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JP Meiring's avatar
JP Meiring
Copper Contributor
May 21, 2017

SharePoint online as File Server

Hi All,   I have a client with 25 users spread out over 3 countries.   Previously they were using Google Apps and was using Google Drive as a file server. However, I have moved them over to Offic...
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Stefano Conti's avatar
Stefano Conti
Brass Contributor
May 22, 2017
I agree with other contributers, just uploading your NAS is not a solution. Sharepoint can also be a fileserver, but it is designed to do other things.
I can't believe you have 1500 Gigabyte of very important-strategic word-excel-powerpoint-some photo files to upload...
  • Stephane KLOIS's avatar
    Stephane KLOIS
    Brass Contributor
    Oct 31, 2018

    I have a case study for replacing a NAS server of around 3TB of data. At first, I was thinking at Azure Files as a replacement. I would allow us to re-create the file share as it is today.

    However, some little birds told me about SP Online. I was wondering : even with a tool, uploading 3TB of data trough Internet doesn't seem like a good idea. Does anyone have any experience with sending Hard Drive to Microsoft so they can do the copy ? After that, we could check any delta with a tool and limit the size of the uploads.

    • Cian Allner's avatar
      Cian Allner
      Silver Contributor
      Nov 01, 2018

      As has been mentioned, there is no option to send hard drives for SharePoint Online migrations.  This used to be available but was https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2015/09/16/office-365-import-service-migration-to-sharepoint-online-and-onedrive-for-business-just-became-easier/ a while back. This is still an option for https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/securitycompliance/use-drive-shipping-to-import-pst-files-to-office-365 to Office 365. 

       

      3TB is a lot of data, while SPO can accommodate this and more, usually, a data cleansing exercise beforehand can pay dividends by removing duplicates files, finding legacy content and looking at how the data is organized so it can be suitable migrated. 

       

      The free https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointmigration/introducing-the-sharepoint-migration-tool is very good and well worth checking out, though tools like Sharegate, have extra features, with pricing starting from around $4K or equivalent.  Might be worth having a look at this recent Ignite session - https://myignite.techcommunity.microsoft.com/sessions/65758.

    • null null's avatar
      null null
      Copper Contributor
      Nov 01, 2018

      Stephane KLOIS Unfortunately MSFT does not have an option to send hard drives. You can send hard drives to Azure files, but not SPO. 

       

      In terms of uploading 3TB to SPO, that is completely achievable. I've worked on projects where the customer moved 100's of TBs into SPO. 

       

      You will need a tool for that amount of content. There is the free SP migration tool, but I'd say the tool is best suited for a few hundred GB maximum. 

       

      • Stephane KLOIS's avatar
        Stephane KLOIS
        Brass Contributor
        Nov 02, 2018

        Thanks for the feedback. How did you do to migrate such a large volume of data ? Which tool did you use ?

        For the moment, I intend to do as Cian Allner suggested (first clean), and then upload the data slots by slots.

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