Organisations in the United Kingdom are currently reassessing how they manage data for disputes and investigations. Some of the drivers are familiar, such as rising volumes, cost control, and the need for defensible governance. However new considerations have entered the equation, such as changing licensing roadmaps and restrictions on deployment flexibility.
A recurring concern is whether a transition from one review platform to another can be completed without data loss or disruption to live matters, especially the loss of work product. This note sets out a practitioner’s view and a recent example that demonstrates what careful planning can achieve.
But first, why are many organisations considering eDiscovery data migration now?
Beyond cost and service quality, some cloud vendors are limiting or planning to limit on-premise licensing over the coming years. This has led organisations with litigation or regulatory exposure to evaluate secure on-premises and private cloud options that preserve control of processing and data residency. Where such a shift is contemplated, the disciplined approach outlined in this paper allows a transition to be managed without loss of evidential value and work product.
For context
Recently, Knovos was approached by a management and financial consultancy in London (the client), which can run multiple litigations/arbitrations/investigations at any given time. Dissatisfaction with turnaround, service quality, and pricing had prompted a review of their existing long-standing e-disclosure solution.
The incumbent platform operated within a closed ecosystem, and its archive format created a practical barrier to exit. The client wished to move to a secure on-premise or cloud alternative, yet was concerned about data loss and continuity.
Particularly given the legal considerations for UK matters, where evidential integrity is paramount. Disclosure must be reliable, proportionate, and auditable. In practice, this means maintaining a chain of custody, preserving metadata, documenting processing steps, and ensuring that any migration does not alter the substance or context of evidential material.
Governance obligations under UK data protection law add further requirements around integrity, confidentiality, and accountability. Against that backdrop, any migration plan should be designed to produce the same results that a court, for example, would expect of any well-run disclosure exercise.
After vetting and consideration, Knovos was instructed to take over the data hosting.
eDiscovery Data Migration Methodology
In the matter described here, the team at Knovos requested both a standard export package and the platform’s proprietary archive from the incumbent provider. The objective was to capture the fullest possible representation of the workspace and to avoid relying on a single export pathway.
A staged method was applied.
- Pre-migration inventory and scoping
A complete inventory of custodians, data sources, matter chronology, and review status was prepared. Mappings were defined for folder structures, tags, user comments, saved searches, and redaction objects. - Transfer and unpacking
The archive and load files were ingested to the Knovos platform (staging destination) within the client’s demarcated space. Extraction and unpacking were performed in this controlled workspace with full logging. - Validation and parity testing
Hash-based checks and record counts were performed to confirm that the corpus received matched the corpus sent. Structured parity tests then compared counts and behavior for the mapped elements. This included folders, tags, comments, redactions, and saved searches. - Governance and access model alignment
Roles and permissions were reconciled to ensure that user access in the destination reflected the client’s policy and legal holds. Audit trails were reviewed to confirm completeness.
Outcome
The migration moved 1.8 terabytes of case data into the client’s cloud environment with Knovos Discovery.
There was zero data loss. Apart from some welcome deduplication which had been missed in the past.
Folder structures, tags, user comments, redaction objects, and saved searches were preserved as planned. Review teams were able to resume work in the new platform with continuity.
What this shows, and what it does not
- This outcome shows that a well-structured migration is feasible even where the incumbent platform uses a proprietary archive format.
- It also shows that concerns about unavoidable loss of context can be addressed through methodical mapping and testing.
- It does not suggest that every migration will be identical. Variations in configuration, custom objects, or third-party integrations can introduce complexity, but your project managers can track this.
- The key is to treat migration as an evidential exercise rather than a simple data move, to get the best results.
Practical Lessons for Practitioners
- Treat migration artifacts as evidence: Export packages, archives, and logs deserve the same care as disclosed material. Preserve them and document each step.
- Map context before you move content: Define how folders, tags, comments, redactions, and searches will translate. Agree on acceptance criteria in advance.
- Test for parity, not just presence: Compare counts and behavior. A search that returns the same set in both systems is more persuasive than a record count alone.
- Align roles and holds early: Permissions and legal holds should be reconciled before users return to review. This avoids rework and risk.
Due Diligence Checklist for Decision Makers
- Scope out all your live matters and timelines that the migration must support
- Inventory context elements to preserve, including tags, comments, redactions, and saved searches
- Availability of both standard load files and the incumbent’s archive format
- Parity test plan and acceptance criteria agreed in writing
- Chain of custody and audit trail requirements, including hashing and logs
- Role and permission model mapping, including legal holds
- Data protection and back up considerations
- Contingency and rollback plan if acceptance criteria are not met
Engineering Expertise
Successful migration from a restrictive format into a different platform requires a skilled engineering team capable of reverse-engineering the database structure. This is where Knovos excels. Our team makes this challenging task seamless for customers moving to our Knovos Discovery platform. Our meticulous migration process handles every detail with care, including:
- Automated mapping of metadata with standard fields.
- Transferring all native files, OCRed/extracted text, and images.
- Parallel ingestion accelerates migration of large proprietary format exports without compromising accuracy.
- Accurately identifying and migrating coding artifacts (including Boolean, single/multi-choices and free-text fields) to preserve valuable work product.
- Ensuring productions and their original redactions on review sets are transferred completely.
- Managing complex, multi-workspace migrations while preserving control identifiers between parent and child matters.
Your data partners should provide transparent tracking and perform thorough quality control, ensuring a complete and accurate migration with no need for future re-work. Upon completion of the migration, users can continue their document review followed by productions as well as ingestion of new data in the same workspace, easily.
Conclusion
A move from one review platform to another should not be difficult and need not compromise evidential integrity or ongoing work product.
With an inventory-led plan, clear mappings for contextual objects, and parity testing that focuses on behavior as well as counts, any organisation can migrate at scale and resume review with confidence.
Practitioners should approach migration as they do disclosure. Define the objective, document the steps, and test the result. The example above, involving 1.8 terabytes and the preservation of key context elements with zero data loss, illustrates what a careful approach can deliver. If this is something you are considering… get in touch to see how we can do the same for you. www.knovos.com
This commentary provides general information for practitioners. It is not legal advice and should not be relied upon as such.
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