Automate network share migrations to Sharepoint Online using ShareGate PowerShell

7th of June, 2018 / / 2 Comments

Sharegate supports PowerShell scripting which can be used to automate and schedule migrations. In this post, I am going to demonstrate an example of end to end automation to migrate network Shares to SharePoint Online. The process effectively reduces the task of executing migrations to “just flicking a switch”.

Pre-Migration

The following pre-migration activities were conducted before the actual migration:

  1. Analysis of Network Shares
  2. Discussions with stakeholders from different business units to identify content needs
  3. Pilot migrations to identify average throughput capability of migration environment
  4. Identification of acceptable data filtration criteria, and prepare Sharegate migration template files based on business requirements
  5. Derive a migration plan from above steps

Migration Automation flow

The diagram represents a high-level flow of the process:
 

The migration automation was implemented to execute the following steps:

  1. Migration team indicates that migration(s) are ready to be initiated by updating the list item(s) in the SharePoint list
  2. Updated item(s) are detected by a PowerShell script polling the SharePoint list
  3. The list item data is downloaded as a CSV file.
… [Keep reading] “Automate network share migrations to Sharepoint Online using ShareGate PowerShell”

ITSM – Continual Service Improvement (CSI) – All you need to know

11th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Why Continual Service Improvement (CSI) is Required?

  • The goal of Continual Service Improvement (CSI) is to align and realign IT Services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support Business Processes.
  • The perspective of CSI on improvement is the business perspective of service quality, even though CSI aims to improve process effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the IT processes through the whole life-cycle.
  • To manage improvement, CSI should clearly define what should be controlled and measured.
… [Keep reading] “ITSM – Continual Service Improvement (CSI) – All you need to know”

Defining IT Strategy

9th of May, 2018 / / No Comments

Information Technology (IT) Strategy is a comprehensive plan that outlines how technology should be used to meet IT and business goals.

The following approach can be used to define your organisation’s IT Strategy.

Inputs:

  1. Organisational Business Priorities
  2. Organisational Key Behaviours
  3. How Business will be Supported by IT
  4. Technology Influences
  5. IT Strategic Principles
  6. IT Service Management Operating Principles

First of all, in order to define an IT Strategy, we need to obtain the above inputs (as much as possible).… [Keep reading] “Defining IT Strategy”

EU GDPR – is it relevant to Australian companies?

26th of March, 2018 / / No Comments

The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the European Union (EU) imposes new rules on organisations that offer goods and services to the people in the EU, or collects and analyses data tied to EU residents, no matter where the organisations or the data processing is located. GDPR comes into force in May 2018.
If your customers reside in the EU, whether you have a presence in the EU or not, then GDPR applies to you.… [Keep reading] “EU GDPR – is it relevant to Australian companies?”

Set your eyes on the Target!

18th of August, 2017 / / No Comments

1015red_F1CoverStory.jpg
So in my previous posts I’ve discussed a couple of key points in what I define as the basic principles of Identity and Access Management;

Now that we have all the information needed, we can start to look at your target systems. Now in the simplest terms this could be your local Active Directory (Authentication Domain), but this could be anything, and with the adoption of cloud services, often these target systems are what drives the need for robust IAM services.… [Keep reading] “Set your eyes on the Target!”

What's a DEA?

14th of August, 2017 / / No Comments

In my last post I made a reference to a “Data Exchange Agreement” or DEA, and I’ve since been asked a couple of times about this. So I thought it would be worth while writing a post about what it is, why it’s of value to you and to your business.
So what’s a DEA? Well in simply terms it’s exactly what the name states, it’s an agreement that defines the parameters in which data is exchanged between Service A and Service B. … [Keep reading] “What's a DEA?”

The Vault!

4th of August, 2017 / / No Comments

Vault
The vault or more precisely the “Identity Vault” is a single pane view of all the collated data of your users, from the various data source repositories. This sounds like a lot of jargon but it’s quite simple really.
In the diagram below we look at a really simple attribute firstName (givenName within AD) DataFlow
As you will see at the centre is the attribute, and branching off this is all the Connected Systems, i.e. Active Directory.… [Keep reading] “The Vault!”

Selling Adoption Services

28th of June, 2017 / / 2 Comments

It’s no secret that Partners have challenges selling change & adoption services. I’m talking specifically about Partners who will provide offerings to complement other professional services they provide, like technical delivery. Proposals are subject to scrutiny and in the absence of a value proposition, change & adoption will be one of the first things to go in a re-scoping exercise.
“It’s OK. We do change & adoption ourselves”
Organisations like Kloud deliver a range of professional services centric to our mission to ‘move organisations to the cloud’.… [Keep reading] “Selling Adoption Services”

The Art Of War – Is your Tech Department Combat Ready?

19th of May, 2017 / / No Comments

Strategic planning is becoming increasingly important in the technology fuelled world we live in. It’s critical an organisation’s response to shifting external events is measured & appropriate. The flow on effects of change to the nature and structure of the IT department has to be addressed. Is a defensive or attack formation needed for what lies ahead? In this post, I’ll introduce what is meant by strategy and provide a practical planning process.

Operational vs Strategic

I often see technology departments so focused on operations, they begin to lose sight of what’s coming on the horizon & how their business will change as a result.… [Keep reading] “The Art Of War – Is your Tech Department Combat Ready?”

7 tips for making UX work in Agile teams

2nd of February, 2017 / / No Comments

Agile is here to stay. Corporates love it, start-ups embrace it and developers live by it. So there is no denying that Agile is going nowhere and we have to work with it. For a number of years, I’ve tried to align User Experience practices with Agile methods and haven’t met with great success every time.

But nevertheless, there are a lot of lessons that I’ve learnt during the process and I’m going to share 7 tips that always worked for me.

… [Keep reading] “7 tips for making UX work in Agile teams”