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Using a Search-First 

Migration Strategy to 

SharePoint 2013

By Jeff Fried, Chief Technology Officer, BA Insight

SharePoint 2013 includes many major im- provements over previous versions, and up-grading to it can provide significant businessvalue. There are end useroriented improve-ments that lead to increased productivityand adoption, architectural and platformenhancements that improve operations andgovernance, and significant new workloadcapabilities across BI, Web content manage-ment, publishing and more. Better search

has consistently been a top request of SharePoint 2010 users and has been a major focusfor Microsoft.

With the release of SharePoint 2013, thereis a brand new search core combining the bestqualities and functionality of both SharePointsearch and FAST search. Powerful indexing,linguistics, entity extraction and query capa-

 bilities are now evident throughout the plat-form. There is a brand new face in the formof a compelling new search experience forend users. In addition, the cost of licensing,deploying, operating and scaling a toptiersearch engine is dramatically reduced.

Challenges w ith the Standard 

Upgrade Process

The standard upgrade process to SharePoint 2013 uses a databaseattach methodfrom SharePoint 2010. There are many im- provements over the 2007to2010 upgrade process, including the ability to run site collec-tions in 2010 mode on 2013 farms. However,the standard process has several drawbacksand slowdowns, especially for organizationswith largescale SharePoint deployments:♦ It requires a complete additional set of

hardware during the migration.♦ Selective and ‘smart’ migrations (where

some applications and content are upgrad-ed, some are moved to the cloud, and othersare retired or restructured) typically requiregoing through a full 2013 upgrade first.

♦ Some services do not have “2010 mode”functionality, which means there are de- pendencies that complicate upgrades.

♦ "Doublehop” upgrades from 2007 to2013 require going through 2010 and are particularly painful.

Many organizations are struggling withthese drawbacks or overwhelmed by the

thought of migrating the substantial contentthey house in SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2007 farms in a single step. For largedeployments, the sheer volume of content,the complexity in dealing with customizations, and the need to do everything at oncecreate significant challenges and delaytimetovalue in the upgrade.

Benefits of a Search-First 

Migration Strategy

Searchfirst migration provides a solutionto a lot of the pain in a typical migration. Inaddition, it provides a way to get started andquickly take advantage of the search im- provements outlined above. In BA Insight'sexperience involving hundreds of implemen-tations of SharePoint with search, we findthe searchfirst migration strategy providesmany benefits:♦ Substantially better search, experienced

across the whole organization.♦ Much quicker deployment, hence faster

timetobenefit.♦ Reduced risk by allowing a phased ap-

 proach without degradation of service.♦ Increased flexibility since different farms

can upgrade or migrate at their own pace.

Once the new SharePoint 2013 searchfarm is in place and providing great search,it has the additional benefit of making therest of the migration and upgrade much eas-ier. One of the nice aspects of search is thatit provides the user with a unified view, in-dependent of where the content happens to be. This means that content can be movedwithout the user experience changing.

Content migration can be done inde- pendently for different site collections, al-lowing each group to move at its own pace,and the migration can be tested ahead oftime, minimizing the risk. The searchfirstapproach removes project dependenciesand simplifies each part of the project.

Better Search FAST, with a 

Search-First Migration Accelerator 

Searchfirst migration provides muchquicker timetovalue than a standard up-grade. Rather than needing a complete

additional set of hardware all at once, asmall farm on new hardware is needed upfront, and then content farms can upgradeusing one spare set of hardware, reduc-ing or phasing capital costs. Selective and“smart” migrations are possible becausethe user experience through search can staystable while selected content is moved.Services without “2010 mode” functional-ity aren’t an issue because there is a 2013services farm, as well as a 2010 farm. For"doublehop" upgrades from 2007 to 2013,the search farm can leapfrog to SharePoint2013 and then each content farm can gothrough the doublehop at its own pace.

Microsoft recommends that many cus-tomers take this potentially phased approach by choosing a searchfirst migration acceler-ator. A searchfirst migration accelerator is acombination of guidance and tools provided by Microsoft and BA Insight that enablesorganizations to establish a more granularapproach by allowing them to upgrade theirSharePoint Server 2010 and/or FAST 2010search component(s) prior to the underlyingcontent. This approach provides a familiarsearch user experience and enables IT Profes-sionals to approach upgrades in established phases while allowing the organization to benefit from the improvements in SharePointSearch 2013.

If moving to SharePoint 2013 is well planned and takes advantage of outofthe box software to reduce customization, thenit can be implemented relatively quickly.Although the sheer volume and complex-ity of content in many modern SharePointenvironments can make a migration seemoverwhelming, the reality is that BA Insighthas helped many organizations implementsearchfirst swiftly and smoothly, withoutany interruptions to business processes.

Adopting a searchfirst migration strategyis a proven, successful pattern. This strategydoes not require any changes to the existinginfrastructure and provides a mechanism forcontent to remain in the current repository,while the technology and search engine forthe enterprise takes a leap forward. It reducesrisk by allowing a phased approach withoutdegradation of service. It increases flexibilitysince different farms can upgrade or migrateat their own pace. And. most importantly, it provides rapid timetovalue. Searchfirst mi-gration often provides a visible “early win”that also increases overall adoption. I

BA Ins i gh t has deve l oped a search- f ir s t m i gra t i on acce l

era tor t o he l p organ i za t i ons use t h i s s t ra tegy . T he

acce l era tor i s based on our ex tens i ve exper i ence, our

c l ose re l a t i onsh i p w i t h M i c rosof t and our deep produc t

capab i l i t i es . I t combi nes gu i dance, t oo l s , p roduc t s and

serv ices f r om Mi c roso f t and BA I ns i gh t to f ac i li t a t e rap i d

success w i t h SharePoi n t 2013 search .

S6 KMworid June 2015

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