r/sharepoint • u/DointheRag • May 28 '26
SharePoint Online I hate SharePoint migrations
I simply cannot stand the prospect of taking part in SharePoint migrations. I don't like the work. I will not take positions that are primarily migration oriented. I enjoy developing, not carting stuff from one platform to another.
Does anyone else feel this way?
20
u/dr4kun IT Pro May 28 '26
ShareGate and PowerShell make migrations almost painless from technical side. Agreeing details with people is just herding cats until you get buy-in from C level who just order things need to happen and everyone has to find time to cooperate with you.
7
3
u/ac5856 May 28 '26
Except for going from classic to modern pages, but yes, ShareGate for life...even if you can't Powershell, it'll save you from many gray hairs.
3
u/jkaczor May 28 '26
ShareGate, ConvertTo-PnPPage, LinkFixer all controlled and orchestrated from a framework of planning lists which feed PowerShell 7 (and yes, we use clever trickery to drive PS5 and ShareGate from the main controller)ā¦.
We spent months building our processes and automation tooling, but now it is repeatable wave after wave of sitesā¦
3
u/mstrblueskys May 30 '26
We did a lift and shift with Sharegate a few months before the pandemic. I looked like a genius when in reality it was Sharegate.
2
u/swanny246 May 29 '26
always been curious, what does ShareGate do that the built in Migration Manager doesnāt?
3
u/t90090 May 29 '26
Alot, plus you can use ShareGate Powershell Addins, so you can script out your migrations and knock them out unattended.
14
u/DonJuanDoja May 28 '26
I aināt doing any of this for fun, I get paid either way.
I stopped worrying if work was fun, only that itās valuable. The value makes it fun for me. Thatās the whole game for me.
1
u/mstrblueskys May 30 '26
One thing I like about migrations is a lot of places will let you do it after hours and flex the time or pay overtime. As long as you aren't too greedy, you can work in peace after everyone is asleep, "monitor the migration," and have a relatively low stress, high value work day.
8
u/suchaborimirthing May 28 '26
I do aquision IT integrations for a large company. Im currently on my 70-or 80 something share point migration..kill me now.
4
u/jlemoo May 28 '26
Don't love it, but I'll say this is what AI was made for. Writing powershell scripts that do much of the heavy lifting. I would not be able to do what I'm doing now without.
6
u/t90090 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26
No, I love Migration work, the people are what sucks. I have extensive experience migrating in the Aerospace and City Government. Migrated from 2007-SPO, Ive implemented out of the box method, also Nintex, SPMT, ShareGate Migratiom Methods as well. People also fail to realize the huge Ā amount of work that it entails, for instance Migration Work (Database Detach, Converting SharePoint Integration Mode to Native SQL Server, etc) should be a separate phase than Updating your Portal Pages, and that Requires Wireframes, Web Developers, etc.Ā
People are just ridiculous, but it builds character and you really get a full understanding of the meaning of life, its a very soul searching experience. ššš
3
u/DrueFedo May 29 '26
Got tricked into a migration role. Literally was showcasing my personally developed projects and got hired based off of it. Then when I actually onboard, they stick me with the migration. Furious.
3
u/pmartin1 May 29 '26
My biggest complaint are the site owners who drag their feet and slow everything down. Ask me how many months I am into a 1-year SharePoint migrationā¦
1
2
2
u/digitalmacgyver IT Pro May 28 '26
I actually see the migration activity as a culmination of efforts to build out the Information Architecture, Record Detention, library model, and data structures that will support agents.
So for me I enjoy the fact it is finally putting the data into the work I have been investing in for months.
1
2
u/Spare_City8795 May 31 '26
We built a MUCH cheaper version of Sharegate to avoid it (and we do the governance around it for deletion / deduplication / rot etc) - willing to share!
1
u/horsethorn May 28 '26
Agreed. I've just changed jobs, the previous one was awesome for the first couple of years, I was the benevolent dictator of the SharePoint tenant.
Then we got acquired and I've spent the last 2.5 years on a migration.
It was a nightmare. Even with both Sharegate and Avepoint Fly.
New job gets me back to being benevolent SharePoint dictator again.
1
u/KerryBoehm May 29 '26
I just took over the SharePoint team. We are looking to move about 20TB off to glacial storage. The team has ShareGate and a couple of us are very seasoned with PS. Concerned how long the transfer will take.
2
u/rufousys IT Pro May 29 '26
This might have to do with the file versioning perhaps?
1
u/KerryBoehm May 29 '26
Multiple fronts. The 20TB is single version videos. Versioning is definitely a big one though. Up until I took it over it was at the default of 500. We knocked it down to 50. I want to drop further than that. Of course that leaves decades of versions sitting out there.
Weāre running out some scripts now to get a handle on how much space is being consumed by versions. Iām guessing weāll have to build some automation to remove them as well.
2
u/rufousys IT Pro May 30 '26
If you do have backups, perhaps restoring from the backup may only restore the current version, might be faster than migration?
2
u/FrivolousMe May 29 '26
That's not terrible file size on it's own but it depends on the industry and how many total files
1
u/KerryBoehm May 29 '26
Getting a handle on that yet. 1400 sites some with dozens if libraries. Some of the larger sites have over 2M files. Currently no retention or lifecycle mgmt is in play either.
1
u/anananet Jun 03 '26
Came across this thread while looking for a slightly different topic (keeping the files in two SPO tenants in sync) and you guys are making me nervous. My task seemed simple as we were going to use a tool CB SharePoint Sync.... but I can't really find info on this tool and am starting to think I got tricked ā¹ļø Do you think I should try to get ShareGate instead?
1
u/thetamagarden Jun 03 '26
ShareGate is brilliant, but if by keeping files in sync you mean you want to keep both tenants in the end, I don't think it is what you need. You could try to do something using "Copy if newer" and Powershell, but it is probably going to cause you some serious crawling overhead. Can't you get more info internally on the tool you're supposed to use???
1
u/anananet Jun 05 '26
Update: Turns out the tool name got mangled somewhere along the way internally, it's actually Secure SharePoint Sync. The names are similar enough š. So turns out I was chasing the wrong thing! If anyone here has experience with Secure SharePoint Sync I would be very much interested!
1
u/No-Bear-1677 Jun 12 '26
Migration can be a bit difficult. So I've created my own tool with a user-friendly interface that makes migration easier.
1
u/lanxpert Jul 15 '26
Given it takes 6-18 months on average, what's your plan to avoid extra headache?
1
u/DointheRag Jul 15 '26
I simply don't take migration work contracts.
1
u/lanxpert Jul 15 '26
That is the option. However, you could bring the home a lot of bacon from such kinda projects.
1
u/DointheRag Jul 15 '26
I've always relished development work, exclusively. I know a lot of folks who do focus on migration efforts, and I tip my hat to them.
0
26
u/johntheroad May 28 '26
I use to feel exactly the same but we would just do a lift and shift and was causing more problems than we were solving.
I've taken it upon myself to actually build a process for this and encourage management to start promoting SharePoint as more than just a file server. It's been a long struggle but once you start making some progress, thinking of it more of a business process improvement, it's become quite fun developing those structures.