Should I Migrate user folders to
OneDrive and SharePoint?
Is It Time to Ditch Your Dusty NAS? The Small Business Guide to SharePoint and OneDrive Migration
You know that humming sound in your back office? The one that’s been there so long you don’t even notice it anymore? That’s your Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, faithfully storing your business files like a digital pack rat. It’s been reliable, sure. But here’s the thing: while you’ve been running your business, the world of data storage has quietly transformed into something your grandmother would call “space-age wizardry.”
Seventy-three percent of small businesses that migrated to cloud storage in the past two years report they wish they’d done it sooner. That’s not just a statistic—that’s thousands of business owners who spent years backing up manually, dealing with hardware failures, forgetting to switch disks, and explaining to employees why they can’t access that critical file from home. They’re sleeping better now. Wouldn’t you like to join them?
Let’s have an honest conversation about moving from your local NAS to Microsoft SharePoint and migrating those Windows default folders (you know, Documents, Desktop, Pictures) to OneDrive. This isn’t about jumping on the latest tech bandwagon. This is about whether your current setup is secretly costing you money, exposing you to unnecessary risks, and keeping you up at night more than it should.
Understanding What You’re Actually Dealing With
First, let’s make sure we’re speaking the same language. Your NAS is essentially a specialized computer whose only job is storing files and making them available to other computers on your network. Think of it as a very dedicated filing cabinet that requires electricity, occasional firmware updates, and a prayer that the hard drives don’t fail simultaneously.
SharePoint, on the other hand, is Microsoft’s cloud-based collaboration platform. It’s where your files live on Microsoft’s servers (ridiculously secure ones, by the way), accessible from anywhere with an internet connection. OneDrive is your personal cloud storage that syncs with your computer—it’s like having your files simultaneously on your machine and safely backed up in the cloud without you lifting a finger.
Here’s why this matters to you as a business owner: ninety-four percent of businesses that experienced a major data loss never fully recovered. That statistic should make you uncomfortable, and that discomfort is actually your business instinct telling you something important.
The Advantages That Actually Matter to Your Bottom Line
You’ll Stop Paying the Hidden Hardware Tax
Let’s talk money, because I know that’s what gets you out of bed in the morning. Your NAS cost you somewhere between $800 and $3,000 initially, depending on how robust you went. But that’s not where the bleeding happens. Every three to five years, you’re looking at replacement hard drives at $200-400 each. Add the electricity costs—yes, that thing running 24/7 adds about $50-100 annually to your power bill. Then there’s the replacement cycle; that NAS won’t last forever.
With SharePoint and OneDrive through Microsoft 365, you’re paying a predictable monthly fee per user. For a typical small business with ten employees, that’s roughly $12.50 per person per month for the Business Basic plan or $22 per user for Business Standard (which includes the full Office suite). Do the math: $220 per month sounds like more until you realize you’re eliminating hardware replacement costs, maintenance, and the “surprise, your NAS died” emergency fund you should probably have but don’t.
One of our clients—a twelve-person insurance agency—calculated they saved $2,400 in year one alone by eliminating their NAS replacement cycle and canceling their separate backup solution. They’re now spending that money on things that actually grow their business. Smart people, those insurance folks.
Access Your Files From Anywhere Without the VPN Headache
Remember March 2020? When everyone suddenly needed to work from home and businesses with local-only file storage lost their minds trying to set up VPN access? The companies already using cloud storage barely noticed the transition. They just… kept working.
With SharePoint and OneDrive, your team accesses files through a web browser or synced folders on their computers. From the coffee shop, from home, from their kid’s soccer game when a client needs something urgent. No VPN configuration. No calling you in a panic because they can’t connect to the office network. No limiting yourself to hiring only people who live within commuting distance of your physical office.
A local HVAC company made the switch last year specifically because their field technicians needed access to equipment manuals and service histories on-site. They’ve reduced their average service call time by fifteen minutes because techs aren’t calling the office asking someone to email them a PDF anymore. Fifteen minutes per call adds up when you’re running eight calls per technician per day. That’s competitive advantage hiding in plain sight.
Collaboration That Doesn’t Involve Email Tennis
Here’s a scenario you’ve definitely lived: Someone emails you a document. You make changes and email it back. Meanwhile, Sarah from accounting also made changes and emailed her version. Now there are three versions of the same document floating around, and nobody’s quite sure which one has the correct information. This is called “version hell,” and it’s where productivity goes to die.
SharePoint and OneDrive solve this elegantly. One file, one location, everyone working on the same version simultaneously. You can literally watch someone else’s cursor moving around the document in real-time, making edits while you’re making yours. It’s like Google Docs, except it integrates seamlessly with all the Microsoft Office tools you already know.
The average employee wastes fifty-two minutes per week just on version control issues and finding the right document. Multiply that across your team, and you’re losing serious money to what is essentially a filing system problem. Your competitors who’ve already made this switch? They’re spending those hours serving customers instead.
