SharePoint 2013 was launched last year packed with features that enable better user experience, collaboration and communication. Now, efficiently integrated with the cloud and enhanced with a lot of social and gamification elements, the solution offers a more modern architecture catering to the more fast-paced and competitive nature of business.
If your organization is looking to migrate to SharePoint 2013 and 2010, there are actually a number of migration options to choose from depending on your need.
Database attach
Database attach is the most flexible way of doing the upgrade. The process essentially involves copying your content and services database to a newly set-up SharePoint 2013 farm; and from there upgrade the data and sites.
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This approach is also ideal for those organizations which have multiple content databases. With database attach, your content can be upgraded based on your order of preference; or even simultaneous. Once the new database has been attached to SharePoint 2013, site administrators can simply upgrade your individual site collections.
Note though that the database attach option is only available to SharePoint 2010; if you are still using SharePoint 2003 and 2007, you might have to upgrade first to 2010 to take advantage of this option. Another caveat to this option, is the assumption that you have a carefully planned and managed SharePoint 2010 environment. If this is not the case with you, you might have to use a migration solution.
Migration solution
If your database has not been properly maintained; or if you are still running on an older version of SharePoint, using a migration solution can help you for SharePoint 2010. Essentially, this approach enables you to clean your content by rebuilding site collections based on a new plan; migrate certain document versions; and eliminate duplicate copies which are taking much space.
Shredded Storage
In using the migration option for SharePoint 2010, users can also take advantage of Shredded Storage. This feature in SharePoint basically eliminates multiple copies of documents saved on the older versions of the platform (i.e. BLOB) through version controls. In SP 2013, document versions stored as multiple BLOBs will now be saved as a collection, thus reducing resource consumption.
Other considerations
Although database attach is the simplest way of migration to SharePoint 2013, there are sure a lot of organizations who are not able to maintain their database efficiently. Using a migration solution for SharePoint 2010 for most businesses is the safest option. Portal Integrators can help you assess the migration approach that works best for your current database. Contact us to know more.
