Executive Summary:
The decision to move your Microsoft Exchange Server public folders to SharePoint is not an easy one. Migrating is a complex labor-intensive undertaking that if handled incorrectly can result in significant business interruption. The guidance provided here can help you move your crucial data from public folders into SharePoint with as few problems as possible. |
During the past year, I've worked with several clients that plan to use SharePoint as a replacement for Exchange public folders (and file shares, though not the topic of this article). Given the problems that organizations face with the uncontrollable growth of unstructured data, compliance requirements, and impacts on storage and operations, it’s a painful topic with no "magic bullet" solution.
Is there a rush to replace public folders? Probably not at the moment unless there are organizational factors surfacing that are forcing the change. For the time being, there's no time pressure for organizations to do so, because public folders will continue to exist and be supported until the end of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 product life cycle in 2016 or 2017. But there are compelling reasons for adopting a SharePoint-based solution: better presentation, search, and mobile access to name a few. But expectations must be managed carefully because migrating is a complex labor-intensive undertaking that if handled incorrectly can result in significant business interruption. The guidance I offer in this article is a general overview of the process that will help you plan, design, and carryout your migration with as few problems and pitfalls as possible.
The SharePoint Decision
SharePoint is not the solution for every enterprise. Organizations that are considering the move to SharePoint need to consider the following concerns prior to the move:
- Moving data from public folders to SharePoint is labor intensive.
- SharePoint stores the files in SQL Server so there are scalability concerns. Some companies have several terabytes of public folder data and file shares. You can find help in the TechNet article "Plan enterprise content storage"
- How do you tag the files so you can easily search for data? You can find guidance in the blog post "Searching Custom Column Values in MOSS 2007."
- Moving to SharePoint can be expensive. File servers are cheaper than SharePoint and SQL Server farms.
- You'll need additional tools, such as enterprise records management and archival
- SharePoint doesn’t support replication so you'll need a third-party replication product. Both Syntergy and Infonic offer solutions.
Approach
Generally, I recommend that companies take a new approach to thinking about data--its classification, storage and retrieval. Organizations must think about information using a fine-grained approach as opposed to the "big bucket" approach of public folders and file shares. You need to consider how the information in your public folders map to your organizations Information architecture. Will you require sites for sales teams or project teams? Once data is migrated, how will you make sure the metadata is entered for each SharePoint Content Type? For example, information contained within public folders might consist of client information, product information, job related information, client information, or corporate. So how do you make sure that information is transferred to the SharePoint site?
Before conducting a migration to SharePoint, you need to make sure that the public folder (and file share) migration is handled according to organizational policy to prevent compliance issues and that you have a well-thought-out destination for the public folder data to prevent disorganization and users not being able to find the data they're looking for. For example, you need to set what data is permitted on public folders. (e.g., Microsoft Office documents but not MP3s), and what’s the policy for removal of violations? You also need to consider how the information will map between public folders and SharePoint Sites and Pages. Figure 1 provides a high-level view of how information (by functionality) maps to SharePoint.
Note that Figure 1 doesn’t depict how information maps specific to taxonomy (detailed Information architecture). In SharePoint, information is displayed in a more categorized and visible manner than public folders. For example, Contacts are placed in a Sites Contacts Web Part; documents are placed in a document library. Tools that migrate data from public folders to SharePoint will help with this classification and the creation of sites, but ensuring information relevance requires a lot of human involvement. Understanding this, your information architecture must address farms, Shared Service providers (SSPs), sites, pages, Web Parts (applications), content types, metadata, labeling, security, and content organization.
Before I dive into the methodology, I assume that you've already completed a SharePoint design that includes a detailed information architecture, system architecture, and operations plan. These steps are crucial for decision support and having a usable and compliant SharePoint navigation and search experience when you’re finished. If you need help planning your SharePoint design, the following resources are available:
The following sections outline a basic migration methodology, including the steps for each phase and hints for dealing with your project, because this project will change the way you handle your organizations data. Although it might seem like an overwhelming task, keep in mind that these steps are for a very large organization with gigabytes and perhaps terabytes of public folder data. You can always modify these guidelines to better suit your own organization, if necessary.
Phase 1: Project Initiation
In this phase, your goal is to build your team and prepare project documentation that will help steer your project effectively.
Establish a governance team. You need to establish a team and decision framework that will help you steer the rough waters ahead. Given that the project will touch just about every business unit, you'll require senior management to help facilitate the project's momentum and to address escalations and key decisions such as scope, resource scheduling, data retirement, prioritization, and business unit buy-in to name a few. The governance team should consist of executives from IT and business units, IT architects, the project management office, and purchasing, in order to be effective. A framework for escalations and making decisions must exist to facilitate the success of your governance program.
Develop a project charter. As with any project that deals with information, scope creep is your enemy because it could increase complexity and result in lengthy project schedules. Agreeing upon scope and priority is difficult especially if you have requirements that cover migration, security, and data cleanup. No one person can tackle public folder migration on their own--it's too complex. Assemble your team (Tiger team) with leads from the Help desk, data center operations, file servers, Storage, Exchange, SharePoint, records management, desktops, security and communications as a starting point. Public folder migration is far reaching and thus will impact the business. Your communication plan must address who, what, and when, and the business units that are to be migrated should be provided with communication early in the process. Expect push back due to concerns about business interruptions.