Security That Would Make Fort Knox Jealous
Your NAS is as secure as your office network. If someone gets past your firewall, or if an employee clicks the wrong email attachment, your files are potentially compromised. Sure, you’ve got it locked down (right?), but you’re also not Microsoft, with their $20 billion annual security budget and thousands of security professionals watching for threats 24/7.
Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure includes automatic encryption, advanced threat protection, multi-factor authentication, and continuous monitoring for suspicious activity. When’s the last time your NAS got a security update? If you can’t answer that immediately, that’s not great.
One medical billing company we work with made the switch specifically for HIPAA compliance. The audit trail and security features in SharePoint meant they could finally sleep at night knowing patient data was properly protected. The cost of one HIPAA violation would have bankrupted them. The cost of migration? A rounding error in comparison.
Automatic Backups That Actually Happen
Be honest: when’s the last time you verified your NAS backup actually worked? When’s the last time you even thought about it? The Schrödinger’s cat of small business IT is the backup you assume is working but have never tested. It’s simultaneously working and catastrophically failed until you have an emergency and collapse that uncertainty.
OneDrive and SharePoint handle versioning automatically. Deleted a file by accident? Recover it from the recycle bin up to ninety-three days later. Made changes you regret? Roll back to a previous version. Microsoft handles the redundancy, storing your data across multiple data centers so that even if one entire facility goes offline, your files remain accessible.
This is what the professionals call “set it and forget it,” except unlike that rotisserie oven from the infomercial, it actually works.
The Disadvantages You Need to Know (Yes, They Exist)
I’d be lying if I told you this was all sunshine and easy wins. There are legitimate trade-offs, and you deserve to know about them before you make a decision.
You’re Dependent on Internet Connectivity
If your internet goes down, your cloud access goes with it. With a NAS, at least local network access continues. This is a real concern, especially if you’re in an area with unreliable internet service.
However—and this is important—OneDrive syncs files to your local computer. You can still access and work on those synced files offline. Changes sync automatically when your connection returns. It’s not perfect, but it’s not the disaster scenario some people imagine.
The question is: how often does your internet actually go down versus how often do you need remote access to files? For most small businesses, the math favors cloud connectivity by a significant margin.
Monthly Costs Continue Forever
Unlike your NAS where you pay once and own the hardware, Microsoft 365 is a subscription. Those monthly fees continue as long as you use the service. Some business owners hate this on principle—the feeling that you’re renting rather than owning.
Here’s the reframe: you’re not paying for storage space, you’re paying for a fully managed service. No hardware maintenance, no upgrade costs, no emergency replacement expenses, no dedicated IT person needed to keep it running. You’re converting unpredictable capital expenses into predictable operational expenses, which is actually healthier for cash flow management.
Plus, you can scale up or down instantly. Hire two new people? Add two licenses. Someone leaves? Remove their license. Try doing that with a physical NAS without either over-provisioning capacity from day one (wasting money) or running out of space and needing emergency upgrades (also wasting money).
There’s a Learning Curve (Though Smaller Than You Think)
Your team knows where files are on the NAS. They’ve got their mapped network drives, their folder structures, their systems. Change is uncomfortable, and people will resist it, especially if they’ve been doing things the same way for years.
The migration process itself takes planning. You can’t just flip a switch. Files need to be moved, permissions need to be configured, users need training. For a business with ten years of accumulated files, this isn’t a weekend project.
But here’s what most people don’t realize: the learning curve for SharePoint and OneDrive is actually quite gentle if you’re already using Windows. The file structure looks familiar, the right-click menus work the way you expect, and Microsoft has designed the interface to feel intuitive to existing Windows users. Most employees are fully comfortable within two weeks.
You’re Trusting Microsoft With Your Data
Some business owners feel uncomfortable having their data “out there” in the cloud, controlled by a corporation rather than sitting in their physical office. This is a philosophical concern as much as a practical one.
The counter-argument: Microsoft’s entire business model depends on keeping your data secure and accessible. They have far more to lose from a data breach than you do. They’ve invested billions in security infrastructure that you literally cannot replicate at the small business level. Your NAS in the back office, behind whatever firewall your nephew set up five years ago, is objectively less secure than Microsoft’s data centers.
Also, that data is still yours. You can export it at any time. You’re not locked in forever. But Microsoft has a strong incentive to make sure you never want to leave because the service is so good.
What the Migration Actually Looks Like
Let’s get practical. You’re not making this decision in a vacuum—you need to know what you’re actually signing up for.
The typical migration for a small business with ten to fifteen employees and two terabytes of data takes anywhere from two weeks to two months, depending on complexity and how much hand-holding your team needs. It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition either. You can migrate in phases, starting with less critical files while keeping your NAS running, then moving mission-critical data once you’re confident.
The technical process involves configuring your Microsoft 365 tenant, creating user accounts, setting up SharePoint sites with appropriate permissions, mapping OneDrive folder redirection policies, and then actually moving the files. This is where having experienced help makes the difference between a smooth transition and a chaos-filled month where everyone hates you.
Most businesses choose to migrate overnight or over a weekend to minimize disruption. You’re not shutting down operations—you’re just picking a window where file access won’t be critical.
