Everything you need to know for a successful Office 365 migration

More and more businesses are now making the switch to Office 365 for its cloud-based communication, collaboration and productivity abilities. However, completing an Office 365 migration can be confusing and cause unnecessary frustration as you attempt to migrate new and old platforms.

You need to make sure your data is secure and your employees are looped in on the Office 365 migration. Here, we’ll talk you through everything you need to know for a successful Office 365 migration.

Different ways to migrate email to Office 365

During your Office 365 migration, there are 4 different types for you to consider that are beneficial for different email services. Whether you want to know how to migrate from Google Apps to Office 365 or want to know how to migrate Gmail to Office 365, below there is a migration option to suit you. The type of Office 365 migration that you choose will depend on how much time you have to migrate, your migration budget, how much data you need to migrate, the email system you are using and the version of the Exchange server you are using.

Staged migration to migrate exchange to Office 365

This is where the migration is moved over in batches and is great if you want to know how to migrate Exchange to Office 365 step by step, but only for Exchange 2003 or 2007. It’s a great method for medium-sized companies with over 2000 mailboxes. Staged migrations are moved over in batches in a determined period of time. During the migration, users will be able to still send and receive emails from the mailboxes that haven’t migrated yet.

Cutover migration to migrate exchange to Office 365

Cutover migrations are an immediate transition and are great for if you want to know how to migrate Exchange to Office 365 step by step; however, this method is best for those currently using Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010 or 2013 and have less than 2000 mailboxes. Cutover migrations ensure all your resources are migrated at once including mailboxes, contacts and distribution groups.

Hybrid migration to migrate email exchange to Office 365

You can migrate email to Office 365 with a hybrid migration that is perfect for moving mailboxes in and out of Exchange, you can even pick and choose which mailboxes to keep on-premises and which to migrate to Office 365. Hybrid Office 365 migrations are great if you need more than 2000 mailboxes and if you have Exchange 2010 or later.

IMAP migration Office 365 to migrate Gmail to Office 365

If you want to know how to migrate from Google Apps to Office 365, IMAP migration may be the answer. IMAP migration to Office 365 is great if you want to migrate Gmail to Office 365 or any other email service that supports IMAP migration. IMAP migrations pull information from your source mailboxes and hand it over to Office 365. However, IMAP doesn’t transition anything other than email. After you migrate Gmail to Office 365, things like calendar items, tasks and contacts all stay in the original inbox and have to be migrated manually.