AVEPOINT-LÖSUNGEN
After searching, Naundorf and his team ultimately found the tool they were looking for in AvePoint’s DocAve Software Platform. DocAve integrates more than 30 independently deployable modules which function within a unified, browser-based interface and fully distributed architecture, but can also be purchased and deployed independently. With DocAve SharePoint Migrator, administrators could perform high-fidelity content migration at the item, subsite, or site level. DocAve’s efficient and reliable data transfer is unique in its ability to migrate content while retaining all of the associated metadata, letting organizations maximize their return on existing investments. “Retaining metadata and security information was one of our main concerns,” Naundorf said. “AvePoint was the only solution we found that was able to keep everything intact.”
After acclimating themselves to the software and ultimately developing a migration plan, NHS administrators began to migrate the organization’s collaboration sites. The collaboration site migration went smoothly, and administrators were able to move 100 site collections to SharePoint 2010 while end users continued to have uninterrupted access to the organization’s SharePoint environment. “We were able to migrate site collections that were not as heavily used during business hours,” Naundorf said. “However, DocAve’s scheduling capabilities allowed us to migrate site collections that were used most heavily during the workday outside of business hours to avoid any decline in performance.”
After the collaboration sites were migrated, the next step for administrators was to migrate the single intranet site collection. This task proved to be a much greater challenge. Since the site collection was built on a feature that was specific to SharePoint 2003, administrators had difficulties transferring the intranet collection to the SharePoint 2010 environment. It was then that administrators turned to AvePoint’s live, global technical support team, which includes more than 70 Microsoft-certified specialists worldwide. NHS administrators were put directly in touch with AvePoint’s developers, who worked closely with the administrators to examine the issues at hand, get to the root of the problem, and deliver accurate solutions. “I don’t believe we have ever dealt with a company that has as high a level of quality in its technical support as AvePoint,” Naundorf said. “We felt great working with the developers, and the support team’s overall thoroughness really paid off for us.”
Once the intranet issues were resolved, the migration was complete and NHS administrators were ready to go live with the upgraded environment. In all, the migration process took 30 weeks and 60 GB was migrated in the form of 120 site collections. As hoped, NHS administrators were able to carry out the migration incrementally with DocAve, but still have all end users begin using the SharePoint 2010 environment at the same point in time. The transition took about an hour after the final migration was complete. With the migration process finished, administrators were able to spend more time helping end users adjust to the new system and facilitate adoption. “The ability to cutover all end users at once after performing incremental migrations made the process much easier to manage and saved a lot of headaches,” Naundorf said. “For the first two weeks after the migration, three support administrators were able to handle all queries and help requests from end users, and two were able to manage the responsibility after that.”