MIM To SailPoint: Should You Upgrade Or Plan A Migration?

As of July 14, 2026, Microsoft has ended support for SharePoint Server 2019, which the Microsoft Identity Manager (MIM) Portal relies on to function. Organizations can consider upgrading to MIM 2016 SP3, but this raises questions of what will happen once support ends on January 10, 2029. Rather than simply making an upgrade to buy your enterprise some time, IAM experts like Azure IAM actually recommend an MIM migration as a solution with greater longevity.
SharePoint Server 2019 End of Life: What It Means
Although MIM 2016 SP2 support has been extended until January 10, 2029, Microsoft will no longer update SharePoint Server 2019 with critical security patches or bug fixes after its end of life. According to sources like ShareGate, organizations that continue to use these products place their systems at risk of cyberattacks and compliance violations that can result in fines or lost reputation among customers.
Upgrading vs Migrating
MIM has been an indispensable part of enterprise IAM architecture, so your organization will probably have business logic and processes built around it. Upgrading to the MIM 2016 SP3 compatibility release may seem like the easiest workaround to cybersecurity issues, but it’s only meant to act as a bridge as you consider identity transitions and your MIM and SharePoint dependency.
A better long-term choice would be MIM migration. For example, organizations can transition to cloud-first identity management infrastructure built around Microsoft Entra ID Governance. This is ideal for enterprises that want to move identity infrastructure off premises or already carry out a majority of their operations in the cloud.
For organizations that want to maintain on-premise identity infrastructure for architectural or regulatory reasons, an alternative option is to migrate MIM to a different identity security platform like SailPoint IdentityIQ. However, the migration process does carry some key considerations that IT leaders should be aware of.
MIM-to-SailPoint IdentityIQ Migration
The process begins with the MIM Configuration Documenter report, which can be converted into an importable IdentityIQ build. MIM logic is either translated or left as a clearly marked scaffold with no approximation - this allows users to begin identifying what needs to be migrated.
Items in a typical MIM migration include connectors and schema, identity attributes, expressions that become readable BeanShell, compiled .NET rules extensions, lifecycle events across policy rules and workflows, sets that convert into populations, run profiles, active directory groups, and the portal. During the role conversion process, MIM security groups, distribution groups, and criteria-based sets will be generated and imported as SailPoint business roles and IT roles; keep in mind that SailPoint is case-sensitive while MIM is not, and users must correct any case sensitivities in attribute mapping for the migration to be successful.
One more thing to note is that correctness can only be established if the translation is deterministic and tested, the role conversion is auditable before import, and MIM and IdentityIQ run in parallel and are compared. For the third layer, Active Directory group membership produced through IdentityIQ roles must be verified to match what MIM produced to ensure that the system behaves the same way.
The Right Choice for Your Organization
If you’re not sure of the right path forward for your organization, an IAM consulting firm can give you some insight. Some will even complete the migration process for you, providing you with the deliverables and verification you need to ensure operations continue running smoothly after the migration.
Azure IAM, LLC
City: Las Cruces
Address: 2521 North Main
Website: https://azureiam.com
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