SharePoint Migration

We recently launched a suite of awesome SharePoint Tools.  While using the tools internally, I came accross a subtle but cool technique to copy a SharePoint list with dependent content types to the right place in another site collection!

At first glance this task seems to be simple enough considering there are some tools on the market that can let user to grab a list and drag it / drop to the other site collections. Still, you must take into consideration the dependencies within the SharePoint architecture before doing this drag and drop; the list may have content types defined in the parent site, not within the source site itself.

Let’s, for the sake of simplicity, consider two sites: root site of the site collection (Publishing Portal in this case) and its sub-site (Hadrian's Site).

The tricky part is that the parent site (Publishing Portal) contains the definitions for content types. And the sub-site (Hadrian's Site) contains the list itself with all views and content.  We want to keep it that way in our new world to comply with our Content Migration Strategy.

If we continue with a simple drag and drop then we will end up with a list in our destination sub-site that has the content-types directly associated with it instead of the parent site. This is not ideal because acordding to our Content Migration Stragety all vehicle-based content types must be created in the site collection root with the intent to reuse them across the sub-sites.

A workaround to this dilemia would be to copy the list twice. First, to copy it to the root site of the destination site collection even if it ultimately should not go there. Unlike the first copy attempt, this time do not copy content, permissions, workflows or views related to the list. Instead just copy the list itself and all dependent content types. This way, all content types and fields will be automatically created together with the list in the right spot of the destination site collection. There are specific options in a Content Migration Tool like MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint to give the granular control to copy just list with content types.

After this, delete the list from the root site of the destination site collection. All content types created in the root site will still be there because they are defined outside of the list.

Finally to tie things up, copy the same list again but this time – to the right sub-site of the destination site collection. It will create the list and reuse all content types from the root site created during the previous copy. This time, select all options to copy content, permissions and views on the copy list wizard screen.  A helpful hint to preserve the architecture in your target site during your MOSS Migration.

This technique allows to preserve originally designed architecture of SharePoint site collection that involves complex taxonomies of site columns and content type hierarchies.  Make sure you also understand your architecture before you jump in; check out MetaVis Architect to get a complete view of your MOSS properties and build yourself a strong Content Migration Strategy.


 

Download the MetaVis Architect Suite Business Results Sheet
to learn more about moving and classifying content between SharePoint sites.




Content provided by MetaVis for Vamosa

Organizations use SharePoint for a variety of things, from Intranets to Extranets, from Customer Portals to document management and for team collaboration.

Recently there has been a significant amount of discussion around exactly what SharePoint is and what it offers. For example, a recent AIIM article highlights 8 things SharePoint 2010 needs to be a true ECM system. A blog by the Microsoft Team describes SharePoint 2010 in 1 sentence, 8 categories and 40 features. The Rez's SharePoint blog provides a comprehensive comparison of features between SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010.

One element thats there has been great excitement around, is the SharePoint 2010 taxonomy implementation and management across sites and site collections. Organizations must spend time and effort building the appropriate foundation for utilizing the content taxonomy. That is all well and good when a green field project is started, but considerations must be given to data that is already stored in previous versions of SharePoint; how can that information be classified correctly when undertaking a SharePoint Migration? Microsoft does not provide a tool or utility which can be used to apply a new taxonomy and as a result many organizations may become stuck during a MOSS migration.

Vamosa recently announced a partnership with MetaVis to help both existing and new customers get a better ROI and increased value when moving into SharePoint 2010 from SharePoint 2003 or SharePoint 2007 environments, by ensuring the new taxonomy values can be applied to documents.

The MetaVis Suite does not simply help organizations migrate their existing content into the SharePoint 2010 platform; it also provides features such as  a graphical top down view of the web estate and it highlights dependencies between objects. This provides the administrator with a complete view of how their sites are structured. The 'Live Compare' feature of MetaVis provides useful functionality as it allows comparisons of two sites to be undertaken in real-time, listing the differences between sites at the granular level of identifying column differences between content types.

Synchronizing two SharePoint environments at the click of a button is only one of many features offered by Metavis that will help SharePoint Administrators perform their day to day tasks more effectively and efficiently, while ensuring their organization has an effective SharePoint Governance strategy.

