There has been a lot of hype around the new API/Pipeline that utilizes Azure as a method of doing migrations.  While I am super excited about the possibilities that surround this and the fact that the three heavy hitters in migrations are using this as part of their tool.  I think the one piece that is being seriously overlooked from the overall migration strategy is “what if you are not just doing a lift and shift”.

I know that there are occasions when companies who want to migrate to the cloud but do not want to maintain the site hierarchy that is currently in place.  They need to restructure, move content around.  If this is the case then this method while quicker on the back-end doesn’t provide you with the method to do that or at least doing it easily.

Yes you can create packages using xml, however you cannot migrate or preserve taxonomy or workflow metadata.

The requirements around what goes into the package is very strict.

• Identity: Specifies the URL or GUID of the Web to be exported.
• Path: Specifies the name of the export file. Because we require that the NoFileCompression parameter is used, a directory must be specified.
• NoFileCompression: Either enables or disables file compression in the export package. File compression must be disabled.
• ItemUrl: Specifies the URL of the Web application, GUID, or object to be exported.

You have a ton of PowerShell that has to be created and each package has to be created.  Here is a sample for a typical package

This is just for one move.  This has to be repeated for each package that you move.

The content is uploaded in blobs to Azure and it has to be formatted in the appropriate format for Azure to accept it.

Using the Azure pipeline is faster and you wont spend your time beating your head against the wall or more specifically against the throttling already in place for Office 365, but you loose control of some of the basic things that doing a migration provides.

It will be interesting to see what the three players bring to the table for this to be used. I know that Sharegate has already wrote a really good blog on this subject.  Metavis/Metalogix has already added some of the functionality around this as well.

If you are doing a lift and shift I think the pipeline is a great idea.  However, if your migrations are anything but a simple move, you are going to need a lot more planning and resources to take advantage of this interface.

I for one am excited about what the possibilities or this tool will bring us.

More information can be found here that details out the steps and requirements needed to use the new API Pipeline