Developing a Successful Office 365 Migration Plan

Office 365 is a cloud-based subscription service that enables businesses to enhance productivity and maximize services. But what’s the best approach to managing an Office 365 migration plan? Learn more about the benefits and our recommended steps.

What To Consider When Planning an Office 365 Migration Plan

Before you begin your Office 365 migration, you need to determine what your expectations and objectives are for this process. Gather your business’s key stakeholders to find out what they expect from this migration and what their goals are. This makes sure everyone is on the same page and helps determine the ideal migration method.

Once you take stock of your stakeholders’ goals and expectations, you can begin drafting your migration plan. Office 365 migrations take time. During this part of the planning process, you’ll need to decide how to schedule your migration, manage your departments’ and teams’ transition, and mitigate the risks involved.

Once you’ve developed your migration plan, you can begin meeting all necessary Office 365 requirements, including selecting the type of migration you want to use.

Office 365 Migration Steps

Implementing Office 365 throughout your organization is an important but time-consuming task. Understanding the various steps streamlines the process and allows you to plan accordingly. Here are the common tasks associated with an Office 365 migration plan:

Step 1: Choose the Right Migration Method

Selecting the right migration method for your business is critical. There are three main strategies when moving to Office 365:

Cutover Migration

A cutover migration is the most common strategy. It involves copying your company’s data and cutting over your old system’s function to a new system. This is the most cost-effective migration type but requires significant planning.

Staged Migration

Staged migrations move data and files to Office 365 over a set period of time. This is ideal for medium-sized companies and reduces downtime by allowing your system to continue running while it migrates to a cloud-based platform.

IMAP Migration

Are you migrating data from a non-Exchange mail system? If so, an IMAP migration strategy is right for your business. While this system is capable of moving any email message, it can’t move contacts, calendars, or other tasks.

Hybrid Migration

A hybrid migration process is the most flexible and complicated option. This strategy is recommended for large businesses and works by allowing your Office 365 cloud platform and on-premises servers to work together.

Step 2: Perform a Readiness Assessment

A cloud readiness assessment is critical because it helps determine whether your infrastructure can handle migrating to Office 365. This step also includes finding the right license and identifying the overall condition of your network.

Step 3: Plan the Migration

Mapping out the exchange process and estimating the amount of time allows you to make an educated decision on whether an Office 365 migration plan is right for you. Work with your consulting provider to determine the right tools and help your team prepare for a successful migration.

Step 4: Migrate Your Data

Once you’ve set the objectives of your Office 365 migration plan, determined which strategy is right for you, verified that your infrastructure is ready, and alerted the necessary people, you can schedule your email migration. The time it takes to migrate your mailboxes depends on the tenant size, but prepare for it to last at least five days.

Ready To Develop Your Office 365 Migration Plan?

Partnering with a trusted IT provider gives you peace of mind that your migration will have minimal disruptions. Contact Reverus today to begin planning your migration strategy.

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Let Reverus Be Your Office 365 Migration Guide

Partnering with the right IT provider is critical for designing and implementing an effective Office 365 migration plan. The Reverus team has performed many Office 365 migrations, and we can help you choose the right type for your business. We can also help you develop an Office 365 implementation plan so you can migrate your data successfully and begin using it as quickly as possible.

The right IT partner should oversee your migration and your on-premises servers during the process. They should also help you schedule every step of the process and make decisions about data storage and end-user engagement. When you work with Reverus to complete your Office 365 migration, you gain access to in-depth knowledge and experience that makes the whole process much more successful.