SharePoint Migration Tool - Tzunami Blog

Microsoft WPC Session Summary: Accelerate your customers to Office 365

2013-07-18T11:39:00.000+03:00

We’re back from Houston, and still revved up about this year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. The sessions and speakers were of such great quality this year, we feel we can’t miss the opportunity to share some of the content with you. The most memorable for us was the session on Tuesday titled, “Accelerate your customers to Office 365.” This session was co-hosted by Microsoft’s Steve Luper and Molly McCarthy.

They offered tons of advice on expediting the process of moving U.S. customers through the pipeline and onto the cloud with Microsoft Office 365. As noted in the presentation, many businesses are slow to adopt Office 365, despite their initial investment. Often times, organizations will invest in a costly deployment without even considering a proper migration strategy.

“It’s hard to get going. They see the value, they hear you talk about Office 365 and get convinced and say ‘let’s do it’ and then it might take weeks or months until they get that first mailbox live. You lose the momentum and you don’t have that internal user evangelist,” stated Luper.

This delayed adoption is no news for us at Tzunami. That’s why we’re so focused on providing a swift and efficient SharePoint Online migration. We want to provide users with access to all of their content on SharePoint Online immediately, to speed up the implementation of Office 365 and provide businesses with a thorough deployment and migration to Office 365.

Luper and McCarthy also suggested several other tools and programs to help avoid the common “sold but not deployed” problem that Office 365 users often confront.

Here’s a list of some of their suggestions for Microsoft Partners:

Fast Track – Offers deployment resources for Office 365
MEC In-Person - Microsoft Experience Center in-person is a deployment engine which provides interactive, hands-on experience for partners interested in increasing value for Microsoft-powered businesses
MEC Demo for Office 365 – Microsoft offers a selection of targeted demo videos which provide partners with effective promotional material for adoption of Office 365.
Training opportunities through partnership with other system integrators such as Project Leadership Associates and Directions Training.

Software Integrators interested in partnering with Tzunami for SharePoint Migration? Check out our Partnership Program here: http://www.tzunami.com/partners/become-a-partner/

Guest Blogger: Building the Best Sharepoint Migration Team

2013-05-29T15:10:00.001+03:00

Migrating to a brand-new update of the SharePoint platform has actually constantly been an obstacle. Microsoft provides us with some straight forward options like database attach upgrade, however there is still a lot more things to think about in many SharePoint environments.

In this short article, I'll discuss a vital element of transitioning to a brand-new platform like SharePoint 2013: ways to get a group prepared for a SharePoint Migration.

It Begins with the Group

To make the most of the brand-new functionality of this platform, you will require individuals with particular proficiencies handling many different elements of the migration procedure.

The SharePoint Designer: The designer will be a vital member of the group both prior to and after the upgrade. Your website's branding will be gone throughout the upgrade as the HTML and CSS has actually altered and you cannot keep your old master page.

All those custom-made options that were developed, even at a page level making use of the Content Editor Web Part in SharePoint will require to be inventoried and checked for upgrade.

The SharePoint Administrator: The admin takes care of handling the server and the actual SharePoint application, the administrator sees to it that all website collections pass the wellness checks prior to running the actual migration. The administrator's part likewise consists of setting up the brand-new SharePoint 2013 servers and ensuring every little thing is fine-tuned and prepared to get the data sources from the older SharePoint 2010. This procedure needs a great deal of screening.

The SharePoint Architect: This individual has an exceptional understanding of the inner-workings of SharePoint. The architect in the migration group will have the ability to evaluate your existing architecture and rearrange the structure for the brand-new SharePoint. (Numerous things alter in SharePoint 2013 that developing a brand-new architecture is unavoidable.).

The SharePoint Power Users: I put individuals in plural due to the fact that I hope there is even more than one. SharePoint is a large platform and the little IT/SharePoint group normally in cost cannot manage all the needs and requests from the company. That's why it's finest to have crucial gamers that understand how to make use of a SharePoint website without having to call IT or the SharePoint group.

You'll require a roadmap, a strategy.