MetaVis Migrator for SharePoint allows to use filters to copy content to new location or to tag existing content setting new values for the existing fields. These properties enable an interesting technique to perform a data migration strategy in a slow pace – at the same time as preparing new environment, training users or organizing the existing content.

Sometimes copying data from one SharePoint site to the other one is a quick process that could be done by copying the whole list or library from one place to the other one. However, in other cases this is more complex routine involving copying different items in different locations or migrating portion of data in one day and other portion of data in the other day when users of this content are ready to use new environment. In this later case it could be useful to use combination of some artificial field marking the migrated content in the source site, MetaVis Migrator copy filters and SharePoint views hiding the content that was already migrated to the destination site.

The idea of this technique is simple. First, we will create an artificial Yes/No field in the source list that will indicate that an item is copied to the destination site. By default this field will be “No” for all items / documents in the list.


Then we will go ahead with our SharePoint migration activity selecting portions of data to copy based on some filter condition. The filter will always include the condition to exclude the content which is already migrated based on the state on our artificial columns that we created earlier. Below in an example of such a filter (this time we copy all documents with MK Region equals to Netherlands):


After the copy is completed we use the very same filter that we just used to copy content but this time – to tag selected source data setting our artificial Migrated field to Yes – indicating that this content has been already copied to the destination site. Using the same filter will ensure that all items just copied using this filter will be marked as Migrated.

The fact that all copied content has been marked with certain criteria could be used in a variety of ways. First use is to skip the content which was already copied before when performing new copies to the other places. The second use it to create list view that will hide copied content from the viewers. Below is the example of such a condition in a list view.


Having this condition enabled for the list view will point out that the content is already located in the new destination.
















To learn more about how Metavis MIGRATOR can help you simplify yor SharePoint migration, download the MetaVis Migrator Business Results Sheet.

Content Provided by MetaVis for Vamosa

As noted in a previous post  by Nic Archer it is anticipated that a third of organizations will in time employ a MOSS migration strategy and migrate to the new SharePoint 2010 platform. However in order to maximize organizational efficiency it is essential that all data is prepared prior to the SharePoint 2010 deployment to ensure a smooth content migration strategy.

By defining efficient content taxonomy structures prior to deployment, organizations are able to more easily move content into their new SharePoint environment resulting in improved site architecture and navigation within the new site. This task in itself can involve a significant amount of work before data is ready to be migrated.  If this stage is not meticulously carried out, the value of the content in the new store will be significantly depleted.

The suite of MetaVis tools for SharePoint, now allows SharePoint administrators to reclassify content by assigning new metadata values and new content types during a migration, allowing organizations to migrate more efficiently. Even post migration, MetaVis allows administrators to bulk update metadata, should this be required, further enhancing the findability of data for the user.

With MetaVis, SharePoint administrators can utilize the new Term Store, to graphically re-design and re-architect their content, significantly improving search and discovery of local documents for organizations that are located globally.
By utilizing the capabilities of the new SharePoint environment through MetaVis, administrators will be able transform the web experience, lower the cost of ownership of content management and deliver error free automated migrations, while creating effective content structures in SharePoint 2010 – the ultimate goal for all SharePoint administrators.

To learn more about the suite of MetaVis tools download the MetaVis Architect Suite Buisness Results Sheet.

Yesterday we announced our partnership with MetaVis to be the sole European distributor of MetaVis packaged software tools to help SharePoint Administrators. We will now provide tools that ease the daily task of organizing SharePoint environments for improved search, findability and e-discovery.

Our decision to partner with MetaVis was not made lightly. We evaluated a number of SharePoint migration solutions including Metalogix and AvePoint to ensure we would be providing out clients with the best out-of-the-box product on the market.

The most significant reason we chose MetaVis is because it was developed for the SharePoint 2010 market and therefore provides a more comprehensive solution. The MetaVis Architect Suite not only allows migration, but it allows SharePoint Administrators to graphically re-design and re-architect content so they get the most out of the features and functions of 2010: this is the major differentiation.

