SharePoint Migration Checklist for Australian Organisations

Phase 1: Pre-Migration Inventory, ROT Analysis & Infrastructure Assessment

The most catastrophic mistake in cloud migrations is "lifting and shifting" decades of disorganized, unmanaged file shares directly into SharePoint Online. Migrating without curation simply transfers chaotic folder structures, broken permissions, and compliance liabilities into the cloud—drastically degrading search findability and exposing sensitive files to unexpected indexing when Microsoft 365 Copilot is enabled.

Before scheduling data movement, enterprise engineering teams must execute a comprehensive source discovery using automated assessment utilities (such as the SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool - SMAT, or SPMT scanning agents):

• ROT (Redundant, Obsolete, Trivial) Data Triage: Conduct automated scans across file shares and legacy SharePoint 2013/2016/2019 sites. Identify files that have not been modified or accessed in the past 5 to 7 years. In most Australian enterprises, 40% to 60% of legacy data can be defensibly archived to cold Azure Blob storage rather than migrated into expensive primary SharePoint storage tiers.
• Path Length & Character Normalisation: Audit paths against SharePoint Online's strict 400-character decoded URL path limit. Identify and sanitize invalid characters prohibited by cloud sync engines (e.g. " * : < > ? / \ |) and remove trailing whitespace or hidden system files (Thumbs.db, .DS_Store).
• Large File & Archive Packaging: Identify files exceeding 10 GB, PST email archives, access databases (.accdb), and CAD drawing packages that require specialized handling or migration to Azure Files rather than collaborative SharePoint libraries.

Phase 2: Target Information Architecture & Metadata Taxonomy

Modern SharePoint Online abandons the rigid, nested subsite hierarchies of SharePoint 2010/2013 in favor of a flat, interconnected hub-and-spoke topology. Prior to data ingestion, establish your enterprise architecture:

• Flat Site Architecture: Provision dedicated modern Team Sites (connected to Microsoft 365 Groups) for collaborative department teams and Communication Sites for broadcast news and official policy publication.
• Hub Site Relationships: Associate department sites under logical Hub Sites (e.g. Corporate, People & Culture, Operations, HSE). Hubs unify search scopes, provide centralized top navigation, and cascade visual themes across child sites without nesting subsites. Review our guide on SharePoint intranet development for corporate hub blueprints.
• Managed Metadata & Content Types: Deploy enterprise taxonomies via the SharePoint Term Store. Standardize metadata tags (such as Document Type, Retention Trigger, and Review Date) to replace fragile 10-level folder nesting.

Comprehensive Migration Execution & Governance Matrix

Phase 3: Permissions Restructuring & Entra ID Identity Mapping

Migrating directly from on-premises Active Directory to cloud requires mapping complex Windows NTFS access control lists (ACLs) into modern Microsoft 365 permission paradigms:

• Eliminate Broken Item-Level Inheritance: In legacy file shares, individual files often possess unique NTFS permissions. Migrating millions of files with unique permissions breaches SharePoint's 50,000 unique scope threshold per library, destroying search performance. Standardize permissions at the library and site level.
• Sanitize "Everyone Except External Users" (EEEU): Legacy shares frequently mapped root read access to Domain Users. If replicated to cloud as EEEU, all staff will unintentionally gain access to confidential documents, creating acute risks when AI semantic search is enabled. Learn how to audit these exposures in our Copilot security audit guide.
• Map to Entra ID Security Groups: Ensure legacy on-premise security groups are properly synchronized via Entra Connect or converted to cloud-native Microsoft 365 security groups before executing bulk migration batches.

Phase 4: Tooling Architecture & Migration API Throughput

Understanding cloud ingestion mechanics is essential to avoiding severe API throttling. Modern migration tools do not upload files directly to SharePoint endpoints; they utilize the Microsoft 365 Migration API, which stages encrypted packages into Azure Blob Storage containers before Azure worker queues batch-import them into SharePoint database tables.

Phase 5: Cutover, OneDrive KFM & Post-Migration Governance

Executing cutover requires clear communication and immediate enforcement of post-migration compliance:

• Immediate Source Lockout: The second the final cutover window begins, change source file shares and on-premises SharePoint libraries to Read-Only. Leaving source repositories writable guarantees split-brain document edits and lost data.
• Deploy OneDrive Known Folder Move (KFM): Synchronize user personal files (Desktop, Documents, Pictures) to OneDrive using Microsoft Intune administrative templates. Enabling Files On-Demand ensures staff can access files without filling local solid-state drives.
• Enforce Microsoft Purview Retention & DLP: Apply auto-classification labels to satisfy Australian Privacy Principle 11 (APP 11) data disposal and Corporations Act recordkeeping mandates.
• Deliver Role-Based Staff Training: Train departmental champions on co-authoring in Word/Excel, file sharing best practices, version history restoration, and navigating modern Teams file channels.