If you have actually collected a group of SharePoint super heroes, you are halfway there; all you require is a strong strategy plan.

Planning looks like a frightening thing, specifically because you keep finding out about how essential governance is. Yes, it is necessary however it can still be kept basic.

For many years, I have actually involved recognize that the very best SharePoint migration strategy is the easiest one: the RMR method: RMR Means Remove, Migrate, Rebuild.

Get rid of websites you are not making use of and do not want to bring over to SharePoint 2013.

Migrate the websites you have from 2010 to 2013. This one can be a great deal of work and has many different techniques. You can make use of the data source affix and bring every little thing over, or make use of basic devices like Tzunami to move just the websites, listings, collections or material you desire. In fact, Tzunami allows you to also migrate associate metadata and security in order to preserve your content exactly as it was prior to migration.

Restore the websites that cannot be migrated or would need too much effort to update. Not every little thing can be updated; websites with customized code and functions not offered in 2013 can position a trouble. A few of these will simply need to be reconstructed, utilizing brand-new attributes now offered in 2013.

For this technique to be effective, you'll should run a stock of all your websites and categorize them as one of these 3 classifications for the upgrade. Throughout the migration, you'll then have the ability to quickly see which need to be Eliminated, Migrated or Rebuilt and if it was done.

A Simple method to prepare the upgrade.

Depending on how your company uses SharePoint and the quantity of SharePoint that has actually been spread out all over, this can become a really basic upgrade when using easy-to-use migration tools. If you make certain you have the crucial gamers on your group to assist you and prepare an easy RMR method for your material, you may simply still delight in SharePoint after this procedure.

Patrick McTosh is an industry veteran in the world of Web Development. Having worked in varying capacities as a developer for years, he's been on top of current trends and the ever-changing industry. His expertise has opened up a second career as an industry writer. Connect with Patrick on his LinkedIn profile.

Tzunami Releases New Feature

2013-05-19T16:58:00.001+03:00

While focusing on your SharePoint Migration, it's important to have a thorough understanding of the volume of data which is being migrated at all times.

To this end, we've released a cool new feature for our flagship SharePoint migration tool, Tzunami Deployer.

Using Tzunami, you can perform as many virtual deployments as necessary as you model your content in SharePoint according to your expectations. Since the deployments are done remotely, none of these changes will actually be reflected until deciding to Commit to SharePoint. During the commit phase, our SharePoint migration tool writes all changes to the SharePoint server according to the specifications of your migration project. To see the commit process in action, take a look at any of our demo videos here: http://www.tzunami.com/sharepoint-migration-demo/

To help with the planning phase, we've added a new enhancement to Tzunami Deployer which measures and displays the volume of data which was migrated after the Commit phase, once all content, metadata, and security was deployed to SharePoint.

Download the new version of Tzunami Deployer, and check out our new Quota Tracker feature here: http://www.tzunami.com/downloadevaluation/

Benefits of SharePoint for the Healthcare Industry

2013-05-01T14:56:00.001+03:00

While browsing through LinkedIn, we stumbled upon an uplifting comment from Tony Joseph, MD.

In his discussion, Dr. Joseph comments on the Healthcare Industry’s dire need for SharePoint. He states that SharePoint has helped connect hospital across the United States, forging a solid network of cardiovascular diagnosis insights. Dr. Joseph hits on the quintessential benefit of using SharePoint – “having access to pooled knowledge.” Joseph comments on the ability of SharePoint to instantly connect experts from any field of expertise and allow for efficient sharing of a plethora of invaluable knowledge.
Having completed thousands of SharePoint migrations, at Tzunami, we’ve been dedicated to the promotion of SharePoint solutions for over a decade — and for good reason! There is nothing we love more than to see the fruits of SharePoint collaboration across an industry as reverent as the Healthcare Industry.

