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Retiring Network Drives with SharePoint Online & Teams

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Retiring Network Drives with SharePoint Online & Teams
12
Aug

The short answer

Yes—SharePoint Online (with Teams) can replace traditional file shares for most organizations. But success has less to do with moving files and more to do with architecture, governance, change management, and migration planning.

Why companies consider the move

Organizations usually consider retiring network drives because:

  • Remote access pain: VPN bottlenecks and clunky experiences for hybrid/remote staff.

  • Aging hardware & rising costs: File servers nearing end-of-life or needing upgrades/licenses/support.

  • Tool sprawl: Files scattered across on-prem shares, cloud drives (Box/Dropbox/Google), and Teams.

  • Compliance & risk: Need for retention, DLP, auditing, and legal hold aligned to Microsoft 365.

  • Productivity expectations: Co-authoring, @mentions, chat-to-file context, and automation.

Use SharePoint Online if you want…

  • One place to collaborate: Files live with the conversations (Teams channels), tasks, and context.

  • Better search & versioning: Modern search, per-file version history, and restore options.

  • Controlled external sharing: Policy-driven sharing to partners/clients with auditing.

  • Workflow & automation: Approvals, notifications, and document lifecycle with Power Automate.

  • Unified compliance: Retention labels, eDiscovery, DLP, and audit logs in Microsoft Purview.

Consider complementing or delaying if you need…

  • Massive CAD/media pipelines with unique locking or specialized file protocol needs.

  • Ultra-low-latency write performance for apps not suited to cloud storage.

  • Highly complex, legacy ACL models that can’t be simplified (yet).

  • Long offline work windows without reliable connectivity.

Tip: Hybrid patterns (e.g., Azure Files/SharePoint mix, or staged department rollouts) often bridge these gaps.

The mindset shift: Sites and libraries, not “the G: drive”

A straight “lift-and-shift” of a huge folder tree into one library rarely ends well. In Microsoft 365, you think in sites, libraries, and metadata:

  • Sites for ownership and security: Departments, projects, or business units get their own sites.

  • Libraries for structure: Break content into logical collections (e.g., “Contracts,” “Policies,” “Projects”).

  • Metadata for findability: Add columns like Department, Document Type, Fiscal Year, Status, etc.

  • Teams for conversation context: Channels map to topics or sub-teams; each channel has its own files area.

This structure improves permissions, navigation, and lifecycle control—and prevents the “one giant library” trap.

Governance matters (a lot)

Establish clear rules before migrating:

  • Provisioning & naming: How sites/Teams are requested, approved, and named (e.g., FIN-AP-Projects).

  • Ownership & membership: At least two owners per Team/Site; security via Microsoft 365 Groups, not ad-hoc item-level permissions.

  • Sharing policies: Who can share externally and under what conditions.

  • Retention & records: Labels, retention schedules, and disposition for regulated content.

  • Lifecycle: Reviews, archival, and deletion policies to stop sprawl before it starts.

“Beyond a file server”: What users actually get

  • Co-authoring in Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with presence indicators.

  • Comments & @mentions that stay with the document.

  • Approvals and notifications via Power Automate.

  • Anywhere access on web, desktop, or mobile—without VPN.

  • Integrated search across files, chats, meetings, and people in Microsoft 365.

Common pitfalls to avoid

  • Dumping everything into one site: Kills performance and permission hygiene.

  • Recreating 10-level folders: If you mirror legacy structure, you lose most benefits.

  • Skipping user enablement: “SharePoint doesn’t work” usually means “we weren’t trained.”

  • Ignoring limits: There are practical limits for item counts, path lengths, and sync suitability—design around them.

  • No cutover plan: Running two “truths” (share + cloud) for too long confuses everyone.

A pragmatic migration plan

1) Discover & assess

  • Inventory shares, sizes, owners, sensitivity, and active vs. stale content.

  • Identify “hot paths” and business-critical workloads (finance, legal, operations).

2) Design the information architecture

  • Map departments and teams to sites.

  • Define libraries + metadata per content type.

  • Plan permissions (owners/members/visitors) and external sharing needs.

3) Prepare the foundation

  • Configure governance: naming, templates, provisioning, retention, DLP.

  • Set up Teams with channel structure aligned to work.

  • Decide on sync strategy (OneDrive) for users who need offline access.

4) Pilot

  • Choose 1–2 departments, migrate a representative subset, and gather feedback.

  • Validate search, permissions, sharing, and workflows. Adjust the model.

5) Migrate in waves

  • Prioritize by business value and readiness.

  • Communicate clearly: what moves, when, and where to find it.

  • Freeze legacy locations during each cutover to avoid “two sources of truth.”

6) Enable & support users

  • Role-based training (site owners vs. contributors vs. viewers).

  • Quick guides: sharing safely, restoring versions, using metadata, finding files.

  • Office hours and a clear support path for the first 4–6 weeks.

7) Decommission

  • Read-only period on legacy shares → archive → retire.

  • 301 redirects or bookmarks from old paths to new locations, where helpful.

Cost & risk: the business view

  • Servers vs. SaaS: Retiring hardware, backup software, storage expansions, and VPN maintenance often offsets cloud licensing.

  • Security & compliance: Centralized controls reduce shadow IT and simplify audits.

  • Productivity: Time saved on access, search, and coordination compounds quickly.

  • Change management: Budget for training and support—this is where ROI is won or lost.

Quick decision checklist

You’re ready to move now if:

  • You can define 8–20 core sites for your organization with clear owners.

  • You’re willing to use metadata for at least your highest-value document types.

  • You’ll invest in owner training and basic governance.

  • You can run a focused pilot and accept some iterative design.

Consider a phased or hybrid approach if:

  • You rely on apps that demand SMB/NFS performance or file-locking patterns not ideal for SharePoint.

  • Your folder trees are extremely deep and tightly coupled to legacy ACLs.

  • Teams are highly distributed with unreliable connectivity (offline-first workflows).

FAQ

Is Teams the same as SharePoint?
No. Teams provides chats/meetings/channels. Every Team sits on a SharePoint site where the files actually live.

Do we have to sync everything?
No. Most users should work in the browser or desktop apps directly from SharePoint/Teams and only sync critical working folders via OneDrive.

What about external partners?
Use site-specific external sharing policies, guest access, and expiration rules. For highly sensitive work, consider separate partner sites with stricter controls.

How do we handle old “archive” shares?
Apply retention rules and move archives to dedicated libraries or sites with limited access. Don’t mix active collaboration with archives.

A sample target structure (idea starter)

  • Corporate (Communication Site)

    • Policies & Procedures (read-most)

    • Templates & Brand Assets

  • Finance (Team Site)

    • AP, AR, Budgeting, Reporting libraries

    • Retention labels for financial records

  • Operations (Team Site)

    • Projects library with Project Type, Client, Fiscal Year metadata

    • Controlled external sharing for vendors

  • HR (Team Site – confidential)

    • Secure membership, limited sharing, retention for records

  • Sales & Marketing (Team Site)

      • Proposals, Collateral, Campaigns with approval flows

Training: the linchpin

Plan for role-based enablement:

  • Site Owners: permissions, sharing policies, structure, lifecycle.

  • Contributors: co-authoring, versioning, requests/approvals, metadata.

  • Viewers: navigation, search, finding the “source of truth.”

Reinforce with short videos, job aids, and office hours. Adoption is a journey, not a memo.

Ready to modernize your file storage?

If you’re weighing the move off network drives, we can help you assess, architect, migrate, and train—end-to-end.

Alcero — Microsoft 365 & SharePoint Experts
📞 514-316-5064 | ✉️ [email protected]