If you're looking to migrate a large organization--we're talking tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of users with data volumes in the petabytes--knowing where to start can be difficult. Not only do you have the human element of the migration, including working through change management, but you also need to find the right tool that keeps the process simple, cost-effective, and can handle migrations of this size. There's no doubt that large organization migrations take a lot of careful planning for best results, but Movebot will make sure the migration itself will be the least of your worries.
Planning large organization migrations
If you have a really small migration--say a couple of shared drives that are a few hundred GB--you don't really have to do planning at all, especially when using a tool like Movebot. You'd connect the platforms, start the migration, and it would be done the same night.
Migrating for a large organization is different though. It will likely involve moving millions of files with thousands of users, each of who will need to be mapped on the new platform. By investing in planning and prep time, you can knock out potential obstacles early and be ready to go live in the new storage platform sooner.
Analyze the source data
Before moving files, you should take inventory of what files you have, and decide what you want to move, and where. When you use a data migration tool like Movebot, you don't have to move the entire source to the destination; instead, you can break migrations down the folder level and make the move in much more manageable chunks.
It also means you can isolate all the Archive folders across different drives and move them to a separate platform if you want, such as a cold storage platform with lower data costs, which can be as much as 90% cheaper than "hot" storage with the trade-off that files can't be accessed as easily (and likely won't need to since they're archived).
If you aren't sure where all the unneeded data is located, something like Movebot's filtering can help. Set criteria from choices like file extension, name, or last modification time to isolate files you don't need to migrate and choose not to move them, move them in a different batch of transfers, or move them to a different storage platform.
Review file structure and permissions
A migration is an excellent time to review your file structure and permissions and make sure everything is still valid and optimized. If the structure, permissions, and naming conventions are the way they are because "they've always been that way", you can use the migration as an opportunity to change things up.
If you're happy with the way files are structured and how permissions are handled, you might be able to move those as part of the migration, depending on the source and destination and if the data migration tool can handle it. Movebot supports migrating permissions between the majority of the 30+ supported platforms, meaning that you can save time and have a more secure starting point in the destination.
When doing a migration because of a merger or acquisition, there's a high chance of potential conflicts for similar folder and filenames, and chances are that the data from both parties will be needed. Instead of having to review each file and folder one by one, with Movebot, you can use built-in features like filename sanitization and deduplication to make sure these files can still be moved and useable in the destination. Files that would be duplicate, for instance, will get a duplicate prefix added to the name to create a unique filename.
Check for incompatibilities
Different cloud storage platforms have different requirements, so it's not always as straightforward as choosing what data to move and hitting go. A tool like Movebot can handle many platform quirks automatically by renaming or converting files. However, there are a few hard limits that can't be overcome.
For instance, Google allows for a maximum of 500,000 objects in a shared drive. If you try to go over that amount, you won't be able to bypass the limit because it's simply not possible for shared drives to hold more. In these instances, Movebot would give you a critical error that what you're trying to do isn't possible, and then you can make any necessary adjustments for your destination platform.
Requirements and limitations vary per platform, so be sure to check the documentation of your chosen platforms for an exhaustive list. Alternatively, running a scan in Movebot can help you identify these incompatibilities and make changes before you start moving any files.
Movebot makes data migrations simple
Movebot keeps the migration process simple regardless of how many users or how much data you are looking to migrate. Due to the flexible nature of Movebot's cloud architecture, Movebot scales as your migration does. Movebot is fully cloud-hosted and managed - meaning you don't need to worry about infrastructure or hosting software.
Because of this, each individual transfer (think user to user, drive to drive, or folder to site) is run on its own independent compute node (server). This allows each job to run faster and is more secure as there are no shared resources and it enables you to have more granular control on your migrations.
It also enables Movebot to optimize your migration to operate faster and perform better. Because there are no shared resources, each individual migration isn't waiting on a previous one to finish before it can begin, thus migrating multiple users and drives simultaneously. Movebot's scan functionality also helps ensure there are no issues before a migration so you'll know it will run smoothly.
Even for large organizations, migrations are simple and straightforward. All you have to do is follow Movebot's 3 steps of PAC--Plan, Advance, Cutover-- and your migration will be done in no time.
Mailbox support
Movebot supports full mailbox migrations from the most popular platforms. Move emails, contacts, and calendars between Office 365, Google Workspace, Microsoft Exchange, and IMAP with ease. Movebot also lets you move these types of files to other cloud storage platforms for storage and archival.
Movebot pricing with large organizations
Additionally, not only does Movebot's infrastructure scale, but so does its pricing. Movebot only charges for the amount of data moved regardless of how many users or drives you have. This works out much cheaper in the long term, especially when combining file and mail migrations. For example, if you were migrating 50,000 users, some platforms would charge $500,000 dollars (and that might not move all the data either), whereas Movebot can move data between clouds at 1/10th that price.
Movebot offers competitive, usage-based pricing. Enterprise users who are doing large organization migrations with 1000s of users and 100s of TB, or even petabytes worth of data can save even more on the Enterprise plan.
Movebot supports your cloud
Movebot supports all storage platforms and has partner relationships with most. These relationships can help you with your migration and ensure that there is adequate support available to you when migrating such large amounts. Movebot supports both cloud (Google Drive, SharePoint, Dropbox, Box, Egnyte, Amazon S3, etc.) and on-premise file systems (NAS, file share, or file server), and can move data between both types.
Files and more
When dealing with content and data at scale, you have to take into account versions and permissions too. This is because the way your data is structured at the source and how it will look at the destination can be much different, especially when going from a cloud provider whose way of storing data is fundamentally different (think Box compared to Google Drive).
Movebot provides the ability to run a preflight discovery scan which performs a scan of your source data platform and will provide a breakdown of the data structure, permissions, versions, and any further information on the content.
Along with the scan and during the migration Movebot will provide in the report any flagged issues that may arise. Additionally, during the migration, Movebot performs automatic error handling to streamline your migrations and ensure you don't leave anything behind. Movebot will automatically correct character or file type issues that may crop up during the migration such as converting Google Docs into Microsoft Format on the fly.
A support team of technical professionals
When migrating such large amounts of users, drives, and data, a strong Support team is key. Movebot offers support as part of the service on the tool. When migrating such large amounts, we understand that it can be a stressful time and you often require a top-level engineer on the other end of the phone.
Movebot's engineers are always available, so you can have meetings to discuss your migration with fast response times and talk with an engineer who will identify and fix your specific issue.
Movebot is your enterprise data mover
When it comes to moving data, Movebot makes it easy, even if you have thousands of users and petabytes of data. Movebot keeps migrations simple, whether it is thousands of users or hundreds of TB, on-premise to the cloud, or cloud to cloud. It's always simple, fast and cost-effective.
If you have a large migration and would like to know more or have a chat with a Movebot human, don't hesitate to reach out. Our team can walk you through setup and optimizations if you'd like and give you an idea of how the project will go. If you have a large project and want to make sure your migration will run smoothly and that Movebot can handle it, feel free to set up a call with a migration expert now.
