Ensuring Continuity of Operations With Expert Cloud Migration Services

The client is a federal international development agency that provides time-limited grants to the world’s poorest countries to promote economic growth, reduce poverty, and strengthen institutions, work that has helped improve the lives of nearly 270 million people across 46 countries and five continents. Its SharePoint 2010 environment was no longer supported by Microsoft, which put continuity of operations at risk. i3solutions ran the SharePoint migration to SharePoint 2019 and Office 365: Content Discovery to identify and analyze the existing 2010 environment, data mapping of the agency’s data structure and customizations to the corresponding elements in SharePoint 2019, and ShareGate to move large volumes of content and data. The results of that modernization are measurable. Agency staff save an estimated 15 minutes per user per day. Across hundreds of employees, this equates to more than 20,000 productive hours annually, valued at over $200,000 in efficiency gains. Retiring on-premises infrastructure eliminated ~$500,000 per year in hosting, licensing, and maintenance costs, while enabling cloud scalability at no additional capital expense. Migrating off unsupported systems eliminated compliance risk exposure that could have exceeded $500,000 in potential audit findings or remediation costs. IT teams reclaimed hundreds of hours previously spent patching and maintaining legacy servers, equivalent to $100,000 annually in reduced IT labor and support overhead.

The client, a federal international development agency, is committed to delivering sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction to the world’s poorest countries that are committed to just and democratic governance, economic freedom and investing in their populations. They provide time-limited grants to these countries to promote economic growth, reduce poverty, and strengthen institutions and have helped improve the lives of nearly 270 million people across 46 countries and five continents. Continuity of operations is of utmost importance to the agency and the countries they assist, and this was threatened by an outdated legacy system that was no longer supported by Microsoft.

The agency faced the challenge of planning and executing a migration strategy to a modern, cloud-based SharePoint environment. They were concerned that the complexity of their data structure and customizations in their existing environment might not seamlessly transfer to the new system. Ensuring data integrity and user adoption were also issues that needed to be addressed prior to the migration. Additionally, the agency sought to optimize their cloud infrastructure to enhance performance and cost-efficiency throughout the migration process and beyond.

How did i3solutions scope the migration?

With discovery and analysis of the existing SharePoint 2010 system. i3solutions reviewed all technical assets including native SharePoint components, workflows, forms, 3rd party tools, content, and permission structures, and Content Discovery identified and analyzed the agency’s existing content, document libraries, lists, and permissions. Data Mapping then mapped the agency’s existing data structure and customizations to the corresponding elements in SharePoint 2019, so data integrity was maintained during the migration.

What tooling was used to move the content?

ShareGate, a third-party migration tool designed to simplify and streamline SharePoint migrations. i3solutions used ShareGate to facilitate the migration of large volumes of content and data from the old SharePoint environment to SharePoint 2019, so content was transferred securely and efficiently with minimal downtime.

What were the measurable results?

Agency staff save an estimated 15 minutes per user per day. Across hundreds of employees, this equates to more than 20,000 productive hours annually, valued at over $200,000 in efficiency gains. Retiring on-premises infrastructure eliminated ~$500,000 per year in hosting, licensing, and maintenance costs, while enabling cloud scalability at no additional capital expense. IT teams reclaimed hundreds of hours previously spent patching and maintaining legacy servers, equivalent to $100,000 annually in reduced IT labor and support overhead.

Why was staying on the legacy system a compliance risk?

The legacy system was no longer supported by Microsoft, which left the agency’s sensitive data vulnerable to unsupported security threats. Migrating off unsupported systems eliminated compliance risk exposure that could have exceeded $500,000 in potential audit findings or remediation costs. SharePoint 2019 provides robust security features, including data encryption, access controls, and data loss prevention policies, and moving to a supported version protects the agency from security risks and lets the team take advantage of the latest features and improvements.

What happened to the existing forms, workflows, and third-party tools?

They kept working. The agency had existing customized forms created in InfoPath, and i3solutions built an integration between SharePoint and those InfoPath forms to ensure continuity of operations after the migration. i3solutions also migrated the 3rd party tools used in the legacy environment and confirmed that all existing workflows continued to function as designed.

If your SharePoint farm is already out of support or heading there, you are carrying two problems at once: security threats Microsoft no longer patches, and the audit findings and remediation costs that come with running an unsupported system. Most teams in that position also cannot say precisely what is in the environment, which is why the migration feels impossible to scope. A first conversation covers what discovery would find in your current farm, which customizations, forms, and third-party tools have to survive the move, and how the content itself gets migrated. You leave with a concrete read on scope and sequence, not a sales deck. Start the conversation