When evaluating Metalogix and AvePoint we recognized that they could do simple MOSS migrations, but being developed for SharePoint 2003 and 2007 means they have only been adapted for 2010. The products will not necessarily give you solutions for re-architecting your content and definitely do not provide an easy to use graphical representation of the your content. And as a result, you’ll end up migrating all your content to SharePoint 2010 without the ability to take advantage of all the new features and functions within SharePoint 2010. You’ll need to buy more tools in order to get around this problem, costing you time and money.

The bottom line is that if you need a SharePoint migration solution for 2010 and you are evaluating Metalogix and AvePoint, MetaVis should also be on that list.  We found it to be the far superior solution and we think you will as well.

You wouldn’t move house without taking stock of your content to decide what you need, what you can get rid of and what won’t fit in your new house. Or devising a plan for all the content to be cleansed, refitted and moved. So why would you do it with your enterprise content? It is essential you have a comprehensive content migration strategy.







To find out more about MetaVis,
download the MetaVis Architect Suite Business Result Sheet.

As an experienced Consultant, I find it’s difficult to say when considering a data migration strategy which step in the process is most important. The success of a data migration methodology really depends on all the components of a solution working well from beginning to end. But it’s certainly true that a successful data migration project cannot take place without a robust means to push content into its new home, whatever that might be.

Since virtually every content management system (CMS) on the market is different, there is no silver bullet for loading content quickly and dependably. Each application programming interface (API) is different and can vary greatly in terms of quality style and completeness. Some may require a custom web service, deployed on the target environment and called remotely.

But this solution isn’t quite optimal. What if the client’s target environment is completely inaccessible for some reason? Perhaps the client’s security model forbids deploying foreign services. Microsoft’s SharePoint 2010 CMS circumvents the necessity to deploy remote services with its client object model. After getting your hands on the required libraries the SharePoint 2010 API is suddenly at your fingertips. Using this technique, a data migration can be accomplished using a locally deployed custom service after supplying the required credentials!

While I found SharePoint’s client object model to provide a promising new way to connect to a CMS, I thought the API was incomplete and sometimes poorly documented. Luckily, the out-of-the-box web services packaged with MOSS provided the methods I required. I am excited at the prospect that more CMSs will start packaging up libraries that provide the tools necessary to connect to an environment with a remote machine. It simply provides a safer solution for the data migration and one that doesn’t require deploying anything on the client’s machines! The big upshot of the client object model implies that projects are less likely to face resource bottlenecks because additional access to secure systems is not required. A smaller gap between the development and testing periods allows more time for refinements and a better quality data migration solution.

It seems that Microsoft is leading the way in this regard.

  Download our Data Migration - Seven Steps to Success White Paper to gain a further understanding of the data migration best practices that should be considered when beginning a migration project.

In part 1 of the series we highlighted some of the steps that can help you obtain maximum value from your content. In this issue, we will further explore some of the solutions that will allow you to overcome the business challenges associated with the digital landfill.

1) Make Sure Your Content isn’t Duplicated

While reducing the noise on your content store is hugely beneficial you need to go one step further; you must ensure that there are no duplication issues.  A Swiss Bank client once told me that attaching a PowerPoint presentation of 1Mb to an email within that bank increases corporate storage requirements by at least 1 GB and produces on average ten versions of the file.  In one search, a single document could exist in 100 different places. That single fact alone highlights how difficult it is to sort out the knowledge from the noise. By de-duplicating your content, you’ll already be streamlining the process. Anecdotally this can reduce the file count by between 50% and 80% – significant in anybody’s language.

2) Find the Holes within Your Knowledge

Look for existing entities in your classification that do not exist within your metadata – the information you have about your content. Holes provide you with the ability to clean information, ensure metadata management is considered by content creators; and if it’s not to get those content creators in line, by setting out content complaince guidelines. That way you’ll be able to ensure content is relevant, findable and clean.

3) Share Knowledge

Content Management Systems work optimally when the content that they are custodians of is focused, relevant and classified and as a result this content compliance issues should be addressed. You need to assess how your content is being consumed and with this information drive your choice of platform as required. When undertaking a data migration strategy, for example emails, a real opportunity exists to be selective about where you store content. One customer was migrating 120,000 user email accounts from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Exchange. When discussing the migration, it was identified that 70% of the storage requirement was generated by attachments. Moving all of the attachments to SharePoint instantly enabled ‘share-ability’ and de-duplication. You don’t need to follow the obvious route when sharing knowledge, rather choose a platform based upon what your business requires.

