Migrate Complete Exchange Mailbox to Office 365: Real Challenges

Cloud computing has a significant impact on modern business practices. We can easily predict that 2018 will be the year of clouds. If a company wants to manage its email system in the cloud, Office 365 is the best platform. To migrate the complete Exchange mailbox to Office 365 quickly. Users should go for the Cost-effective Software to Migrate Exchange to Office 365.

It is a subscription-based service that you can customize depending on your usage and the number of users. The best part about Office 365 is that all of the associated software is updated at no extra cost. You can subscribe to the following plans:

Personal: This plan is designed for a single user and includes all of the Microsoft Office suite applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Publisher, Access).

Home: Because it supports 6 different users, this plan is ideal for a family.

Business: This plan includes desktop application versions for up to 5 devices and users. Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online are all part of it.

Business Essentials: Because it includes Exchange, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams, this plan is ideal for large organizations. It also provides online versions of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote).

Business Premium: This plan combines both the Business and Business Essentials plans’ services and applications.

Midsize Business: This is a tailored plan created specifically for businesses with 10-300 employees.

Following the selection of a suitable plan, your next step will be to plan a migration process, which your IT Administrator will tell you is a rather complex process that requires you to understand various aspects of the migration. Fortunately, there are a number of best practices you can employ to ensure a smooth migration.

Examine your Existing Infrastructure.

Before you begin the migration, you should assess your current IT infrastructure. This will aid in the planning of infrastructure for the future environment. Microsoft provides a comprehensive list of methodologies and practices for understanding your current infrastructure.

Calculate How Long it will Take to Migrate Complete Exchange Mailbox to Office 365

When migrating data from Exchange to Office 365, you must consider the time it will take to complete the migration. The speed of the Internet has a significant impact on the migration’s speed, as it either slows or speeds up the migration. If the migration is slow, you may be unable to work on Exchange Server or Office 365 for an extended period of time.

Choose the Best Migration Method.

Microsoft provides several migration methods that you can use to carry out your migration. For example, there are three types of native migration methods available for moving mailboxes from the Exchange Server –

Migration of Cutovers (One-time migration)

Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 all support cutover migrations. Here are a few things to keep in mind before the migration:

• While cutover migration allows you to migrate up to 2000 mailboxes, it recommends that you only migrate up to 150 mailboxes.
• The source Exchange Server’s domain name must register in the destination Office 365 platform.
• After migrating users from Exchange to Office 365, you must manually assign the user new credentials.

Migration of Hybrids

The latest Exchange versions are ideal for hybrid migration. This method should be used to migrate Exchange Server to Office 365 by establishing a hybrid configuration. The migration is carried out from the Exchange Administrator Center (EAC) in the following circumstances:

• You want the quickest migration possible.
• You’re working with Exchange 2010, 2013, and 2016.

For migration, Use the Appropriate Tools.

There are several tools available to help to quickly migrate the complete Exchange mailbox to Office 365. While preparing for the migration, you should gather as much information as possible about such tools.

If you want to migrate Exchange data to Office 365, the best Exchange migration tool for Exchange Server is Migrator for Exchange. It has the ability to migrate an unlimited number of mailboxes in a single cycle. There are several filters available to help you migrate only the data you want. You can also easily schedule the migration to run at any time.

Conclusion

You can begin the migration after receiving complete information about the Exchange to Office 365 migration. However, you will realize that it is not an easy process, and you will face numerous challenges, risks, and failures along the way. And, with the help of professional Office 365 migration tools, you can greatly simplify the migration.