Large Migration from Lotus Notes to Dataverse - Part 2

This article will be the second part of the series, achieving Large Migration from LN to Dataverse. Please use this?link?for part 1.

In the previous article we have discussed on various approaches of ETL of the data to Dataverse or other equivalent resources. Just note that extending the same thought it is also possible to leverage Dataflows to import data into Dataverse which I missed mentioning earlier.

In here, we will focus on key aspects to be factored during the design environments. Some of them can be as enumerated below:

1. Create separate environments for Dev, Test and Production.
2. Secure the environments through security groups
3. Plan for the retention of the Audit logs based on the compliance requirements around the audit settings both at the Custom tables and Columns level.
4. Limit the number of System Administrator and not proliferate it with application specific users/owners.

As we move down the design of the database components for structured content, below mentioned pointers will be key.

1. With regard to the custom tables consider evaluating the options of Virtual and/or Elastic tables over the standard tables based on the interoperability and integration requirements with other applications outside the scope migration.
2. Try securing the data to be hosted in Dataverse with custom security roles and/or business units along the same lines of the application security boundaries of the Lotus notes databases. Ie: Application specific security roles. This will avoid the proliferation of multiple environments which would otherwise burden or will be an maintenance overhead.
3. In case of multiple LN DB's getting migrated, consider have <LNAppName> prefix for the custom table names. Similarly, choose the Choice column names based on the application name if a given column is not used across multiple LN DB . If used across multiple LN DB, try having the common prefix for the choice column based on the business function name.
4. One of the commonly leveraged security at data level in Lotus notes is the row level security. Hence when design the custom tables, consider configuring the right ownership of the table Ie: User/Team or Organization. The key aspect is once configured it is not reversible.
5. Users of LN are generally allowed to view the version history but in case of Dataverse even though the audit settings are preserved, they can be retrieved and viewed only by privilege users. Hence, consider provisioning custom security roles which includes the privileges like "View Audit History" and "View Audit Summary". Having said that certain LN applications have capability to log retrieve operations, export operations, etc. which will not be available in Dataverse, and it will be wise to keep those functionalities out of scope.
6. If your target application requires Dataflows and requires to restrict duplicate entries do consider creating the alternate key knowing the limits of the Alternate keys.

In case of designing the database components for the unstructured content, like attachments aka electronic files, consider other databases options like Azure blob or SharePoint based on the content management requirements of the same. This is mainly because, Dataverse is costly for file storage and doesn't offer features of content management like Check-in/Check-out for these electronic files. In addition, default SharePoint integration with Dataverse is not best suited when migrating from LN because the native pattern of electronic files storage is LN requires certain metadata to be well preserved and requires custom structures. Hence, implementing the custom structure for storing the electronic files is best suited and scalable.

As we all know Dataverse is more than a standard Database or people like me like to call it as Database on steroids, try leveraging the capability of the business rules to keep the sanctity of the data getting stored in the Dataverse and/or use Dataverse views to be use them binding the to Data table/ Gallery.

Unlike LN, some of the key features of these Dataverse Flow component available at our disposal on top of any standard queries and quick processing are as follows.

1. Limiting Columns
2. Limiting Row Count
3. Expanding the Query to get related records
4. Filtering using FetchXML or OData

From the Security standpoint, following are some of the additional pointers which can help

1. Try managing permissions using Azure AD groups via Teams as far as possible rather than working with Users and Security roles directly. This will have least overhead in the maintenance.
2. Provisioning custom security roles wherever required by copying existing security roles.
3. Adhere to the rule of Least privilege when associating the privileges with the new security roles.
4. Implement Forms security as required by the application.

In summary, the above-mentioned pointers can be used as some the key elements to be touched on in LN to Data verse data migration.