CMS migration is a fairly common project nowadays, but also the one surrounded by numerous faults and misconceptions. Some people, intimidated by the possible pitfalls, try to avoid the task, forgetting that a CMS switch is often a necessary step towards business growth and development. Despite the fact that sometimes it can create as many problems as it solves. Thorough planning and a bit of groundwork will allow you to reduce the risks and ensure the success of the undertaking.The first necessary thing to remember, when preparing for CMS migration, is that most of the possible dangers connected with the transfer stem from the lack of understanding of the process, as well as failure not to follow the established worst practices, but learn from them. Five of the most common faults that can spoil the outcome of the CMS switch are:Lack of collaboration. You need to communicate the data migration plan with all the agents involved and work together to solve specific problems that may occur along the way.Absence of data administration policies or incomplete migration strategies. Moving the data must include strategies for every step of the way, such as access, transfer, validation, etc. Low data quality in a source system. A lot of orphaned files, poorly organized database structure, irrelevant or duplicate content may corrupt the migration process and thus should be removed beforehand. Failure to understand and optimize the data. You must understand the source website data and decide what needs to be taken along to the target platform and what is better to leave behind. Skipping testing and validation procedures.After the transfer it is crucial to make sure everything works properly and all migrated data is accurate and consistent.Any of the issues mentioned above can decrease the return on the migration and technology refresh significantly, so it is important to do your best to avoid them. Therefore, next we are going to look at some advice on making your data transfer safe.
Best Practices to Avoid Migration Failure:
Before moving to the actual data migration process, it is necessary to understand and prepare a set of proper tools and methods of website relocation. Many IT methods make the mistake of not taking enough time to dig into the peculiarities of the task. However, it is critical to realize that the goals and strategies of website migration are unlike those of any other IT project, and develop a separate distinct approach fitting to your purposes. The following tips and best practices can serve as a starting point in performing a successful website migration.
Plan Migration Process Carefully
Appropriate planning is the key to making the website transfer more secure and avoiding unpleasant surprises. The very first thing you need to do is set the acceptable time frame and resources for your migration. This will help you get a clearer picture on which approaches are the most suitable for the project. Statistics shows that 80% of data migrations are running over time and budget. To prevent this from happening try to create a realistic schedule from the start, taking into account the pre- and post- migration preparations. It is advisable to verify the cost and likely outcome of the migration by performing the impact assessment on one of the initial stages of planning. The next thing you need to do is to carefully plan all the necessary phases of the migration and communicate them with your team.You will greatly depend on the complexity of your site and the organization you’re representing. (for example, if you want to transfer a small blog, you’ll have fewer steps necessary to perform and less, if any, security regulations to take care of than the person looking to migrate an enterprise size website).Another important part of the planning is the work that will need to be done on the target platform prior to migration. The of the new CMSs structure – do you have to create any custom content types to match your existing data or do you want to install any adds ons?Finally, there are two things you need to remember. Firstly, your plan can never be final before you perform careful data analysis. The timelines can change drastically depending on the condition your data is in. Only after you understand the dependencies and the amount of work that needs to be done to optimise your content, you will be able to set reasonable deadlines. secondly, even if you have previous experiences of website migration, don’t simply rely on a carbon copy of that plan, or for that matter any ready-made plan you may find on the web. Your strategy just like your schedule will be dictated by peculiarities of the particular case you’re working on.
Final Thoughts
As you could see, website migration is not something that can happen overnight, especially if you are planning to move large web projects. Even though, there are many that can occur along the road, you can easily resolve them, if you are properly prepared and armed with the right tools. Can’t wait to switch to a different CMS? Start free demo migration with CMS2CMS and see how your website will look on a new platform.