Most Australian businesses still have an F: drive — a file server that's accumulated 15 years of documents, mismatched permissions, and unknown ownership. It's also the most common blocker we see when organisations try to deploy Copilot, turn on Purview, or rationalise their IT spend.
The fix is well understood: SharePoint Online. The problem is the how. Too many migrations land in production with broken permissions, orphaned files, and a service desk buried for a month. Here's how we approach it.
Map what's actually there
Before you move anything, you need a source-of-truth inventory. We run a data discovery scan over the file server that captures total volume, file age, file type, top folder sizes, NTFS permissions, and last-accessed dates. That one report usually reveals about 30% of the data can be archived or deleted outright.
Model your SharePoint architecture
Don't just lift and shift. SharePoint rewards structure. A typical model: a Hub site per business unit, a Site per major function, and Libraries aligned to security boundaries. Permissions map to Entra groups — never to individuals.
Migrate in waves
We use SharePoint Migration Manager or ShareGate (depending on scale) and move in waves — by site, then by business unit. Each wave has a pre-cutover briefing, a 48-hour go/no-go window, and a post-cutover review.
Sunset the F: drive
Mapped drives get switched to read-only for a week, then archived for six months, then deleted. The change is visible, the rollback path is obvious, and adoption lands with the users.
The Copilot unlock
And once the files are in SharePoint with sensible permissions, Copilot can actually reason over the business. A file server gives it nothing to work with. That's why we see most of our clients prioritise this migration the moment they get serious about Copilot.