Plan your migration phases

Using the information from the scan, confirm your migration plan. Your plan should specify the timeline and how users and their data will be migrated.

Most enterprises migrate data in phases, which serves 2 purposes. Phases are used to migrate data in accordance with your timeline. For example, you can use a phased migration to migrate core IT users and early adopters before other users. You can also divide large amounts of data into manageable pieces. 

The number of phases you have depends on the size and complexity of the data, the number of users in a domain, and what types of data you're migrating. 

What to put in your plan

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How you'll conduct your migration

Think about your timeline and how you plan on transitioning users to Google Workspace: 

  • What is your timeline? When are you planning to go live? 
  • Who are your core IT users and your early adopters? These users are the first groups to transition to Google Workspace. You need to plan the phases so that key users transition to Google Workspace first, then early adopters, and then other users.
  • What is the best way to transition other users to Google Workspace? You might need to consider a series of phases to transition other users. For example, you might group users in a geographical area or team and transition them together. 
What data do you intend to migrate?
  • What types of data (for example, contacts, calendar events, and email) do you want to migrate?  
  • From your scan summary and scan reports, what is your biggest source of data? Who are your most data-heavy users? Consider whether you need to spread this data or these users over multiple phases to help migration performance. 
  • What data is essential for the go-live date? Is there any non-essential data (archived files or old email messages, for example) that can be migrated after the go-live date or not at all? Consider the best way to use phases so that users have the essential data available for the go-live date. You can use delta migrations prior to the go-live date to migrate any new content added to your source domain since the initial migration. Learn more about delta migrations
Where do you want your data on the new account?
  • How is the data currently organized in your source account? 
  • Do you want to replicate the same data structure on your target account? Or, do you want to reorganize the data during the migration? 

Group the data into phases

After you confirm your migration phases, use a scoped view to group the data into phases. Then, scan each phase before you run a migration. When you scan each phase, make sure that under Scan scope, you click Select Scoped view and select your scoped view for that phase.

Use the scan to confirm that your scoped view defines all the data intended for that phase. The scan also shows whether there are any significant errors.

Important: After you confirm your migration phases, don’t move users between phases during the migration process. Moving users can cause data duplication.

Next step

How to map data with file shares


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