Frederick Jace
Office 365 is a cloud-based solution that offers multiple advantages over the traditional on-site server set-up. This migration, however, might not be as easy as it appears at first glance. Despite the fact that, in theory, all you need to do is sign up for the service and start using it, the actual process of migrating the data from your current servers to Microsoft’s requires careful planning and preparation.
Planning Your Office 365 Migration
Office 365 tenant migration is complex, and for good reasons. It is a huge undertaking to make sure everything is done correctly. Here are some points to help you plan the core parts of your migration.
Exchange
The easiest part of migrating to Office 365 is often Exchange. It is common knowledge to most admins, and the mail migration tools have come a long way. Email is still one of the most important tools for organizations to use, and Exchange offers other benefits like scheduling meetings and checking your co-worker’s availability. If you don’t build a well-thought-out plan, you will be in trouble. If at any point during your migration, email features are not available to users, then the business will suffer.
A tenant-to-tenant migration perspective is oftentimes seen as a large job. For migrated tenants on-premise, the Exchange servers are oftentimes small, and this allows for quick migrations. Basic licenses typically provide a 25 GB or more mailbox quota, which makes this easier to do.
OneDrive for Business
In a OneDrive migration, you’ll want to share as little as possible. The more you share, the more complicated the migration will be. For instance, if you work with a company that is migrating from OneDrive to Office 365 as well, it can be difficult to know what files you should share with them and what files you shouldn’t. In the end, this can lead to complications during migration and an even longer process than expected.
Another important thing to know is that the data volumes can be quite large. Sometimes, you might not have a mailbox limit, but you need to make sure that your solution is still able to function with a lot of data. For example, some solutions don’t support versions. If you rely on versions, make sure your solution does too.
Microsoft Teams
Your company is in the process of migrating to Teams. When you start this process, you should think about the data in the team. This includes not just documents but also OneNote, calendars, and more. Additionally, when you migrate teams, plan for conversations and channels. And when you do migrate, be sure to resolve duplicate names with tenants that are merging.
SharePoint Online
SharePoint is a great way to collaborate and share documents with large groups of people. It has been heavily adopted by many organizations over the years, and this trend has only increased. The process of shifting from on-premise SharePoint to Office 365 is not an easy one. There are a lot of issues you encounter when making the transition.
Challenges of an Office 365 Migration
Now that we’ve got some smaller details out of the way, it’s time to get to the big picture.
Data Safety – Data security is essential during the Office 365 migration process. It’s important to create a plan for keeping your data safe during the process. First, make sure you back up your data before beginning. You should also ensure additional security precautions are taken, such as encrypting your data.
Meet Migration Deadlines – Always make sure you have enough time to get your migration done. A good strategy is to plan in advance, and to always be aware of how much data is being migrated. Some migration tools can migrate the data automatically in the background, while some cloud-based solutions can auto-scale based on the platform architecture. This way, you’ll make sure you have what it takes to finish the project on time.
Test the Migration – A comprehensive migration plan is not enough. You need to test it as well. You’ll probably find gaps and problems, so make the necessary adjustments to your plan, fix them, and do another round of testing. Make sure to test your solution provider’s claims about scalability and process-ability. And don’t forget to test your own processes. It may take a while, but testing your plan is an important investment.
Final Words
When two organizations merge, it’s imperative that they undertake a tenant to tenant Microsoft 365 migration to make the alliance successful. Importantly, this also helps users keep their accounts after the business framework changes.
