Read time: 7 min
Boosting on-premises business productivity & security by migrating to Office 365 environment is a must technology upgrade. As we know, Microsoft 365 is a cloud-based platform that enhances business workflow by offering more advanced features and web applications.
Performing the process of moving business from on-premises to Microsoft 365 cloud environment requires you to know all its aspects. There can be various reasons and types of migration in Office 365 that play an important role in enhancement of task management.
Understand productive reasons to Microsoft/Office 365 migration
The need for adapting Office 365 environment from on-premises derives from the innovation of latest technology & features that can enhance business capabilities. So, it is very important to know the reasons why you should migrate to Office 365.
Let’s discuss the key reasons for Office 365 migration below:
- Improved security: The transition of on-premises business to Office 365 platform provides enhanced security to data items through Office 365 security policies and defender.
- Better collaboration: Office 365 inherits exceptional collaboration capabilities through SharePoint and Microsoft Teams.
- Enhanced productivity: Microsoft 365 incorporates several features and exceptional cloud applications, such as Word, Excel, Teams, SharePoint, etc. that boost productivity.
- Easy accessibility: The cloud-based environment of Microsoft 365 allows easy accessibility of data from any device and anywhere.
Know productive features of Microsoft 365 for migration
The strategies for migrating your business to the Office 365 cloud-based platform are directly aimed at upgrading business capabilities. Microsoft 365 has fantastic features that help boost your business workflow & productivity. Let’s find the key features of Office 365 mentioned below:
- Office Suite: The Office Suite offers a range of utility tools over the cloud, which includes Excel, Word, OneDrive, Outlook, OneNote, etc. This application helps you manage your daily work, projects, and collaborations. Using all these tools of Office Suite will provide easy support for sharing, creating, or editing documents, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.
- Advanced collaboration: Microsoft 365 provides a convenient platform for smooth communication and collaboration using the ultimate Microsoft Teams platform. Teams allow users to share files, communicate through messages, or create team meetings to perform business operations in real-time.
- Enhanced security: The integration of high-level security features in Microsoft 365 increases the safety measures convincible. Features like multi-factor authentication, advanced threat protection, and multiple security policies protect your valuable data from internal or external threats.
- Controls: Business administrators are responsible for providing permissions and roles to the users in your Microsoft 365 environment. You can add specific users to an Office 365 environment with limited access by allowing certain permissions and roles.
What are the different types of migration in Office 365?
Microsoft 365 migration process may require extensive strategic execution for better results. As there are organizations of different sizes and scales, then it is essential to analyze a suitable approach for the migration. There are four migration types in office 365 but you need to choose the appropriate one according to your business.
Find the o365 migration types mentioned below:
- Staged migration: Microsoft 365 staged migration method is considered the most suitable for medium-sized organizations with more than 2000 users. Staged migration can move entire data along with users to the Office 365 environment but in different batches.
Conditions: Staged migration is only viable for migrating on-premises data to Exchange Online but only from Microsoft Exchange 2003 and 2007. This method does not support Microsoft Exchange 2010 & 2013 and requires a synchronization utility to copy the data from on-premises to the Exchange Online Active Directory database. - Cutover migration: Moving data from on-premises to Office 365 with a cutover migration process performs a complete migration of resources, including mailboxes, calendars, contacts & distribution groups, all at once. It is compatible with several on-premises Microsoft Exchange such as 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013.
Condition: Cutover migration is one of the most valuable processes among other migration types in Microsoft 365, as it prohibits the choice of specific resources for migration. This process is considered most suitable for an organization with below 2000 mailboxes or 150 users. - Hybrid migration: Hybrid migration type is self-explained as its name because it allows you to work on both on-premises and Exchange Online. It provides the feasibility of synchronizing and working on both platforms as you can migrate specific mailboxes to Office 365 and other on-premises.
Condition: Using hybrid migration is more beneficial for organizations with more than 2000 mailboxes. Hybrid migration is quite different from other O365 migration types as it is only compatible with Exchange version 2010 or later. - IMAP migration: IMAP migration is mainly used to migrate only emails and contents from an on-premises environment to Office 365. It helps businesses with a proper email network to migrate their on-premises mailboxes to Office 365.
Condition: This migration type only moves the inbox data in the mailbox only as it does not migrate data in folders like contacts, calendars, or tasks. IMAP migration only allows the migration of only 50,000 mailboxes.
Difficulties that arise while using Office 365
Utilizing the exceptional functionalities of Office 365 will offer great operational assistance to the business. But being a cloud-based platform Office 365 can attain multiple issues or throw errors while using it. So, it is necessary to understand the shortcomings of Microsoft 365 before migration and create strategies accordingly. There are some common demerits in using Office 365 mentioned below:
- Compatibility issues: Office 365 performs specific actions to fix bugs and continuously enhance features by providing regular updates. Regular updates sometimes cause compatibility issues in Microsoft 365.
- Error rectification: The possibility of error infusion in the Office 365 environment is evident. There are issues such as corruption, inaccessibility, and file crashes in Office 365, which are mainly hard to troubleshoot or rectify the root cause behind the issues.
- Limited storage: Microsoft 365 comes in different subscription plans, each targeting specific user requirements, such as basic, standard, and business plans. Each plan offers limited storage space to the user, after which you will need to backup Office 365 data or delete unwanted data.
- Data inaccessibility: Data or files in Office 365 sometimes become inaccessible due to errors or corruption. Your crucial data can be damaged without any prior indication, making it inaccessible.
Why use third-party software for Office 365 tenant to tenant migrations?
The upgrade from on-premises Exchange to Office 365 environment improves the business workflow and scalability. Still, business administrators often want to migrate Microsoft 365 data from one tenant to another to fulfill different requirements. The manual approach to performing such migration is quite hectic, and the time-taking. That’s why organizations are looking for an automated Microsoft 365 migration software to integrate within the business & manage O365 data.
Kernel Office 365 Migration is the ultimate software for migrating data between Office 365 tenants with complete data integrity. The tool integrates innovative features that enable the migration of entire mailboxes or data items seamlessly.
Conclusion
Understanding migration types in Office 365 is a must to upgrade your business from on-premises Exchange to Office 365. In the above article, we discussed the different types of migration in Office 365 and the key reasons behind this upgrade. However, to perform successful migration and transitions, it is essential first to know the most common Office 365 migration mistakes that can occur during the migration.