How to Migrate Data to SharePoint Online Quickly (Case Study)
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Case Study: Renesas
The Challenge
Renesas Electronics introduced Livelink, an on-premises document management and information sharing tool, as a company-wide common system at both domestic and overseas locations. However, as the system started to age, the company had to decide whether to update it to the next Livelink version or migrate to Office 365 and SharePoint Online.
Renesas evaluated four main areas for the new system:
1. Competitive advantages in the cost of development and deployment for hardware and software
2. Maintenance continuity for existing document assets
3. Easy integration with Office 365
4. Mitigation of migration downtime
Renesas, having used Livelink for many years, had an abundance of data in the system. This presented a major issue in figuring out how to perform an efficient migration.
“From the infrastructure aspect, we were concerned about the impact on network traffic generated by the large amounts of data transferring from an on-premises server to the cloud,” said Mr. Sakuda, migration project leader at Renesas Electronics. ”Another concern was how to minimize the downtime of the document information system since it was updated daily.”
The AvePoint Solution
Renesas Electronics was searching for efficient solutions for an Office 365 migration when a third-party vendor introduced them to AvePoint’s DocAve Migrator.
“While checking multiple document management tools as a part of the evaluation process for our new system, we heard of AvePoint’s Migrator. Since it was difficult to find a vendor who can execute a SharePoint Online migration from Livelink, we were pleased to know AvePoint’s solution could support our requirements,” said Mr. Suwabe, IT manager of Renesas.
“We used DocAve Migrator to evaluate the efficiency of our design document migration by implementing a proof of concept. As a result, we concluded that the DocAve migration tool can satisfy all four requirements.”
Renesas was able to install the tool, complete a migration test-run, and finish a production migration within about five months. AvePoint consulted on consulted the definition, design, and feature development associated with the system construction.
“On the infrastructure side, by using DocAve we were able to adjust the number of migration jobs during daytime and nighttime operations to minimize the negative impact on the network,” said Mr. Sakuda. “On the application side, we adopted a two-phase migration. A bulk content migration prior to the main migration for the documents with a low update frequency, and a complete migration for all the documents just before the go-live of the new environment. We were able to reduce downtime by leveraging the combination of analytics and incremental migrations feature in DocAve.”
Due to the large amount of data on-premises, Renesas did experience some initial errors during migration, but DocAve reduced recovery time and shortened the migration period substantially with its features for analyzing the migration results.
Renesas now operates a hybrid cloud environment with the online environment utilized by internal users and the on-premises environment reserved for the external content that requires customization, such as Power BI tools or the services for their dealership.
“The DocAve platform is a great tool to manage the environment we operate,” said Mr. Sakuda. “We use DocAve Report Center to check individual permissions defined for each site, SharePoint group list in site collections, and output of the members in the group. DocAve Report Center gives us a great advantage in making the work process more efficient by allowing us to review and confirm the permissions at the time of reorganization.”
The Bottom Line
As the company expands its business, Renesas Electronics continues to grow with AvePoint.
“As a result of an acquisition, the number of SharePoint Online users in our company increased, so we purchased additional licenses,” said Mr. Suwabe.
“Migration from on-premises to SharePoint Online is also in progress at our overseas subsidiaries. Once the migration is completed, we are planning to leverage DocAve for management and administration,” said Mr. Suwabe.
Now, Renesas Electronics is looking into AvePoint’s operations management tools for Microsoft Teams.
“Many of AvePoint’s products have easy integration with Office 365. I understand that recent SaaS products by AvePoint are good for managing Microsoft Teams,” said Mr. Suwabe. “Our company also uses Microsoft Teams, so we would like to give those a try sometime in the near future.”
Renesas Electronics Corporation, formed by the integration of NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology in 2010, is a global manufacturer with a wide range of products; including automobiles, industrial equipment, home electronics, office automation (OA), and Information Communication Technology (ICT).
Based in Tokyo, the company–with about 20,000 global employees–is well recognized as a global leader in research and development, manufacturing, sales, and services around semiconductor-related business.
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