NM: Why does Binary Tree recommend a centralized archive migration over an end user migration pro (4313200)

Why does Binary Tree recommend a centralized archive migration over an end user migration process?

Current limitations of the end user archive process where the .msi package is detached and needs to run on the users workstation:

• The End User Archive process does not migrate directly to the Exchange server - only to a local personal folder (.pst file)
• The End User Archive process requires that a name translation file be attached to ensure all names resolve properly during the migration
• The 'Migrate my Archives' button must be activated from within the Notes client - the code behind the button is LotusScript (Notes specific programming language) and will not work with an Outlook client

Because the process requires an installation package (.msi) to be run and installed, end users running the migration need to have Administrator rights on their PCs. In addition to the right to install programs, this is because the process must also have access to various configuration parameters, including the registry. Depending on the customer's security policy, such access may or may not be available. To determine everything that is needed for this process to work on every end user PC is not always obvious.

Finally, the local archive migration process has been designed as a "stop-gap" measure. In our migration experience, reliance on end-users to perform data migration is a sure way to adversely affect the migration project. Thus we introduced centralized archive migration.

Centralized archive migration allows us to migrate Domino Server or File Server based archives into Exchange mailboxes or .pst files. Migration of Domino Server archives is the alternative we have always recommended and for which we made an adjustment in the EMM (Enterprise Migration Manager) to poll the Archive Profile settings for each mail file to find the server-based archive. This approach allows users to copy local archive(s) to a Domino Server (or a File Server) from which the centralized archive migration can be managed and performed.

We strongly suggest that you consider centralized archive migration to successfully migrate end user archives. We realize that this increases storage requirements in the short term, and we feel that usually it's still the better alternative because it dramatically increases the chances for successful archive migration.