Legal Document Management with SharePoint

2013-04-11T10:35:00.000+03:00

Litigation means paperwork. In today's realm of document management, law firms and legal departments seek a solution which offers tightly secured yet searchable content. In Richard Medina's blog post How Different is Legal Document Management? the most basic document management system requirements and capabilities are listed as follows:

1. Library Services

2. Configurable Structured Repository

3. Advanced Search

4. Guaranteed, Restricted Content

5. Granular Security

6. Integration with Desktop

7. Document Workflow

When reading these capabilities we can't help but scream, "SHAREPOINT!" SharePoint offers formidable capabilities in all of the required areas of document management, allowing for secure document storage which allows you to control and collaborate throughout the content life cycle of your organization.

Medina himself offers SharePoint as a recommendation for Legal Document Management, stating, "if your organization is typical -- expand and enhance the use of SharePoint. If you have an ECM program already rolling, then implement SharePoint for Legal DM in alignment with your enterprise ECM initiatives and program."

We absolutely concur - legal firms relying on some of the "resource intensive" general ECM suites such as Documentum, LiveLink or FileNet should consider implementing SharePoint. It's important to keep in mind that SharePoint migrations (especially from some of the aforementioned ECMs) are an increasingly common among law firms and legal departments. With migration tools such as Tzunami Deployer, organizations can ensure a bulletproof migration, maintaining all content, metadata, and security in tact.

To read the rest of Medina's blog post, visit here: http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/How-Different-is-Legal-Document-Management

What's the next step for MOSS Users? Dan Holme offers his perspective for those approaching a SharePoint migration

2013-04-08T16:20:00.000+03:00

SharePoint 2007 users are now confronted with a major question when considering their next migration move - SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013? Dan Holme weighs the pros and cons of both options in the blog post on SharePoint Pro.

Organizations in the midst of a SharePoint migration decision should consider taking a look at this article for some key considerations. On choosing to migrate from SharePoint 2007 directly to 2013, Holme states, "As with all other upgrades, there's no direct upgrade path from 2007 or earlier versions of SharePoint to 2013. You either have to go through 2010 on the way, or use a third party tool. And - knowing that you probably did things in 2007 that you would not choose to do the same way in 2013 - I'd strongly recommend a good third party migration tool."

Check out the full version of the article here: http://sharepointpromag.com/blog/sharepoint-2010-vs-sharepoint-2013-small-step-or-big-jump

Come Visit Tzunami at SharePoint Saturday in Richmond

2013-03-10T16:49:00.003+02:00

Tzunami Inc is a proud sponsor of SharePoint Saturday Richmond (SPSRIC)! Join us for a full day of learning, lecturing, and collaboration among SharePoint IT professionals, developers and solution architects.

Join us this Saturday:

SharePoint Saturday Richmond (SPSRIC)

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Greater Richmond Convention Center

403 North Third Street

Richmond, VA 23219

What about the BLOB? Tzunami supports use of Remote Blob Storage (RBS) for SharePoint

2013-02-15T12:30:00.000+02:00

Here's another question we get from our clients - does Tzunami support the usage of Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) for SharePoint? The answer is yes, Tzunami is able to provide support for FILESTREAM Provider RBS.

The RBS functions as a set of standardized APIs which allow you to store and retrieve blobs exterior to your main SQL database. The files/blobs are are stored by SharePoint in a content database. It's recommended to use RBS when the size of the content databases exceed 4 GB.
For clarifications on installation and usage of RBS, we suggest checking out any of the following blog posts: FAQ: SharePoint 2010 Remote BLOB Storage (RBS)
Configure Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) with the FILESTREAM provider (SharePoint 2010)
Install and Configure RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

Tzunami Deployer communicates with the standard SharePoint API. This means that any content which is uploaded there and is meant to be stored in the RBS will be able to reach its destination in the same way as it would if you were to upload it yourselves to SharePoint, even though the process is done through the Deployer migration process.

If you're using a third party RBS storage system, we'd recommend reaching out to the support team at support@tzunami.com to ensure that we can support this system.

SharePoint Migration Plan – Analyzing Source Content

2013-02-04T14:00:00.000+02:00

SharePoint Migration Plan – Analyzing Source Content

At Tzunami, we handle a lot of custom SharePoint migration projects. One of our customers’ biggest concerns is ensuring that ALL necessary content is properly migrated to the target SharePoint environment. The first step for ensuring that all source ECM content is properly migrated, is to perform a thorough Source Content Analysis. Here are some guidelines we recommend for understanding your content and improving your SharePoint Migration Plan

How many items do you have in the source?

