started
To get started, figure out whether upgrading or migrating SharePoint is best for your business.
For many forward-thinking organizations, consulting with a SharePoint migration expert or using SharePoint Online migration services makes sense. This gives you access to seasoned professionals who understand how to make sure you get the most out of SharePoint and that it directly impacts your business goals.
Upgrade or Migrate to SharePoint for Greater Agility
Since its debut, SharePoint has become a preferred choice for content management, transfer, and storage. By conducting your due diligence on everything SharePoint platforms have to offer, you can ensure your SharePoint adoption, migration or upgrade will happen seamlessly and effectively.
With Microsoft Teams and Sharepoint, governance and adoption are key.
Ready to transform your business with SharePoint? Our expert team is here to guide you through seamless SharePoint Online upgrades or migrations to ensure your organization harnesses the full power of the tool. Let’s talk
