5 tips to tackle the migration of 1 million+ documents

Twelve years ago, as digital storage rapidly expanded, more and more organizations began confronting a new reality: the million-document challenge. The key question they faced was, “How do we efficiently migrate over a million documents into a new system?” Here are 5 steps that are still valid today for a successful content migration. 

Familiar Challenges

Is there more to a large-scale migration than just big numbers? Absolutely. A significant migration involves all the typical issues like restructuring, managing metadata, and cleanup.

Tackle the Scale

In addition, you face the challenge of managing millions of documents instead of just thousands. To address these scaling issues, you need a practical approach. This knowledge may not be readily available within your organization.

Write a realistic migration plan and lay out a feasible migration schedule. Seeking professional help from a migration specialist will prevent you from falling into pitfalls well-known from experience.

The migration rules, restructuring the documents for optimal disclosure in the new system, need to be simple. The large scale makes it impossible to allow for many exceptions.

Base any deadlines you set on the performance of your IT infrastructure. You won’t be able to set realistic migration deadlines until you have measured technical performance.

Chopping up the huge assignment into smaller parts is helpful. Segment your migration into sizeable blocks. You can use different classifications to create cuts; for example, department, workflow, or content type.

5: Data-Safe Approach

Choose a migration strategy that ensures your content remains fully protected throughout the transition. Leveraging your target system’s API is often the safest route, reducing the risk of data loss and maintaining integrity at every step. Avoid direct database migrations unless necessary.

Ready to tackle your organization’s content migration with confidence? Schedule a meeting with our experts to discover how Xillio can ensure a smooth, secure, and future-proof migration tailored to your unique needs. Book a meeting with our experts today.