Prior to proceeding further to start the migration activities, make sure to fulfill all the migration requirements. Also, choosing the reliable Exchange to Office 365 migration has its important. This technical article is all about guiding you through the migration prerequisites and solutions to make the migration successful.

Microsoft 365 offers more enhanced functionalities and obvious cloud storage, which makes it one of the preferred choices for large as well as small-scale businesses. An organization using Exchange Server has admins who take care of the data management. Exchange database files (EDB) are prone to corruption, but in Office 365, there is no such risk. Moreover, there are various other reasons behind the Exchange to Office 365 environment.

Migration from the on-premises Server is a tough task as compared to the other migration. The user in charge of the migration needs to consider a lot of things before executing the migration. This write-up will cover a few common reasons and the solution to make the migration simpler for all.

Why are multiple Organizations approaching Office 365?

Multiple reasons exist behind the motto of migration. In this section, we will elaborate on some of them that make the perfect environment for the Exchange to Office 365 migration.

Microsoft Office 365 provides the update from time to time, but no manual intervention is required to install the update. Moreover, there is no need for maintenance, as there are rare reports of downtime by the Office 365 user.
Setting up Exchange Server and its maintenance is costlier than Microsoft 365. The pricing of Office 365 is based on a subscription basis, wherein individual users can also go with its monthly plan.
Office 365 offers better collaboration and a better productive suite that provides multiple inbuilt applications. Even the security of the user’s data is better as all of its data saves on the cloud.
In Office 365, the admin does not need to worry about updating. Microsoft itself takes care of such activity, which does not require involvement other than Microsoft.

How to Migrate from Exchange to Office 365?

When it comes to the migration from the On-Premises Exchange environment into a cloud-based service, Office 365, there are many points that need to be considered before approaching the migration. Some of them start with the total number of mailboxes to migrate, allocated time, etc. Now we will take you with explaining the Exchange to Office 365 migration.

Cutover Method to Migrate Exchange Mailboxes into Office 365

This is one of the approaches that will help you migrate the On-premises Exchange migration. If you have less than 2,000 mailboxes, you can utilize this method; otherwise, you can move to the alternative Exchange to Office 365 migration approach.

Below this step-by-step procedure given to migrate the Exchange mailboxes:

Firstly, make sure to add the domain to Office 365 before starting the migration.
Now prepare the on-hosted Exchange environment and the emailing system you are currently working on, and connect with Office 365.
Then, start creating the batch for the cutover migration and start processing the migration.
Now you need to configure the DNS to fix the issue of the delay in emails, followed by routing all newer emails to the Microsoft Office 365 account.
Next, you should assign the licensing to all of your Office 365 users.

After that, there is a task to remove the cutover migration for the Office 365 administrator.
Proceed further with decommissioning the Exchange Server.
In the end, help your users to operate Office 365.

Staged Migration Exchange Mailboxes into Office 365

Before laying the foundation for the migration, it is important to analyze the whole ticket size for the migration. Administrators should know how many mailboxes they need to migrate to plan accordingly. If the number of mailboxes exceeds 2000, it is appropriate to use the Staged Exchange to Office 365 migration approach. Follow the below-mentioned process to migrate Exchange mailboxes:

Open the Exchange Admin Center, and straightaway navigate to the Migration and batch.
Press on the New Migration batch and follow the instruction mentioned in the Pane.
On the Migration Onboarding window, make sure to mention the migration batch name and enter the path. Click Next to continue.
Select the migration type from the drop-down, and click next.
Under the migration pre-requisite section, read certain requirements and subsequently click next.

You can select the already existing migration endpoint in the endpoint section or create a new one.
Now you need to add the CSV file, which contains the list of user that needs to be migrated.
Add the user mailboxes section, and you need to import the CSV and click on next to move ahead.
Go to the configuration, and press the next button after mentioning the required details.

Now in the schedule migration batch section, you can customize the migration. After completing it, click on the save button.
Choose the Migration group for completing the batch.

These two migration methodology involves certain risk which pushes users to look for an alternative Exchange to Office 365 migration approach. Not all users will find confidence in approaching these migration methods because of their complex technicality. Alternatively, users can look for a better migration utility like third-party software.

Reliable Exchange to Office 365 Migration Approach

We have explained to you some migration techniques to migrate the Exchange mailboxes. However, due to several limitations, it is better to go with third-party software. Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 migration tool is an excellent option to migrate multiple large-sized mailboxes. This solution also maintains the folder hierarchy and data integrity even after the migration.

Users can easily customize their migration by using its filter option. The tool also provides an option to migrate public folder to Office 365 in a minimal time period. Moreover, it only migrates the newer item after resuming the migration process. We have shared the procedure through using users can easily migrate their Exchange mailboxes.

Launch the Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 migration software into the system, and click on the Add source from the ribbon bar.
After that, choose the Exchange Server mailboxes option. Enter the user name, password, and domain name. Click Next to proceed.
Now the mailboxes will be shown in the software folder view section. Now, select the Office 365 option from the tool’s ribbon bar. Or users can make right-click on the selected folder and select Office 365 option.
You can do the folder mapping if you want; otherwise, you can also skip this step.
Here, users need to connect to the Office in order to fetch the mailboxes. Connect using the Outlook profile. Once done, click on the Next button.

Now, you can look for applying the filter option where you can utilize the given filter criteria such as process message class and message date filter. Click on next to continue.
Once done with all the above steps, the software will start migrating the Exchange mailboxes into the target Office 365 environment.

Conclusion

We have provided you with the information through which users can organize the migration. However, the manual Exchange to Office 365 mailboxes is complex for most of the users who do not have the required migration skills. Moreover, methods like cutover and staged migration take a lot of time. So if you have time constraints, you can look for third-party migration software. Also, look for utilizing its free trial version.

How to Migrate From Exchange to Office 365 - Complete Guide