5 Smart Ways to Prepare Your Data Before a Migration

Think of your cloud migration like moving into a new house: Before you start putting your belongings into boxes, it’s a good idea to sort through the drawers, clear out the junk, and decide what’s worth keeping. You might even stumble across a few things you didn’t know you still had.

The same idea applies to your data. A migration is the perfect time to clear out digital clutter, improve content accuracy, and make sure the data you carry forward is organized, compliant, and ready to perform in a modern cloud environment.

Following are five smart ways to improve your content accuracy before you migrate:

1. Conduct a Content Audit

A good migration starts with knowing what you have. Most organizations have a surprising amount of redundant, obsolete, or trivial (ROT) content, sitting in file shares. A content audit gives you a clear picture of all your data, which helps you understand where your information lives and what value it provides.

Manually auditing terabytes of data isn’t realistic, and this is where automated tools can give you a clear edge. Having a data inventory of your content provides a solid foundation for all your migration decisions. A solution like Peregrine Classify, for example, can handle the heavy lifting of scanning and identifying files at scale.

2. Eliminate ROT to Reduce Costs

Cloud storage may seem endless, but it isn’t free. Every unnecessary file, including duplicates and multiple versions, costs money to store, manage, and secure. Migrating redundant or irrelevant data increases both the time it takes to complete the migration and the storage expenses afterward.

Cleaning up before a migration reduces the amount of data that needs to be moved and allows for a fresh start in your new environment. Moving into a platform that supports AI, such as Microsoft Copilot, ensures you’re teaching your new digital assistant with only what’s current.

3. Identify and Protect Sensitive Information

Before your content leaves its current home, it’s critical to locate and properly secure sensitive or regulated information. This may be content that shouldn’t be shared among your organization, or compliance-related information that can’t be left behind.

Identifying sensitive data early allows you to build a governance plan before the data is exposed to new environments, and subsequently to advanced searches and collaborative tools. Content Accuracy means having confidence that every piece of sensitive information is handled correctly from the start.

4. Organize and Classify for Downstream Readiness

Accurate, well-structured content doesn’t just make migration easier; it sets your organization up for success in the cloud. Clean and classified data is key for utilizing AI features (Copilot), automated workflows (Power Automate), and records management (Microsoft Purview). Investing time in organizing your content now means you can take full advantage of these tools later.

5. Conduct Test Runs

Even with the best preparation, issues can come up during a large-scale migration. Running a pilot or phased migration with a smaller batch of content is a crucial final step. This allows you to ensure your data is correctly structured, processes are working correctly, permissions are intact, and sensitive information remains protected. Testing first helps you fine tune your process and avoid costly surprises before you scale up for the full move.

In summary, improving your content accuracy before a large-scale migration to the cloud is a key step in ensuring a smooth move. These steps may seem time consuming and costly, but automating these tips for your next migration can become a breeze by leveraging AI-driven tools that show success, such as Peregrine Classify. By auditing your data, removing clutter, securing sensitive information, and classifying what's important, you not only accelerate your migration, but also ensure your new digital home starts clean, compliant, and ready for the future.