G Suite and SharePoint Sync Migration
Betenbough Companies planned to modernize their workplace by giving employees flexible collaboration and mobile access to content that they had been requesting. Their legacy file share required VPN connectivity, and there was no way to access files on the go. However, the project wouldn’t be as straightforward as merely migrating their data from their local server to a single cloud platform. Some of their departments needed larger files stored elsewhere, while some content needed to remain on-premises. On top of that, they wanted to reduce reliance on a VPN. With the help of DryvIQ, Betenbough Companies was able to complete their G Suite and SharePoint sync migration, synchronizing multiple cloud storage platforms and their local NFS to enable broad collaboration and better access.
Customer Profile
Betenbough Companies is an employee-owned, public benefit corporation committed to pursuing a purpose beyond profit. Betenbough Companies has grown to encompass multiple companies including Alcove Farms, Betenbough Business Services, Betenbough Companies, Impact Title, Kingdom At Work, and The Willows Event Center- with distinct missions but are united under one purpose, to reveal God and His Kingdom through their work in the marketplace.
Business Drivers
Betenbough Companies wanted to transition to the cloud to give employees access to their documents from anywhere, on any device – without the VPN getting in the way. But this proved challenging given the different departmental needs they had.
The organization decided that it would migrate its 11TB of main content from its on-premises file share to SharePoint Online.
However, the marketing team had a separate server containing 25TB of large files, including videos and images. Due to the size of these files and the preference of the marketing department, they decided that this content would be a better fit for migration to G Suite.
The Challenge
Overall, Betenbough’s biggest driver was eliminating reliance on the VPN and making the move to multiple storage platforms seamless for the organization. “With people working from home, the VPN just wasn’t a good experience,” explained Betenbough Companies Technology Director Michael White.
But it proved difficult to move content across their new storage platforms as well as their on-premises servers without disruption.
Initially, Betenbough was using a different third-party solution to synchronize content between their NFS and G Suite, but it was not a good fit. They found that it was unreliable, lacked technical support, and was difficult to troubleshoot. “We ultimately couldn’t trust it. We had to babysit this tool every day – that’s how you know it’s not doing what it’s supposed to do,” White said.
Separately, for the migration to SharePoint Online, they had considered using Microsoft’s own SharePoint migration tool. But due to their extensive collaboration needs among separate platforms, it could not deliver the synchronization they needed to minimize user disruption. “Going that route would have been a very manual and labor-intensive process,” White explained.
The Solution
Betenbough first encountered DryvIQ at Microsoft Ignite, years before their migration project. But after struggling with their initial solution provider, they revisited DryvIQ to see if it could handle the various pieces of their migration puzzle.
As it turned out, DryvIQ was the only migration tool on the market that could synchronize the content between SharePoint Online, G Suite, and their remaining on-premises server. By being able to have simple access to updated content in either platform, Betenbough was able to bypass their VPN challenge, deliver flexible access to files, and keep the transition seamless across their departments and platforms.
“We wanted to eliminate hard cutover points and keep things easier for our users,” White said.
The Results
By keeping their NFS, G Suite, and SharePoint in sync, Betenbough was able to use a hybrid cloud environment while they train their teams on the new platforms. This way, users on Sharepoint or G Suite, and users on the network file share are all working on the same, updated content. As a result, Betenbough had more time to adjust for its change management strategy.
“If we didn’t have DryvIQ, we would have required a lot of training during the off- and on-boarding process. It would have been more intense for the users. DryvIQ has made it a much more seamless experience,” said Mark Funderburg, Systems Engineer at Betenbough Companies.
And with the transition to the cloud, they can now offer the desired mobile device access to their content and eliminate reliance on their VPN. “Before this, that was not something that we could offer. A lot of our users are really enjoying that access. It’s been a vital piece to the puzzle.”
In addition to the technological benefits, DryvIQ’s technical support and professional services were crucial to migration success at Betenbough.
“Overall, the DryvIQ team has been amazing,” Funderburg said. DryvIQ gave Betenbough a dedicated representative to help them set everything up, configured, and tested – taking out all the guesswork and stress out of the project. “The team was more than willing to help us out and make sure everything was working as expected, and we were satisfied.”
Content Collaboration During COVID-19
While Betenbough began its SharePoint and G Suite sync migration project before the COVID-19 pandemic, they finished it just in time. “DryvIQ was a vital piece in the timing of it,” said White. He continued to explain, “Without DryvIQ, we would have had to do more face-to-face interactions during the pandemic.” But with DryvIQ’s syncing capabilities among Betenbough’s disparate platforms, they experienced a seamless transition to the cloud right when they needed it most.
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