Both Box and SharePoint have their place in the enterprise content management arena. Sometimes it is a preference based on features or it is due to an option to save financially. So how can you successfully migrate between SharePoint and Box?
If you are looking to migrate your business from Box to SharePoint or from SharePoint to Box there are tools out there that can help, but there are some catches and features you should look for when searching for your migration tool — aside from its ability to support your platform and move teams.
There are several things you should look for when deciding on a data moving tool. Some of these include scan functionality, cost, platform security, error handling, reporting, and support.
Scan Functionality
Scanning is key when looking to move any size or number of users and shared data. When looking through specific platforms such as SharePoint and Box, they use slightly different ways to calculate the data; one file may only be 0.2KBs different, however when you add this up, it can quickly increase to TBs.
Additionally, when you have file versions and Google Docs these may not show up in your own investigation. Another reason to do the scan is to see what actually is going to be moved and to identify any errors before the transfer starts — for example SharePoint has a file path and name character limit of 400 characters.
Cost
There is always going to be a cost, whether it is your time waiting for data to sync between providers or monetary cost that you’ve invested into a third party tool to help you. There are free tools out there, but as most free tools, they have their limitations and support doesn’t exist. When it comes to cost some tools out there cost $1 per GB which is heavily overpriced, where as others are cost-effective and scale with your data. In the end you don’t want to be paying more to move your data than your yearly storage subscription cost.
From the above you can see there are some more ‘softer’ features or requirements that you should look for when identifying your desired migration tool. Movebot is a solid choice with a helpful team and encompasses all the features and skills you need to move your team between platforms, whether it’s SharePoint, Box, Dropbox or Google Drive.
Platform Security
Data is important, sensitive and not something you want in the hands of the wrong person. Also, sometimes there are geographic restrictions which means that data must remain within a country (data sovereignty).
When working with data you should check where the company is hosted, see whether you can decide where your migration is run from and also speak to the team to get a feel of who is going to be processing your data. An example of a secure provider is Movebot who runs dedicated infrastructure for each individual migration, on completion of the migration the compute server is destroyed.
Error Handling
As mentioned earlier some platforms have different requirements or support an array of options; for example Google Drive supports duplicate files, SharePoint has character limitations and path lengths and Box depending on your subscription has file size limits.
Look for a provider that resolves these automatically, or at least notifies you of these issues in a scan so that you know what to expect. Along with this, there should be detailed reports to inform you what went wrong and provide you the opportunity to re-run the failed files.
Reporting
When dealing with data you want to know what is happening, how much is being moved, what was not moved, the file types and in depth logging to know what is happening in real time.
It’s not good just starting a migration job but have no idea what is happening and whether any files are being transferred. Look for a tool that can provide you in-depth information and doesn’t hide anything — especially rate-limiting issues.
Accessible Support
Moving data isn’t easy and often comes with its challenges, as per any technology environment, they are all different in one way or another. Due to this issues can occur and when they occur it’s best to know you can reach out and get assistance to help. Before migrating, reach out to the company and get a feel on how they respond, communicate and their response times.
Try Movebot for moving between Box and SharePoint
With lightning-fast data moving capabilities, an easy-to-use interface, and affordable pricing, Movebot is an excellent choice for moving between SharePoint and Box. With features like a pre-migration scan, automatic doctype conversion, and the ability to move permissions, Movebot simplifies data movement between clouds. Find out how Movebot handles other SharePoint migrations at The Complete Guide to SharePoint Migrations with Movebot.
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