4) Maintaining Your Knowledge Assets

It is essential to keep on top of your knowledge. If you allow your content to become chaotic, it’s not easy to repair; if you manage it on a weekly basis, maintenance is much easier. Once your content is at a point of usefulness, where it is relevant and findable, keep it there. If you don’t’ look at it for a year, you’ll then see some major gaps in the metadata, incorrect naming conventions, incorrect storage locations etc. If you invest in a pragmatic care and maintenance program, then spotting minor deviations from the documented standard will be easy to monitor, highlight and resolve, allowing you to continually obtain maximum value from your digital landfill.







To learn more about getting the most from your digital landfill,
download the Five Steps to Discovering the Real Shape of your Digital Content White Paper.

In a CNET Q&A with Microsoft Business Division President, Stephen Elop was asked how Microsoft will get businesses to upgrade from the older version of SharePoint they’re already using and ‘in a nutshell, what’s Microsoft’s pitch to large businesses this time around?’ Stephen replied by discussing productivity across the PC, the phone, and the browser and the focus on making sure that people can work better together, taking advantage of the social-networking capabilities, the rich cloud technologies and a variety of other things.

He was also asked about the specific features that the average productivity worker will get with Office 2010 that they couldn’t get in either Google Docs or a prior version of Office. Elop commented that for users of Microsoft’s Outlook product for e-mail and various forms of communication, there are all sorts of capabilities that have been introduced to help people more effectively manage their communications, whether it’s ignoring threads of communication that are annoying, whether it is the ability to work with advanced conversation views to deal with complex communication patterns, or the interoperability established between Outlook and a number of the social-networking environments, such as LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook.

The benefits of SharePoint are certainly there and according to Forrester, a third of big enterprises plan to upgrade to SharePoint 2010 within a year, and that in turn will drive the corporate success of the Office 2010. But while Stephen is thinking of ways to convince enterprises to buy, he’s not thinking about or being asked about how Microsoft suggests large enterprises conduct a MOSS migration and migrate all of their content including documents to SharePoint 2010.

Migration is often viewed as an obstacle to enjoying the full benefits of a new product, but it needn’t be and Microsoft should recognise this early or face low adoption.

There are a few steps that need to occur prior to the upgrade to make it smooth and ensure it is a success.  These include content analysis to understand exactly what exists and a process to clean that content up. SharePoint 2010 is being received well, but it won’t solve many of the issues faced by enterprises unless a clear content migration strategy for upgrade is adopted and the required process of content migration is carried out properly.







MetaVis MIGRATOR is a simple tool for migrating content and objects between SharePoint sites, site collection or servers. Whether you are consolidating, upgrading or simply re-organizing your SharePoint environment. Download the MetaVis MIGRATOR business results sheet of have a free trial.

Stephen Elop, President of the Microsoft Business Division, announced the launch of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 on May 12, 2010 at 8 a.m PST or 11 a.m. EST last week. As a result, there is sure to be a wave of organizations migrating from SharePoint 2007 to 2010 as there was when 2007 was released; but what issues should be considered before undertaking a SharePoint migration?

Gartner have urged enterprises to avoid the use of customizations as much as possible, since this was a real pain point during the 2003 to 2007 SharePoint migration surge. They also suggest that organizations should consider using one of the many content migration tools available; these tools will not nullify the labour costs involved when undertaking a content migration – they can however significantly reduce them, by ensuring that only the required content is migrated.

By undertaking a full content analysis of your content prior to migration, you ensure that content that is no longer required for the business is not unnecessarily migrated to your new repository. It is essential to prioritize content, authorize and make decisions as to deleting old, redundant files or creating new ones. This will ensure that all content meets both corporate and technical standards, while guaranteeing that content is not weighing down the data structures and back up abilities of your new SharePoint environment.

You may also want to consider companies with experience of SharePoint if you’re considering an enterprise-scale data migration.