Prior to the actual migration phase, it is important to get a sense of the size of the source data that you plan to migrate. Valuable considerations include: total size of the data to be migrated and an approximation of the average file size. It is also important to consider the fact that the security, versions and metadata associated with each item add to the size of the data.

Which items do you have in the source?

It is recommended to know how many files/folders and other types of items you are planning to migrate.

How are the items organized in the source?

In addition, you must know what items you have in the source. It is important to understand how these items are distributed in the source hierarchy.

Identify complex issues within the source system

Since your target SharePoint environment may vary from your source environment in its structure and restrictions, it’s recommended to identify these variances prior to your migration.

Migration to Personal SharePoint sites (under ‘My Site’)

2013-01-28T09:43:00.001+02:00

Tzunami Deployer supports the migration of content to personal SharePoint sites. This post provides instructions on migrating content to pre-created My Sites in SharePoint.

Many of the source ECMs have their own version of SharePoint “My Sites,” such as the Personal Workspaces in Hummingbird, LiveLink etc. When migrating to SharePoint, it’s useful to transfer the “personal workspace” behavior to each user’s My Site in SharePoint.

The below example demonstrates how to migrate content to the general area (to ‘My Site’) and/or to the personal ones (/my/personal/User). Deployer allows us to move content to both areas.

1. First, it is important to understand the ‘My Site’ structure as it exists in SharePoint. The site named ‘My Site’ is a general one, and apart from it, each active user has his own space (site) within the ‘My Site’ to put his/her content. These are the personal sites.

In the screenshot below, you can see a standard ‘My Site’from our demo SharePoint web application. You can see that I’m logged into it as my own (non-admin) user (Reout):

2. It appears empty, however to see its content, we will go to: Site Actions > View All Site Content.

3. We can now see the site’s content. We’ve previously created a list named ‘Test list 1’. However, please note that it appears under a tab called ‘My newsfeed’, as shown in the screenshot below. This tab lets us know we are still under the general ‘My Site’ content, that most users can see.

4. Only if we choose the next tab, ‘My content’, we will get to the personal sitecontent (in our case: Reout’s personal site). The below screenshot shows this content (the personal site after clicking the ‘My content’ tab, or the ‘My content’ link in the main Site).

As previously mentioned, this is an entirely new site, and not the same as the general one. We’ve created another list in it, named ‘Test list 2’, to show the difference between the two sites. We can also see that its title is different – The title shows Reout Sagui > My content (and not My Site > Newsfeed).

5.       We now move on to demonstrate the way these are shown in Deployer:

When loading the SharePoint site structure in Deployer, we can choose to either load the general ‘My Site’, or to load the personal site, which is called ‘Reout Sagui’ (the name of the user it belongs to), as shown below.

Note: Keep in mind that we connected to SharePoint as an administrator and not as the ‘Reout’ user. If you don’t see “My Site” or the users’ personal sites, perhaps it is a permissions issue.

We can see that both of the addresses have ‘/my…’. This distinguishes the personal sites from the regular sites. We choose to load both sites into the project:
       a.       The general ‘My Site’ (usually named webapp/my)
       b.      The personal site (named according to the user: webapp/my/personal/Reout).
               Each user has its own personal one like the one shown.

6. In Deployer, the content we deploy under the ‘Reout Sagui’ site will go to the personal site.

Using this method, we can migrate the personal content from the source personal spaces, to the SharePoint personal sites - each user can keep his original content.

As you can see, ‘Test List 1’ is located under the ‘My Site’site, and ‘Test List 2’ is located under Reout’s site. This was made to demonstrate the difference between the two.

In our example, we migrated a test folder from Hummingbird DM5 (as a document library), and placed it successfully to my personal site, as shown below. Only me (Reout) and the site administrators will have access to this content.

Tzunami goes SOCIAL!

