ShareGate Desktop is a client-side only application. The app will use the available SharePoint APIs (CSOM, REST, GRAPH, SOAP, etc.) for your migrations, and will not impact the database directly.
Diagram
- Requests are sent to the APIs to get information from the source.
- SharePoint sends calls to the Active Directory through the people picker to resolve your user's permissions and metadata values, like created by and modified by.
- SharePoint returns the data from the calls sent in point (1) to ShareGate Desktop.
- Requests are sent to build the structure at the destination.
- In Normal Mode, list items and documents are sent directly to the tenant. Some requests are sent to get information on the destination.
- ShareGate Desktop receives information for some of the requests from point (4).
- When Migrating using Insane Mode, the app will use the SharePoint online migration API. Your List items and documents are packaged and sent to Azure Storage with a manifest package. Some requests are sent to Azure to get a status update for the import to Microsoft 365 process at point (7).
- Microsoft 365 imports the packages from the Azure Storage.
- Azure returns status updates about the packages being imported to Microsoft 365.
Note: In terms of security, when connecting to a SharePoint site that uses HTTPS, the data transitioning through ShareGate Desktop will be encrypted. From point 6, Microsoft encrypts your data with AES CBC 256 Standard encryption.