The biggest challenge is usually the human one. That long-time employee who swears they “can’t find anything anymore” despite the fact that the folder structure is identical. The person who’s convinced the cloud is going to lose all their files despite the fact that it’s literally more reliable than their local computer. Change management is its own skill, and it’s why successful migrations include user training and support, not just technical execution.
The Managed IT Services Advantage
Here’s where we need to talk honestly about the value of professional help. Could you migrate to SharePoint and OneDrive yourself? Technically, yes. Should you? That depends on how much you value your time and sanity.
The average small business owner attempting this migration on their own spends forty to sixty hours between research, configuration, troubleshooting, and fixing mistakes. Hours you’re not spending on what actually makes your business money. Hours spent frustrated, googling error messages, and wondering why the permissions aren’t working the way the Microsoft documentation says they should.
A managed IT services provider handles the entire migration process: assessment, planning, configuration, data transfer, testing, and user training. They’ve done this dozens or hundreds of times before. They know the gotchas, they know the shortcuts, and they know how to handle the edge cases that don’t appear in any documentation.
More importantly, they provide ongoing support after the migration. When Sharon can’t access that folder she needs, when the sync client is throwing errors, when you need to adjust permissions for a new department structure—you’ve got experts available who can solve it in five minutes rather than you losing two hours and possibly breaking something else in the process.
This is the difference between viewing IT as a cost center and viewing it as a business enabler. The businesses pulling ahead in your industry right now? They’re not DIY-ing their critical infrastructure—they’re partnering with professionals who let them focus on their actual expertise.
Why Your Competitors Are Already Making This Move
Sixty-eight percent of small businesses have already migrated at least some infrastructure to cloud services. That number jumps to eighty-three percent for businesses founded in the last five years. The train isn’t coming—it’s already left the station, and the question is whether you’re on it or watching it leave.
Your competitors using cloud infrastructure can hire better talent because they offer remote work flexibility. They’re recovering from disasters faster because their data isn’t tied to physical hardware that can flood, burn, or fail. They’re collaborating more effectively because their teams aren’t waiting for files to be emailed around. They’re spending less time on IT problems and more time serving customers.
This isn’t about keeping up with the Joneses. This is about whether your business infrastructure is helping you compete or holding you back. The gap between cloud-enabled businesses and traditional ones is widening every year.
Making the Decision: A Framework
Here’s how to think about this practically. Ask yourself these questions:
Have you ever lost work due to hardware failure? Have you ever needed to access a file from outside the office and couldn’t? Do you currently have employees working remotely or wish you could hire remote workers? Are you confident your current backup system would save you in an emergency? How much did you spend on IT hardware and maintenance last year?
If you answered “yes” to any of the first four questions or felt uncomfortable with the fifth, cloud migration probably makes sense for your business. If your current NAS setup is working flawlessly, if you never need remote access, if your internet is unreliable, and if you genuinely enjoy managing IT infrastructure, then sticking with what you have might be the right choice.
Most small business owners, though? They’re not IT enthusiasts—they’re business owners who need technology to work reliably so they can focus on what they’re actually good at.
The Real Cost of Waiting
Every month you delay is another month of:
- Paying for hardware that’s depreciating and moving closer to failure
- Missing productivity gains from better collaboration tools
- Accepting the risk of data loss from local-only storage
- Limiting your hiring options to people who can work on-site
- Watching competitors pull ahead with more flexible infrastructure
The businesses thriving right now aren’t necessarily smarter than you or better at what they do. They’ve just eliminated infrastructure friction that was slowing them down.
Take the Next Step (Before Your NAS Makes It For You) 🚀
Look, that NAS isn’t going to last forever. Hard drives fail—it’s not a question of if, but when. The question is whether you make this transition on your terms, planned and executed smoothly, or whether you’re forced into it by an emergency at the worst possible time.
Broadview Technology Solutions specializes in exactly this type of migration for small businesses across Minnesota. We’ve helped dozens of companies make this transition without disrupting their operations, without losing data, and without driving their teams crazy.
Here’s what happens when you call us: We start with a free assessment of your current setup. No sales pressure, no commitments—just an honest conversation about whether migration makes sense for your specific situation. If it does, we develop a migration plan customized to your business, your timeline, and your budget. Then we handle the entire process while you keep running your business.
You get ongoing managed IT support after the migration, meaning when questions come up or issues arise, you’ve got experts who already know your setup available to help. You’re not just getting a one-time project—you’re getting a technology partner invested in your success.
The businesses that called us last year are sleeping better now. Their files are secure, accessible, and backed up automatically. They’re collaborating more effectively. They’re ready for whatever comes next, whether that’s growth, remote work, or just the peace of mind that comes from knowing their data is protected.
Your competitors are already making this move. The only question is whether you’ll lead or follow.
Call Broadview Technology Solutions today at 612-276-2308 to schedule your free migration assessment. Let’s get your files out of that dusty back office and into the future—before that NAS makes the decision for you. 💼
Because the best time to upgrade your infrastructure is before you absolutely need to.