Large-Scale SharePoint Migration for SAFY
Client Overview
Client
SAFY (Specialized Alternatives for Families & Youth)
Client Industry
Nonprofit / Social Services
Objective
Migrate large volumes of legacy file share and SharePoint content to SharePoint Online to improve performance, scalability, and collaboration.
Business Challenge
SAFY required the migration of a high-volume document library exceeding 300,000 files from their legacy environment to SharePoint Online.
Initial migration efforts using ShareGate encountered:
- Timeout failures during large library synchronization
- Inability to reliably process large datasets
- Risk of incomplete migrations
- Extended timelines due to retries
Solution Approach
The migration strategy shifted to AvePoint Fly Online, a cloud-based migration platform designed for enterprise-scale data movement.
Key actions:
- Transitioned from ShareGate to AvePoint Fly Online for high-volume migration
- Executed migration using cloud-based distributed processing
- Configured migration jobs for large-scale document libraries (300K+ files)
- Implemented a flattened structure (no folders) using metadata for organization
- Utilized incremental sync to ensure data consistency
- Monitored migration performance through dashboards
Key Design Decision: Flattened Information Architecture
SAFY required a modern SharePoint structure that eliminated traditional folders.
- Files were migrated into a single library without folders
- Metadata was used to categorize and organize content
- Improved searchability and filtering capabilities
- Reduced path length and complexity issues
Benefits of AvePoint Fly Online
High-speed, cloud-based migration with no dependency on local machines
Scales to hundreds of thousands to millions of files
Distributed processing eliminates timeouts and performance issues
Supports incremental migration and sync
Preserves metadata and permissions
Enables modern metadata-driven (flattened) architectures
Centralized monitoring and reporting dashboards
Flexible across file share, SharePoint, and tenant migrations
Reduces infrastructure and operational overhead
Improved searchability and user experience
Accurate data and metadata preservation
Significantly faster migration performance compared to ShareGate
Enhanced usability through metadata-driven organization
Successfully migrated 300,000+ documents
Zero timeout or failure issues
Results & Outcomes
AvePoint Fly Online excels at enterprise-scale migrations
Tool selection is critical for large migrations
ShareGate suits smaller datasets
Flattened structures with metadata improve usability and scalability
Key Takeaways
Conclusion
By leveraging AvePoint Fly Online, SAFY achieved a faster, more scalable migration while modernizing its information architecture through a metadata-driven design.