All work
Case study 042024 — 2025

File Servers to SharePoint

Moved on-premises file servers to SharePoint Online and OneDrive with a rebuilt permission model, and maintain the intranet used by 14+ business functions.

5
Business units migrated
14+
Business functions on the intranet
2,000+
SharePoint sites administered

The problem

Business units ran their own file servers with years of tangled folder permissions. Remote access meant VPN and collaboration meant emailing copies.

What I did

  1. 1

    Clean before moving

    Assessed each share and archived stale data instead of migrating it.

  2. 2

    Redesign permissions

    Replaced per-user folder grants with Entra ID groups mapped to sites and libraries.

  3. 3

    Govern it

    Structured permissions, governance models and retention policies, so the new platform does not drift back into a file share.

Source
  • Business unit file servers
Process
  • Assessment
  • Permission redesign
  • Migration
Target
  • SharePoint Online
  • OneDrive
  • Teams
Shares cleaned and re-permissioned on the way in.

Result

  • File access without VPN, with version history and self-service recovery.
  • Access managed through group membership, not tickets.
  • Capacity planning found multi-terabyte savings without removing live content.