Presented at SharePoint TechFest Houston 2014. All rights reserved.

1. Migration Migraines
Avoiding the Tylenol
9:10am - 10:00am, Room 606. NRG Park. Nov 5.
David Frette
Moss Delight
Odin H. Castillo
LogicBound, Inc.
0

2. Welcome to SharePoint TechFest
Thank you for being a part of the
Houston SharePoint TechFest!
• Please turn off all electronic devices or set them to vibrate.
• If you must take a phone call, please do so in the lobby so as not
to disturb others.
• Thanks to our Sponsors!
1

3. Migration Migraine
2
(Expectation)
(Reality)

4. “Generally speaking, a migration
will magnify problems, not solve
them”
Migration => migraine
3

5. About Moss Delight Services
• Houston-based organization
• Provide Consulting and Solutions based on improving
business processes and access to data through
technology based process improvements
• Industries served: Technology, Energy, Oil Field Services,
Manufacturing, Investment Banking, Chemicals, Housing,
Commodities Trading, Property Management, and
Transportation
• Management has over 50 years of experience
implementing and managing enterprise solutions
4

6. 5
• Pre-Migration
• Know your
– Upgrade Path
– Players
– Content
– Architecture
Warm Up

7. Common Pre-Migration Problems
Proficiency
Training
6
Architecture
Performance
Content
Topology
Size

8. 7
If your users weren’t fluent in
SP 2007/2010, they won’t be
in SP 2013.
While 2013 might be a little
more intuitive (debatable at
best), if users don’t
understand SharePoint, the UI
won’t make them get it.
Proficiency

9. Training
If you didn’t have an adequate training program in
SP 2007/2010, you won’t have one in SP 2013
8
• End Users
• Power Users
• Content Managers
• Administrators
– Farm
– Site
• Developers

10. Performance
New hardware doesn’t solve software issues (but it
doesn’t hurt)
• Servers
• SQL Cluster
• Load Balancers
9

11. Content
Redundant copies don’t vanish. Obsolete content
doesn’t become relative, and search continues to
remain cluttered.
“Those who cannot clean up the
past content are condemned to
migrate it”
10

12. Topology
Site organization transfers right over. Migration is a
great time to re-organize.
11

13. Size
whether the farm needs room to grow (400GB site
collections, haven’t we learned by now?)
12

14. Know your upgrade path
13
Solutions and
customizations
Service
Applications
Content
3rd Party
products
What’s
deprecated
InfoPath
Forms

15. Know your players
14
Advisory
Board
Steering
Committee
Business
Sponsor

16. Assembling your Agents
15

17. Seek Help
 SharePoint skills are gained through doing – get someone with experience
 Be careful that 5 years of experience means 5 years, not 1 year X 5
Be careful of so called SharePoint ‘experts’
An All-in-one SharePoint person is a fallacy
16

18. Communication & Sponsorship
17

19. Communication & Sponsorship
“Know thy Enemy”
18
• Be clear that
– Change is coming (Broadcast & Narrowcast)
– Who and How are they going to be affected?
– You “will” need volunteers … it takes a village
• Have a plan and have it approved
– Chart the course
– Get it approved at the highest level
• Let’s be honest, You’re going to make mistakes &
learn along the way

20. Know your content
19
• Audit your sites

21. It’s not just data that is being migrated
• Well, yes Data, but what is it made of
– Versions, Metadata, Structure, Permissions, ∞!
– Will it migrate
• Don’t forget the system(s)
– Taxonomy (Site Map, Containers)
– Security (Permission Levels, Identities)
– Functionality and features
– Business Processes and custom development
20

22. Know your architecture
• Every SharePoint migration is also a rollout
21

23. Know your tools and resources
22
• PowerShell
• The Community
• Your SMEs
• Your Testers
• Review TechNet