Moving 50 TB to Azure While Keeping 200 Users Working

An estate agency operating across three locations needed to move its file storage to Azure. Its 200 users relied on shared files throughout the working day, with 50 TB of data involved in the migration.

The business needed the change to happen behind the scenes, with staff able to continue using familiar access paths. Innovacloud planned the storage migration around that operational requirement.

At this scale, copying files was only one part of the work. The migration had to account for existing permissions, share mappings and changes made to the source data while the transfer was underway.

The transition also needed to bring the destination storage and user access into alignment. A successful data transfer would have limited value if staff could no longer reach the documents they needed.

Innovacloud reviewed the existing shares and access requirements, prepared the Azure destination and carried out the initial data transfer.

A replication process brought subsequent changes across ahead of the switch. We used DFS and DNS to support continuity of the mapped-share paths, allowing the underlying storage location to change while preserving familiar access for staff.

Azure Files, hosted in Azure Storage Accounts, provided the destination for shared data. Azure File Sync supported staged synchronisation and local access where needed, while DFS Namespaces and DNS preserved familiar share paths at cutover. PowerShell checks compared permissions and tested representative file access for users across the three offices.

Checks around the transition covered file availability and user access. By coordinating data movement and access changes within one migration plan, we kept the focus on the business's ability to continue working.