RE: Migrating CMS content from one server to another

The reality is that meaningful migration of content is almost
always cut-and-paste, although automated tools can help to
some limited degree.

I would have to disagree with this conclusion.  I have done both cut & paste migrations and automated migrations and the advantage of a good atuomation plan cannot be pooh-poohed.

The real issue is that this isn't a technology problem:

* In most cases, you will be redesigning your site as part
   of the migration. This eliminates any simple one-to-one
   mapping of content.

If you plan properly, you can certainly map from one design to another. We had comment code in place that was used to clip just the content while leaving the old design elements behind. The content was then added to the new design templates automatically. It worked beautifully.

* You will also want to review all content during the migration
   to ensure that only "good" content is transferred.

This is true, but you don't need to cut and paste thousands of documents manually to accomplish this.  Your content audit can be completed before the actual migration takes place so that it CAN be automated.

* This will involve having someone knowledgeable about the
   content to assess each and every page. A lot of content can
   probably be deleted, while other material will need to be
   rewritten or updated.

True again. See above.

Migration of content is certainly the most painful part of
any CMS project. 

Amen to that! 

What you aren't looking for is an automated
way of migrating existing poor-quality content. Instead, use
this as an opportunity to review and improve the content,
thereby delivering tangible benefits to end users of the site.

These two goals are not mutually exclusive.  You can review, clean, purge and automate.

In general, I'm against any form of "automated" migration
tools, as it makes it too easy to ignore the content...

This, of course, has to do with the project manager and the team doing the migration work and their emphasis on quality, not on the method, whether copy and paste or automation. You can certainly successfully automate a content migration, from database to database, from databse to file system, etc., if you lay the proper groundwork.  You will always have some manual clean up even with an automation but it can be MUCH less and much faster to employ some automation.

Christine L. Mitchell
Penske Truck Leasing
Content Manager
610.775.6494
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> 

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