Technology

Exchange Online Migration Methods and Checklists

For newbies, Office 365 Exchange Online Migrations is the process of migrating all the business emails from the on-premises infrastructure to Exchange Online environment hosted in the Microsoft Cloud servers. It’s a crucial step to create a portable workplace and is important in allowing businesses to successfully implement digital strategies in their workforce.

There are many types of email migrations a business can opt for, of them is on-premises to Exchange Online mailbox Migration. Businesses from an existing Exchange Server can choose from Staged migration, Cutover Migration, and hybrid Exchange Deployment methods.

Choosing Exchange Migration Type

Hybrid Exchange deployment

Hybrid Exchange deployment is fit for the businesses that want to migrate their mailboxes gradually and in small segments over time. This migration method enables a business to integrate their Exchange setup with the Office 365 bundle and facilitate a better long-term connection between the Cloud mailboxes and on-premises.

If a business choosing the hybrid deployment method, they should make sure that their Exchange Online Migration checklist covers both on-premises and cloud-based mailboxes. Microsoft supports only two variants as hybrid servers that are Exchange 2013 and 2016. 

For many businesses, hybrid deployment will be the most suitable and efficient method as the users can access the files and other resources through a secure set of login credentials. Business owners can easily manage all the password policies through the active directory feature and always have full control.

Cutover Migration

A cutover migration is a process where all the business mailboxes are migrated to the cloud at the same time. The users in this migration are automatically created in Office 365 and thereafter all the data and mailboxes are moved to the cloud. After the migration is successfully completed, businesses can remove their on-premises Exchange Server.

Due to the less time taken to migrate, it is the most considered method by the businesses. But businesses should know that these migrations are also battering-ram processes and can post considerable challenges to the businesses due to the administrative limits. If a business needs to migrate huge mailboxes from the on-premises environment to the Exchange Online environment, they need to make sure that they have all the required resources to carry out the process. They should make sure that they have carried out a thorough audit of their email environment. The businesses that don’t want to migrate their Exchange servers can host Exchange on a Cloud based Desktop instead.

Staged Migration

With Staged Migration, businesses can migrate their mailboxes in a set amount of batches rather than moving all of them at once. This type of migration is only supported for Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2003. This method is suitable for businesses that are not in a haste to transfer all their data and users to the cloud and are handling a large number of users.

For Staged Migration, businesses should make sure that their checklist includes the implementation and deployment of the directory synchronization. Also, they should make sure that they keep at least one Exchange server on-premises for better mailbox management.

As you see there were the types of Exchange Online Migration methods that businesses can choose from. Depending on the business requirements they can go forward with the method for a successful migration. Apps4Rent provides virtualization and cloud computing solutions like Virtual Desktop with reliable support and security according to the altered business needs

Christopher Stern

Christopher Stern is a Washington-based reporter. Chris spent many years covering tech policy as a business reporter for renowned publications. He has extensive experience covering Congress, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Federal Trade Commissions. He is a graduate of Middlebury College. Email:[email protected]

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