Alfresco to SharePoint Online Migration
Xillio migrates content, metadata, permissions, document versions, and folder structures from Alfresco to SharePoint Online and Microsoft 365. We analyze your Alfresco content models and customizations, transform them for SharePoint, validate the results, and execute the migration through a controlled, phased process
Alfresco Migration Source and Target Overview
Source
- Alfresco Community Edition
- Alfresco Content Services (Enterprise)
- Alfresco Cloud
- Legacy Alfresco versions (4.x, 5.x, 6.x, 7.x)
Target
- SharePoint Online
- Microsoft Teams
- OneDrive for Business
- Microsoft 365 with Copilot
Typical challenges:
.jpg?width=460&height=307&name=brooke-cagle-JBwcenOuRCg-unsplash-1%201%20(1).jpg)
- Translating Alfresco content models, aspects, and metadata into an effective SharePoint information architecture
- Handling custom rules, behaviors, workflows, scripts, forms, and extensions that cannot be transferred directly
- Deciding whether existing folder structures should be preserved or replaced with a more metadata-driven approach
- Mapping permissions and access controls between two different security models
- Extracting content from customized, legacy, or poorly documented Alfresco environments
- Reconfiguring links, integrations, and applications that depend on existing Alfresco content
- Maintaining business continuity while content and users are moved to Microsoft 365
- Retaining content for compliance or reference when an export-only approach is required
How Xillio addresses this
Xillio combines source analysis, controlled extraction, metadata transformation, test migrations, validation, and phased execution to prepare Alfresco content for SharePoint Online.
Pre-migration content analysis with Xillio Insights
We analyze your Alfresco repository to map content models, identify applied aspects, assess folder depth, and evaluate metadata quality. This analysis reveals customizations, ROT content, and structural patterns that inform your SharePoint information architecture.
Aspect-to-Content Type Transformation
We design intelligent mappings that combine Alfresco aspects into appropriate SharePoint content types and site columns, preserving metadata richness while simplifying to SharePoint's model.
Flexible Restructuring Options
Choose to preserve folder structures where appropriate or transform to metadata-driven organization with views and filters for improved SharePoint performance and usability.
Want to see how an Alfresco to SharePoint Online migration works in practice? In this short demo, we walk through the entire process—from extracting content and metadata from Alfresco to transforming, validating, and importing it into SharePoint Online using the Xillio Migration Accelerator and Xill4 migration platform.
You'll see how content, permissions, folder structures, and document versions are handled throughout the migration, along with the reporting and insights that help teams stay in control of the process.
Battle-Tested Migration Expertise
With 20+ years serving enterprise and public sector organizations, Xillio brings deep expertise in complex content and data migrations.
Our methodologies, refined through hundreds of successful migrations, ensure your Alfresco environment—whether open-source, commercial, or hybrid—is handled with precision and expertise.
Xillio analyzed, optimized, and migrated 15 TB of content from Alfresco to Microsoft SharePoint, while Link Redirector helped maintain access to migrated content.
Brooke boosts operational efficiency with SharePoint migration
Build America Mutual: Easier Records Management
Xillio migrated enterprise content distributed across 41,000 Alfresco sites to SharePoint and supported the organization’s new records-management approach.
Why Alfresco to SharePoint Online Migrations can be Complex?
Unique Alfresco Deployments
Alfresco’s flexibility allows organizations to adapt the platform to their own processes, content structures, and technical requirements. Over time, this can result in highly customized environments containing unique content models, community extensions, scripts, add-ons, and integrations. These elements must be identified and assessed individually because they do not always have a direct equivalent in SharePoint Online.
Complex Metadata and Content Types
Alfresco uses content models and aspects to apply different sets of properties to documents. SharePoint uses content types, site columns, libraries, and other metadata structures to organize information. Migrating between these models requires careful mapping so that important metadata is preserved without recreating unnecessary complexity in the new environment.
Automation, Scripts, and Behaviors
Business logic may be embedded in Alfresco through rules, JavaScript behaviors, workflows, web scripts, forms, and custom extensions. These components cannot usually be moved to SharePoint as they are. They must first be documented and evaluated, after which the required functionality can be redesigned using suitable SharePoint, Power Automate, or other Microsoft 365 capabilities.
Folder-Centric Organization vs. Metadata-Driven Approach
Alfresco environments often rely on deeply nested folder structures, sometimes combined with inherited permissions and links from other systems. SharePoint can retain folders where they remain useful, but it also supports content types, metadata, views, and filters as alternative ways to organize information. The migration therefore requires a deliberate decision about which structures should be preserved and which should be transformed.
Community Edition & Legacy Versions
Community Edition and older Alfresco deployments can be more difficult to assess because documentation may be incomplete and the environment may contain non-standard modules or custom code. Legacy versions may also rely on older APIs, database structures, or unsupported components. These conditions can require additional analysis and a tailored extraction approach before the migration can begin.
FAQ
Xillio supports migrations from Alfresco Community Edition, Alfresco Content Services Enterprise, Alfresco Cloud, and legacy Alfresco deployments. The extraction approach depends on the version, deployment model, available interfaces, customizations, and level of documentation in the source environment.
We analyze the existing folder hierarchy, metadata, and permission model before defining the SharePoint structure. Folders can be retained where they support user needs, while other content can be reorganized using libraries, content types, metadata, views, and filters. Permissions are mapped to the agreed SharePoint access model and validated during test migrations.
Ready to consolidate your content in Microsoft 365 without the migration complexity?
Request an Alfresco migration estimate
Tell us about your Alfresco environment, content volume, target structure, and migration requirements. Our migration team will contact you to discuss the appropriate approach and next steps.