2013-01-21T16:24:00.002+02:00

At Tzunami, we would like to keep you up to date on our latest news and enhancements. Therefore, we are constantly posting on our various social media channels. We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to all of Tzunami’s forums for new content – including demo videos, tutorial guides, FAQs and much more! You can browse through large amounts of content about our products, watch demonstration videos, get good advice for your project or learn more about the Tzunami products.

Our newest addition is the Support Portal . In the portal, you will find a knowledge base with all of our products’ User Guides for your reference, How-to guides with useful instructions, videos of migration demos or simple tutorials, and you can find answers for many Frequently Asked Questions. We at Tzunami always recommend emailing the Support Team with any issue or inquiry, however, the information in the Support Portal is always at your service and can be useful for getting issues resolved faster.

Do you want to be the first to know all about Tzunami’s latest product or new features? You can ‘Like’ us on Facebook, or follow our Twitter and Linked In account! Every time we produce a new demo, release a new version, or have news about Tzunami, you can read about it online. Tzunami likes to keep our clients in the loop and let them know about the company news. Tzunami will also announce upcoming events, such as participation in exhibitions and conventions.

Last but not least, you can read about Tzunami in our SharePoint migration Blog. In addition to our latest news and enhancements, you will also find more detailed technical tips about our newly released features, along with general updates. The blog will help you get the best of your migration project, and enhance your knowledge on the Tzunami Deployer migration capabilities.

If you still can’t get enough of Tzunami, our Sales Team will be glad to answer any inquiry you may have about Tzunami and our migration family of products. If you need any technical assistance, our 24/7 Support Team is always just a click away.

What's New In Deployer 2.7? Post #6 - LiveLink Exporter new feature

2013-01-11T17:00:00.000+02:00

Tzunami Exporter 2.7 for LiveLink now includes a new enhancement - The release includes support for exporting Multi-Value properties as a text.

In the LiveLink Exporter Wizard, the 'Advanced' tab in the configuration screen allows you to specify the export options, such as: Attachments, Security, Additional Node Attributes, Categories & Attributes, Personal Workspace, URLs and Aliases.
You can now check the "Export Multi-Value properties as text" checkbox if you wish to export Multi-Value Properties as text.

What's New in Deployer 2.7? Post #5: Improved support for Mails properties in Exchange Exporter

2013-01-08T13:32:00.000+02:00

The new version of Tzunami Exchange Exporter 2.7 has some enhanced support for the extraction of the mail properties/metadata. Exchange Exporter now allows you to choose whether you wish to export Custom properties or not, just by checking the option "Export custom properties" in Exporter wizard (under Items tab),

Another, handy feature that has been added to the Exporter is that, now you can decide if you wish to export the mailing properties such as CC, TO etc as "User type" field or "Text" field depending upon your migration need. This option can be found under Advance tab of the Exporter Wizard,

After performing the export, you can verify this by loading the TDX file into the Deployer, please right-click on one of the items in source panel -> View Property Set and you will find that the properties have been exported as User (multi) type property,

What's New in Deployer 2.7? Post #4: Support for Extraction of Hidden Items in Exchange

2013-01-07T13:00:00.000+02:00

With Tzunami's Major Release, users can now extract hidden items from Exchange with Tzunami Exchange Exporter 2.7.

Within the Exchange Exporter Wizard, users will have the option to check the "export hidden items" option, as shown in the screenshot below:

When asked to select the folders to be extracted from the available folders, Hidden Items will appear in the tree view. For example, the selected folder below, entitled "Salin," is a hidden Exchange item which has now been made available for extraction with Tzunami Exchange Exporter. Users will still be able to export all desired content, including hidden items, along with all of the associated metadata and security information.

What's New In Deployer 2.7? Post #3 - Exchange Exporter new feature

2012-12-31T18:00:00.000+02:00

Tzunami Exporter 2.7 for Exchange Public folders now comes with a new enhancement - It allows users to export data items as either data items or documents.

When using the Exchange Exporter Wizard, the configuration step allows you to choose the item types you wish to export, by checking them in the 'Item Types' list (as shown below).

Under the various data items available for export, you can now choose your desired output - These items can now be exported as data items, or as documents.

