DocAve helped us ensure that users were comfortable with the whole process and encountered minimal-to-no disruption throughout our migration.
Supporting a student body of more than 45,000, VU implemented SharePoint as the primary collaboration and document management platform for its 2,000 staff members. Additionally, VU utilised the platform as one of its web application development platforms alongside other technologies, including ColdFusion, Oracle, Java, and Drupal.
As a critical system for university operations, VU administrators needed to ensure the experience on the platform was maximised for end users from a functionality standpoint. Shortly after SharePoint 2013 was released, the organisation determined it was the ideal time to upgrade from its SharePoint 2007 implementation. “SharePoint 2007 had reached the end of its lifecycle and support, and the multi-browser compatibility in SharePoint 2013 had vastly improved from previous versions, which would make the experience much better for our users,” said Allan Baroto, SharePoint Analyst at VU. “We were also looking for a better search experience for users, and the functionality in SharePoint 2013 was greatly improved over SharePoint 2007.”
Utilising SharePoint’s native tools, VU would have needed to first migrate its SharePoint 2007 data – which included 130 GB of content across 100 site collections – to SharePoint 2010 before upgrading to SharePoint 2013. In order to simplify this process and save time, VU administrators were determined to find a better way. “We wanted a solution that would make it possible to migrate directly from SharePoint 2007 to the new SharePoint 2013 farm,” said Tyson O’Leary, Server Systems Engineer at VU.
Due to its success using AvePoint’s DocAve Backup and Restore for SharePoint data protection, VU decided to implement DocAve Migrator for its SharePoint migration. Part of AvePoint’s DocAve Software Platform for SharePoint infrastructure management, DocAve Migrator provides an efficient, cost-effective solution for migrating business-critical content to the latest releases of SharePoint and would allow VU to migrate its data from SharePoint 2007 directly to SharePoint 2013. “While using DocAve as our SharePoint content backup solution, our experience with the AvePoint support team has always been good,” Baroto said. “The fact that AvePoint has a presence in Melbourne also gave assurance that someone local could help us resolve any issues we encountered throughout the migration.”
With DocAve, VU was able to carry out its migration according to specific organisational needs, which involved a two-phased approach. Administrators were able to first perform a full migration of all content to SharePoint 2013 and then ask content owners to verify that the data in the new environment was correct. Following content owner approval, administrators used DocAve to perform an incremental migration to move any new content that was created since the full migration took place. Throughout the process, all content was migrated with full fidelity – including security settings, attributes, and properties. “By carrying out a phased migration, we could ensure the quality of our verification process,” Baroto said. “DocAve worked perfectly with our plan, since users had sufficient time to confirm that content had been migrated correctly before rolling over to the new environment.”
From the beginning stages of analysis to the final user acceptance testing, VU was able to migrate its entire deployment to its new SharePoint 2013 farm within three months. Throughout the migration process, users were able to access the source environment without interruption, resulting in no loss of productivity. “DocAve helped us ensure that users were comfortable with the whole process and encountered minimal-to-no disruption throughout our migration,” Baroto said. “We were able to complete the project within our planned timeframe and roll users over from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013 in one weekend.”
Now on SharePoint 2013, VU is not only able to provide a better experience for its users, but it is able to take advantage of the platform’s new features across the organisation. VU continues to rely on DocAve to protect all of its SharePoint 2013 content with platform-level backups and easy, granular data recovery down to the item level. “We love the simplified, sharing-based model for site permissions management in SharePoint 2013,” O’Leary said. “Content owners now have a much easier way to share content and spend less time sorting out permission issues.”
With DocAve, VU was able to cut its overall migration project in half by upgrading from SharePoint 2007 directly to SharePoint 2013 without the need to go to SharePoint 2010 first. As the organisation’s deployment continues to evolve, VU will look to AvePoint to help support with other solutions. “We would like to put in place a new governance model to improve management, delivery, and accountability of SharePoint content and services within the University,” Baroto said. “We feel that we could use DocAve Governance Automation to help us achieve these goals.”
Victoria University (VU) is well known for preparing its students not just for a career, but for life. Through strong industry connections and leadership in sport education, VU provides opportunities for every individual to achieve success on their own terms.
DocAve helped us ensure that users were comfortable with the whole process and encountered minimal-to-no disruption throughout our migration.