CloudM migrates 110,000 items overnight: A case study in seamless transition

Google Workspace Migration Results at a Glance: 

• 110,000 items migrated
• 96 Google Spaces preserved
• 100% Fidelity: Threads, Reactions, and Membership preserved
• Total Duration: Under 15 hours (completed overnight)
• IT Team Impact: Zero reported issues and a “non-event” for the IT Lead
• Business Impact: Zero downtime or disruption to team collaboration

When a big company change, like a demerger, happens, the thought of moving all your data to a new domain can be pretty overwhelming. We recently went through this ourselves after our demerger and needed to move our Google Workspace tenant quickly and precisely. Our Google Spaces are the heart of our collaboration, so a high-quality migration was non-negotiable. The solution was right in front of us: our own powerful tool, CloudM Migrate. And in doing so, we really put our money where our mouth is, proving our tool’s capabilities firsthand.

The challenge: Migrating a dynamic collaborative environment

Our primary objective involved moving our user data from one Google Workspace tenant to another while the Google domain transfer progressed. Moreover, the critical nature of the data amplified the complexity of this task: 96 Google Spaces containing approximately 110,000 items. These items weren’t just simple message archives; instead, they represented dynamic, living environments rich with threaded conversations, reactions, and embedded content.

Furthermore, a simple, low-fidelity data transfer would have destroyed the context and continuity that our teams rely on daily. Therefore, we needed a solution that not only moved the data but also preserved the integrity of the collaborative environment, ensuring minimal disruption for our 95 to 100 users.

The Solution: CloudM Migrate‘s Spaces-to-Spaces capabilities

CloudM Migrate proved to be the ideal tool for this high-stakes internal migration, and it’s purpose-built capabilities for Spaces-to-Spaces migrations were put to the ultimate test.

One of the most critical aspects of the project was maintaining the rich context of our collaboration. CloudM Migrate’s advanced features were able to preserve:

• Threaded messages: Conversations remained intact, allowing users to pick up where they left off without losing context.
• Reactions: All reactions to messages were accurately transferred.
• Custom emojis: Our unique custom emojis were successfully migrated and remained available for use – no need to wave goodbye to party parrot and friends!
• Spaces members: The original membership of each Space was preserved, ensuring teams were automatically reassembled in the new tenant.

Shaun Richards, Product Manager for CloudM Migrate, commented on the importance of these features: “The beauty of CloudM’s migration tool is that it goes far beyond a basic data lift and shift, which is crucial. Our capability ensures that the rich context of conversations – the threads, the reactions, the members – is completely preserved, guaranteeing minimal downtime and a seamless transition for our teams. This is a testament to the product’s design, which is focused on enabling seamless transitions for our users.” 

This migration posed unique technical hurdles, and to ensure 100% data integrity, particularly for linked Google Drive files, our team demonstrated unmatched expertise by rapidly deploying a specific migration option. This approach guaranteed the original links remained operational, eliminating post-migration user issues.

The Results: A Flawless Migration and Continued Collaboration

The bulk migration of 96 Spaces and 110,000 items was completed overnight, taking just over 14 hours. The entire process was seamless, a fact that was not lost on our IT team.

Jay Thompson, our IT and Security Lead, highlighted the smooth process: “From my perspective, the migration day was a non-event. Everything just worked. The tool was so effective that there were no issues for me to deal with. It was completely hands-off, which is exactly what you want from a migration tool.”

Following the migration, our teams were able to continue their work without a hitch. The preserved collaborative environment meant there was virtually no learning curve or downtime.

Lana Ginns, our Senior Product Marketer, underscored the positive impact on the business: “The transition was so seamless that it felt like we never moved. I was able to continue collaborating with colleagues across the business immediately, which is crucial for our fast-paced work. This project was a perfect example of how our own tool empowers businesses to move with confidence and ensure business continuity.”

Conclusion

This internal project proves that CloudM is not just a theoretical solution, but a reliable platform that allows enterprises to manage significant change – like a demerger or acquisition – with zero data loss and guaranteed business continuity. By automating complex migrations with this level of precision, CloudM sets the standard for operational integrity across all of your Google Workspace management needs.