The new version of Exporter allows you to export:

Mails > as Data items, or documents of type MSG & MHTML format.
Posts > as Data items, or documents of type MSG & MHTML format.
Notes > as Data items, or documents of type MSG & MHTML format.
Contacts > as Data items, or documents of type MSG, MHTML, & VCard format.
Appointments > as Data items, or documents of type MSG, MHTML, ICal & VCal format.
Tasks > as Data items, or documents of type MSG & MHTML format.
RSS >as Data items, or documents of type MSG & MHTML format.

Use the drop-down menus to select your preferred choices.

This feature is very effective for when your data consists of a mixture of item types. This will help to overcome the SharePoint limitation that only allows data items to be migrated into lists, and documents into document libraries.

For more information on the above formats, please refer to:
ICalendar > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICalendar
VCard > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard

For more information on the migration from Exchange Public folders, please go to our website:
http://www.tzunami.com/products/Pages/TDExchangePublicFolders.aspx

What's New In Deployer 2.7? Post #2 - Apply Content Types

2012-12-26T10:09:00.000+02:00

Tzunami Deployer 2.7 allows users to choose and apply any of the Content Types available in the target Site collection during the Deployment itself. The "Add Content Type" button is now available in the Deploy wizard - upon clicking it, the list of Content types available in the target Site collection will be displayed.

Figure 1: Deploy Wizard showing "Add Content Type" button.

Users can choose and apply desired target Content type from the list to the deployed container

Figure 2: List of Content Types available in target Site collection.

Figure 3: Showing list of Content Types in SharePoint.

What's New in Deployer 2.7? Post #1 - Office 365

2012-12-23T11:46:00.001+02:00

Tzunami's major release Deployer 2.7 offers enhanced support for Microsoft Office 365. Using Tzunami Deployer, Microsoft Office 365 can be directly loaded into a project - either as a source or a target.

Figure 1: Tzunami Deployer Project with Microsoft Office 365 Loaded as a Target

Tzunami Announces Major Release - Tzunami Deployer 2.7

2012-12-18T13:49:00.001+02:00

Tzunami Inc proudly announces the major release of its newest version of Tzunami Deployer, version 2.7. The latest version includes support for Office 365 as well as improvements to Deployer, Exchange, Livelink, and Confluence. Stay tuned to our upcoming blog posts for a full preview of our newest features.

Tzunami Deployer SharePoint Migration Tool for Atlassian Confluence

2012-11-04T15:57:00.000+02:00

Check out Tzunami's newest demo:
Presenting our SharePoint Migration Tool for Migration from Atlassian Confluence to Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

Tzunami Deployer SharePoint Migration Tool for Hummingbird DM

2012-10-29T11:01:00.000+02:00

Check out Tzunami's newest demo:
Presenting our SharePoint Migration Tool for Migration from Hummingbird DM to Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

Tzunami Deployer SharePoint Migration Tool for DocuShare

2012-09-23T14:29:00.000+02:00

Check out Tzunami's newest demo:
Presenting our SharePoint Migration Tool for Migration from DocuShare to Microsoft SharePoint 2010.

Tzunami Deployer SharePoint Migration Tool for Exchange Public Folders

2012-08-26T11:55:00.001+03:00

Check out Tzunami's newest demo !
Presenting our SharePoint Migration Tool for Migration from Exchange Public Folders to Microsoft SharePoint 2010

Tzunami Deployer SharePoint Migration Tool for eRoom

2012-08-21T16:17:00.001+03:00

Check out Tzunami's newest demo -- Presenting our SharePoint Migration Tool for Migration from EMC eRoom to Microsoft SharePoint 2010

Our NEW DEMO : Migration from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

2012-08-20T16:38:00.004+03:00

Watch the NEW DEMO! A video demonstration of a migration from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010 using Tzunami Deployer:

a NEW DEMO : Migration from Documentum to SharePoint 2010

2012-07-09T17:14:00.003+03:00

Watch the NEW DEMO! A video demonstration of a migration from Documentum to SharePoint 2010 using Tzunami Deployer: