As much of your SmartFile site configuration as possible is automatically copied to your Files.com site. Your users will be copied to the Files.com site with their passwords, SSH Keys, and Two-factor Authentication (2FA) intact. Your groups and group memberships are copied. Notifications are copied with minor changes. Automatic rules for file retention are copied. Other sitewide settings, such as branding, password requirements, and language settings, are automatically updated on your new Files.com site.

All of your user accounts, groups and files are copied over, but you will need to re-enable access those users and groups had to any shared files or folders. You will need to invest significant time setting up file access after the automatic migration process completes. For sites with hundreds of user accounts, this may require multiple days of configuration by your site administrators.

All Files Are Migrated To A New Folder Structure

The HyperPrivacy Mode provided by your legacy SmartFile site included a folder structure that was presented differently for each user, including a virtual shares folder containing files and folders shared by other users. Files.com does not support the concept of hyper-private file storage for individual users that could not be accessed by site administrators because our experience has shown that it's inefficient and creates problems for your administrators. Such an arrangement is brittle, difficult to monitor, and causes customers to find ways to work around the limitations of the file system.

One overarching goal of the automatic migration to Files.com from a SmartFile site using HyperPrivacy is to guarantee that no files are lost by the migration.

In the root of your new Files.com site, a new Home folder contains a separate folder for each user account in your site. Each user account folder will contain all of the files from that user's home folder. All of the files from all of the home folders in your legacy site are included within those folders with no duplication. Each user has full permissions to their own folder. Site administrators have unrestricted access to the entire folder structure.

Sites That Circumvent HyperPrivacy Mode

Some SmartFile Customers using HyperPrivacy Mode opted to effectively disable the system through a specific setup. In this setup, an administrator's home directory was used as the file system root, and folders were shared with users or groups from that administrator's home directory. Individual users did not have home folders assigned, so they worked only in those shared folders.

During your migration to Files.com, we have detected sites using this structure. Rather than files being found under the Home folder described above, all of the files shared by that administrator are in the root of your new Files.com site. In addition, the shared items have been imported as permissions for users and groups, granting access to the files from that administrator's home directory.

We believe this method of migrating your site will greatly reduce the time you need to spend configuring your Files.com site after migration.

Resolve Missing Virtual Shares Folder Issues

User accounts in your SmartFile site that have a home folder use a virtual shares folder which they use to access items shared with them from other users' home folders. Only users with a home folder will see the virtual folder. Users who do not have a home folder will see shared items as the entire contents of their SmartFile site.

The virtual shares folder is not created on your Files.com site by the migration process. If any of your users did not have a home folder in your SmartFile site and had items shared with them, automated processes for those users will require attention because the shares folder will be missing.

There are two recommended methods to resolve this issue. You can either modify the folder structure to re-create the original shares folder for your affected users, or you can modify the automatic process that rely upon the original path to use the updated one. These changes should only be made after the migration has been fully completed - making changes to your "pre-migrated" Files.com site will be overwritten in the final migration.

If you cannot easily change the source process, such as if an external party has their own system connecting to your site to use the shares folder, then you should update the folder system in your Files.com site to match what is expected. Create a shares folder in the affected user's SFTP/FTP root folder and move the required items into that path.

If it is feasible to update the workflow that relies up on the shares folder, making the necessary changes to that workflow may be a faster way to get your processes up and running again.

Whether you choose to change your folder structure to match the existing process, or update the process to match your new Files.com folder structure, these changes should only be made after your final migration process has run.

Re-Organize Your Folder Structure

The automatic migration from a HyperPrivacy site preserves the sharing relationships that make folders from one user's home directory available with other users or groups, but does not re-create virtual shares folder that presented those items. Instead, users or groups will be assigned permissions for the true paths to the shared items. Site administrators should take the opportunity to re-organize the folder structure into a useful configuration that reflects your companies business needs so that you can efficiently assign permissions to the migrated file for your users.

We provide examples below of some of the ways our customers structure their folders to give you ideas for this new arrangement. You don't need to pick just one of these methods, and you're not forever locked-in to any particular folder structure.

Example Folder Structure: Departmental Organization

One simple method of organizing your files is to create sections for each department or business unit that uses your site. Once you've consolidated the folders into that arrangement, you can then assign the permissions to your users as needed. If you currently utilize user groups to split your user accounts by departments, this can be a very easy process—once the files are moved in your folder structure, assign permissions for the new folder locations to the relevant groups.

Example Folder Structure: Flow-Based Organization

Another useful way to arrange your files, particularly when some of your users that aren't a part of your organization, is to create folders that isolate certain files flows. For example, if you're responsible for providing files to a set of vendors on a regular basis, and they download those files and upload other files, then you could create separate folders for each vendor. You can then assign each vendor's user account only the required permissions for their own flow's folders along with your internal users who need to monitor or support the transfers for those business processes.

Example Folder Structure: Geographic Organization

Files.com has servers across the globe and provides the option to configure where your files will be stored. The following regions are currently available: USA, Virginia; Australia, Sydney; Canada, Toronto; UK, London; EU - Germany, Frankfurt; Japan, Tokyo; and Singapore.

Your organization might choose to organize files into different regions for regulatory reasons. The first step should be to identify which content is specific to each region, especially those files that are either frequently accessed or those that are extremely large, like videos or architectural drawings. All files targeted at a specific region should be contained in the same set of folders which will need to have their geographic region changed to the one closest to the primary users of this content.

Assign Permissions

After migrating from a HyperPrivacy site, users won't have access to items in any other user's home folder (although site administrators will have complete access to all files). Site administrators will need to update permissions to enable collaboration between users and groups. This can be done before, during and after re-organizing your site folders.

In Files.com, permissions are assigned by site administrators. You can grant permissions to users and groups, and those permissions are additive.

If your legacy SmartFile site made heavy use of the sharing capability, we recommend starting with your most critical workflows first. Any automated processes that relied upon the shares folder, for example, will need your attention.

Delegate Folder Administration

Files.com has a level of permission that grants users administration rights over a particular folder. Folder admins are able to update settings specific to a particular folder, including configuring email notifications for other users, defining automations, configuring Inboxes that allow people to upload to a folder via email or the web, and defining the types files that can be uploaded to a folder.

Depending on how you've re-organized your folder structure after migration, folder admins can streamline the work involved to support your business flows. For example, granting folder admin rights of a department's folder to the supervisor of that department would allow that admin to assign permissions in that folder for other users they supervise.

Folder admins cannot directly manage user accounts; they cannot reset other users' passwords, create or delete users. They cannot change site settings, such as site-wide password requirements.

Move or Copy Automations

SmartFile supports Automation types called the Move and Copy Automations. These rule allows you to move or copy files or folders after a specific time interval has passed after they are created or last modified. Alternatively, you can move or copy files or folders after an action has occurred such as the file being created or read; there are only 3 customers on SmartFile who use this capability in production.

Event-Based Move or Copy Automations

Files.com supports an equivalent Automation to Move or Copy files or folders after an action has occurred. Your Move or Copy Automations on SmartFile which are based on action triggers will be migrated into Move or Copy File Automations on the Files.com platform. We will preserve the action triggers as closely as possible to how they are configured on SmartFile.

Notification rules that were triggered as a result of Move or Copy Automations are migrated as Notifications in your Files.com site. The Notifications will be triggered by the same activity as its matching Automation.

Time-Based Move or Copy Automations

Files.com does not support a concept of moving or copying a file or folder after a specific amount of time has occurred since its creation or modification. Any time-based move or copy Automations will not be copied in your automatic migration. We would love to hear from you if this capability is critical to your use case, and are always willing to reconsider this position.

Retention Automations (also known as Delete Automations)

SmartFile supports an Automation type called the Retention automation. This rule allows you to delete files or folders after a specific time interval has passed after they are created or last modified. Alternatively, you can delete files or folders after an action has occurred such as the file being created or read. These operations map to two different concepts on Files.com

Event-Based Retention Rules

For action triggered retention rules, the equivalent concept on Files.com is the "Delete File" Automation. Your Retention Automations on SmartFile which are based on action triggers will be migrated into Delete File Automations on the Files.com platform. We preserve the action triggers as closely as possible to how they are configured on SmartFile.

Time-Based Retention Rules

For time-based retention rules, the equivalent concept on Files.com is the Folder Setting called File Expiration. Your Retention Automations on SmartFile which are based on a time interval will be migrated into File Expiration folder settings on Files.com. Site administrators and users with folder admin rights for a folder can change the File Expiration settings.

Invalid or Misconfigured Automations

Some existing automations are misconfigured to the point where they do not actually work as intended. These include automations with mismatched trigger and action types, or references to paths, users, or groups which do not exist. These do not work on SmartFile, and they are not migrated to your new Files.com site.

Customer Success Is Here to Help

Migrating from a HyperPrivacy Mode SmartFile site to a Files.com site is a dramatic change.

Our Customer Success team is eager to assist with any questions you have from your migration. Our Success Architects will work to understand your business needs to guide you through the transition. This includes helping with specific administration tasks and helping you to adopt the many powerful features your Files.com site offers you.