Cloud migration,
for the data.

Cloud migration is moving digital assets from one environment to another: from on-premises systems into a cloud, or from one cloud to another. For infrastructure teams that means servers, databases, and applications. For the teams this guide is written for, it means data: the files in a Dropbox or Google Drive account moving to OneDrive or SharePoint, the objects in an S3 bucket moving to Azure Blob or Wasabi, the contents of a file server moving to any of them. Mover is the tool for that second kind.

Cloud data migration is moving the data itself, files, folders, and objects, into a cloud or between clouds, as distinct from migrating the applications and servers that use it. A file server's shares landing in SharePoint or Google Drive, a Dropbox account moving to OneDrive, and an S3 bucket moving to Azure Blob or Wasabi are all cloud data migrations. Mover runs exactly this kind: a free dry run counts the bytes and prices the move, the bulk pass runs while people keep working, and incremental runs make the cutover short.

Cloud to cloud migration moves data directly from one cloud provider to another, without routing it through a machine on your network: S3 to Azure Blob, Google Drive to OneDrive, Dropbox to SharePoint, Google Cloud Storage to Wasabi. Mover transfers provider to provider between any two of its 20+ connections, so the throughput is set by the two providers' rate limits rather than by an office uplink, and the source provider's egress fee is the only cost outside Mover's usage pack. The free dry run estimates that egress before anything moves.

For data, it depends on how many bytes move and how fast the slower side of the pair accepts them, which is why the dry run counts bytes before anything starts. Mover moves files in parallel, provider to provider, and the first pass runs while people keep working; an incremental run then copies only what changed, so the cutover itself is short. Small accounts finish in hours. Multi-terabyte estates run over days in the background.

Decide four things before moving anything. What moves and what is left behind, which filters settle. Where it lands and how the folder structure maps to the destination. When people switch over, which incremental runs make a non-event. And what the source charges to let the data out, which sets the budget more than the tool does.

Consolidation is the usual one: a company that bought Microsoft 365 stops paying for Dropbox and puts everything where its identity and sharing already live. Cost is the second: object storage priced per gigabyte with no egress fee changes the economics of keeping cold data. Reach is the third: a file server in one office becomes storage every office and every application can use.

For data, the challenges are concrete. Egress fees that were not budgeted. A folder tree that does not map to the destination’s structure. Files that fail on a name, a size, or a permission and vanish from a spreadsheet nobody reconciles. A cutover that forces downtime because everything moves at once. The dry run, the filters, the per-file run log, and incremental runs exist to remove each of those.

For an infrastructure program, servers and applications and databases, often yes. For data, moving files between storage providers or collaboration platforms, no. That is a job one person does with a tool, a dry run, and a Friday afternoon.