Data Migration using Mover.io

With Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Mover.io to enhance its migration offering, and with a client request that seemed to fit the purpose of the tool, I decided to take a look and share my findings about the tool and migration strategies in general. Specifically, the client request was for a move from Box and Dropbox to both OneDrive and SharePoint online.

I believe that today most organizations understand that they need a cleanup effort before a migration effort. It is no different from a garage sale prior to a home move. During and after cleanup the structure of the data as it exists should be compared to the planned architecture for the destination. If there is a reorganization of data required, depending on the source and destination, it may be feasible to reorganize prior to moving, however, the most frequent request I get is to use a tool to reorganize during a migration. If this is your goal, then Mover.io is probably not the tool you need. In fact, the documentation states as much!

Here are some pros and cons I found through some light testing for Mover.io. I also have used other tools like Quest, Sharegate, BitTitan and even PowerShell.

Pro

·        Simple to Use Interface – log into source and destination and scan the data the account has access to

·        Move entire hierarchies in one job

·        Free

·        Easy to generate and export to .csv migration reports

·        Easy-to-read Dashboard for successes and errors

·        Good for a heave-ho move

·        Mapping between accounts and permissions with an input file

·        Can move between a number of sources like Box, Dropbox, Amazon, File Shares, SharePoint online or on-premises and GSuite – not all tools can do this

Con

·        Moves file structures to a single root folder – e.g. user@domain.com/”From Dropbox”

·        Redesign and major structural changes during moves are not recommended

·        No metadata management other than tagging files

·        Downloads files to a cloud server then uploads to destination which reduces performance

·        Initial global admin consent for permissions in the Azure tenant is required

·        Designed to move smaller bits at once moreso than large volumes

·        Versions are not moved; only the latest copy

·        Sharing links, of course, will have to be recreated

Every migration is different but if you’re looking to get one or two hundred users’ data from one location to another this might be right for you and you certainly wouldn’t need assistance using it.  If you have a major organizational change, thousands of users, or multi-terabytes/petabytes of information to move this is definitely not the tool for you.

One final thought I have is this: if your users are synchronizing their data locally with a third-party storage utility it seems to me that it would be simple for users to move the data they want moved themselves or with light helpdesk assistance. So, carefully consider what you’re moving, to where, your timelines for moving and amounts to move at one time. Throttling on the Microsoft 365 side will factor into planning and time requirements.