Search-First Migration

A Phased Implementation Approach

Search-First Migration Strategy

Quicker Business Benefits and a Safer Path to Adoption of SharePoint 2013

Adopting a Search-First Migration strategy is a proven, successful pattern. It does not require any changes to the existing infrastructure and provides a mechanism for content to remain in the current repository while the technology and search engine for the enterprise takes a leap forward. It reduces risk by allowing a phased approach without degradation of service, and it increases flexibility since different farms can upgrade or migrate at their own pace. And, most importantly, it provides rapid time-to-value.

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BA Insight’s Search-First Migration Accelerator

BA Insight is a specialist in SharePoint Search. Our expert staff, which has led hundreds of successful search projects, includes recognized industry experts and encompasses the people that invented the Search-First Migration.

To assist organizations with the Search-First Migration Strategy, BA Insight provides product capabilities that enhance the process and improve the resulting search experience, along with services to scope, plan, and assist with the migration.

BA Insight products and implementation services are designed around a platform approach to the implementation of SharePoint as a portal/intranet. The implementation with BA Insight reduces time, cost and risk while providing a better solution for end users.

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BA Insight’s product capabilities are applied in our accelerator so that a Search-First Migration can work smoothly.

  • Connectivity across farms and to systems outside of SharePoint is used to crawl and index content into a SharePoint 2013 services farm dedicated to search.
  • Content classification from BA Insight feeds the deep refinement feature in SharePoint 2013 to improve findability, and Smart Previews provide a strong user experience independent of where the content is located.
  • The accelerator also incorporates best practices based on our experience and on Microsoft’s recommendations.

 

Search-First in Azure

SharePoint on Azure Infrastructure Services offers the benefits of cloud computing for SharePoint along with a high degree of control and customizability.  It can result in a better quality solution than an on-premise deployment. The Search-First approach using Azure also provides the ability to support internet-facing search applications and Hybrid SharePoint configurations.

The Search-First approach opens up the option to use cloud-based resources, in particular Microsoft Azure, which has evolved into a very effective platform for hosting the SharePoint Server.

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Azure Infrastructure for SharePoint

Microsoft Azure provides a compelling option for hosting search services based on SharePoint Server 2013. Azure’s Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering, called Azure Infrastructure, fully supports the hosting of the SharePoint Server and applications built on SharePoint.

There are many advantages to using SharePoint in Azure Infrastructure Services:

  • It provides the benefits of cloud computing for SharePoint– fast provisioning, no hardware procurement process, and the flexibility to scale based on demand. You pay only for the resources that you need and use.
  • There is a high degree of control and customizability since it is the same SharePoint Server you use on-premise. It includes customizations and third-party software not supported in Office 365.
  • It can result in a better quality solution than an on-premise deployment.  High availability and disaster recovery are part of the service, and development and staging systems are ‘on tap’.