Data migration plays a key part of moving from one business app suite to another. The entire process is filled with complexities which can cause unanticipated challenges even in modern enterprises that have extensive experience in migrating data. Data migration without a clear-cut methodology is bound to become a time consuming, expensive, and taxing activity for any business. According to a Gartner report, as many as 83% of data migration projects exceed their deadline and/or budget and according to a Bloor Research*, 38% fail entirely. However, with the right tools and support, Data migration between business apps can be made into a seamless and worry-free process for the IT team, managers, and end users.
This blog intends to identify the top 10 common challenges during data migration from Google Drive to Microsoft 365 and detail the ways in which Netwoven addresses them successfully. Netwoven’s innovative solutions are designed to save time, money, and resources of businesses at each stage of the migration.
Challenge 1: Inbound Links to Google Drive files
If you are using applications such as Confluence and Jira whose reference files are stored in Google Drive, these links will need to be updated once the migration is complete. File links within the documents can also break during the migration process.
Our Solution
Netwoven has created link update utilities for Jira & Confluence and can build similar utilities for other tools with available APIs. Netwoven also uses 3rd party tooling to update links in the migrated files to Microsoft 365 post-migration.
Challenge 2: Personal vs. Team Content
All companies have the necessity to work through employee attrition. In Google Drive, the URLs of files do not change as ownership is passed between users due to offboarding. In Microsoft 365, this occurs at some point and addressing this can be tough without proper forethought.
Our Solution
Netwoven has comprehensive reporting to identify content that would benefit by being promoted to SharePoint Online or Teams instead of One Drive to avoid attrition issues.
Challenge 3: Naming Convention File Paths Very Long
Google does not enforce character limitation on filenames, but Microsoft does. Defining consistent and meaningful ways to shorten file names and allowing migration can be troublesome.
Our Solution
Netwoven identifies locations in your content hierarchy where the limits will create issues and provides suggestions for shortening the URLs.
Challenge 4: Google Forms are not Migrated
Google Forms data is only migrated if it is saved to Google Sheet. The forms themselves are not migrated and will need to be recreated manually in Forms, PowerApps or a similar app.
Our Solution
Netwoven identifies the Google Forms communicates to customers to get content owners save their content to Google Sheets prior to the migration. Netwoven also provides service to train and assist in recreating Forms as needed in Microsoft 365.
Challenge 5: GDraw files Converted to .SVG
After GDraw files are migrated, they are converted to Secure Vector Graphic (.SVG) format losing all active connections and the images must be edited using an .SVG editor which is not available in Microsoft 365 as a built-in.
Our Solution
Netwoven identifies the GDraw files and provides communication/information to customers to create awareness of the needed change.
Challenge 6: Jamboards, Sites & Maps not Migrated
There is no technical solution to this issue, one has to manually address downloading or converting any data, as required.
Our Solution
Netwoven identifies the affected content and provides communication/information to our customers to create awareness of the needed workarounds.
Challenge 7: Concentric Circles of Teams
Not all organizations subscribe to working in Teams with set memberships. If your Team drives its content lifecycle and work pattern through concentric but dynamic circles of colleagues, education may be required to maintain productivity.
Our Solution
Netwoven has defined alternative approaches to using MS Teams to help your business be productive with work patterns that need not necessarily subscribe to Microsoft norms.
Challenge 8: Co-Authoring at Scale
Do you have the need to have 10+ people co-authoring the same file at the same time? There are some cases where this is important and is a gap that requires some finesse to work-around.
Our Solution
Netwoven consults with the teams that have this issue to demonstrate alternatives that allow working around these limitations to be possible until the limits are raised.
Challenge 9: Files owned by others added to Drive
In Google Drive people can add files owned by other folks to their Drive. This is important because in Microsoft your view is indicative of the content structure, not just a view that changes for each person.
Our Solution
This is addressed with appropriate adoption & change management, communications, problem solving sessions, FAQ sessions, etc. which help users can easily find their files, despite the perspective change.
- OneDrive for Business is tightly integrated with other Microsoft 365 applications and services such as Microsoft Teams, Yammer, SharePoint, and Exchange Online that simplifies collaboration.
- If your organization uses Windows 10 devices, features such as OneDrive Files On-Demand can help you optimize the use of local disk space.
- If your users need to store many images, OneDrive is a better option as images are stored as regular files that can be found in the Pictures/Camera Uploads folder, unlike Google Drive on which they are available only online with Google Photos.
Challenge 10: Microsoft ProPlus Transition
If your company’s culture aligns closely with browser-based collaboration, a culture/tooling re-alignment may be necessary. More robust features and benefits in Microsoft 365 ProPlus are available in desktop apps versus the browser. Also, ‘Linked Slides’ are not supported in PowerPoint which can be frustrating and cause loss in functionality.
Our Solution
This is addressed with appropriate adoption & change management, communications, problem solving workshops, FAQ sessions and more.
You may also like : Google Workspace to Office 365 Migration
Key features that make Microsoft 365 better than Google Drive
| Features | Office 365 | Google Apps |
|---|---|---|
| Applications | Outlook, One Drive, PowerPoint, Excel, MS Word, Skype, OneNote, Access, etc. | Gmail, Google Drive, Docs, Slides, Spreadsheet, Hangout |
| Email Storage | 50 GB | 30 GB including both Email & File storage |
| File Storage | 1 TB storage space | |
| Security Services | Provides their tools with Artificial Intelligence to analyze any suspicious activities (Virus, Hacking, threats, etc.). | Provide the services to auto detect suspicious activities from both user and admin accounts. |
| Pricing | Monthly plans per user Business Essentials Plan – $6 Business Plan – $10 Business Premium Plan – $15 Note: Plans with below 50 GB of Emails and 1TB of cloud storage is different Monthly plans per user | Monthly plans per user Basic – $5 per user Business – $10 Enterprise – $29 |
| Accessibility | Offline access through Apps like MS Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, PowerPoint, etc. | Online access only |
| Communication Services | Outlook mails, Skype | Gmail, Hangout |
| Intranet | SharePoint | Google Sites |
*Risks and Challenges in Data Migrations and Conversions- Gartner
** Data Migration – 2011, A White Paper by Bloor Research
