Detailed Exchange to Office 365 Migration Guide Explained Here

In the past few years, Microsoft Office 365 has gained tremendous popularity due to its rich feature set and easy access. Cloud storage allows users to easily access their data anytime, anywhere. What’s more, they don’t need to save every file on the system, which saves a lot of system space. Because end users have all of these benefits, many organizations must try this Exchange to Office 365 migration guide before starting the migration.

However, a difficult and time-consuming task will limit them to complete the task without proper planning and knowledge. Any error in the process can result in data loss, which can cost the organization millions of dollars. Therefore, it is advisable to acquire the appropriate knowledge and plan before starting the assignment. You can refer to the following sections and implement them step by step.

Get Detailed Exchange to Office 365 Migration Guide Here!

After many requests from users, we have provided a detailed step-by-step migration process. Therefore, we divide the entire process into four stages, as described below:

Phase 1: Planning

Planning is the first and foremost part of Exchange to Office 365 migration guide. If an administrator doesn’t plan the entire process properly, work can be chaotic, and the organization will eventually lose its important data. Microsoft recommends that its users use the Exchange Deployment Assistant to complete the migration task. It provides most of the migration solutions and helps administrators make the process more efficient and smoother.

When you launch this tool, it will ask you a specific set of questions based on your requirements. After completing the task, a step-by-step Exchange to Office 365 migration guide will be generated. Please read and understand this guide carefully and always follow it as you carry out the migration process.

Phase 2: Execute Testing

Now, the second step in Exchange to Office 365 Migration guide is to ensure that the Microsoft Exchange you are using supports Autodiscover and Outlook Anywhere (RPC over HTTP). You can follow the steps mentioned in the tutorial provided in #Step 1 to test the Exchange installation. After verifying the installation, you can use the Microsoft Remote Connection Analyzer tool to run Outlook Anywhere tests.

After the verification is complete, if the verification was successful, you can proceed to step 3. Otherwise, you need to eliminate all errors and warnings (see the Manual), and then proceed to the next step.

Phase 3: Cutover Migration

You need to set up an Exchange to Office 365 cutover migration as described in the following steps.

• Login to Office 365 Admin Center using admin ID.
• Navigate to EAC (Exchange Admin Center) and then go to Migration.
• Hit “+” icon to expand drop down menu. Now, choose Migrate to Exchange Online option.
• Select Cutover Migration.
• Provide On-Premise Exchange credentials that has full access permissions.

If the configuration is correct, Autodiscover will fix the On-Premise and RPC proxy Server.

• Create a New Migration batch name.
• Choose the users to get a report after you complete Exchange mailbox to Office 365 migration.
• You can now start the migration batch or select the users manually that you want to migrate.
• Click on New button to create a new migration batch and it will set the status to sync.
• The migration task will now begin and will take time depending on the size and number of mailboxes.
• You can check migration status under View Details section.

Phase 4: Exchange to Office 365 Guide Completion

Once all mailboxes are moved to O365, you will receive a report for the specified email address. After completing all these steps, you only need to migrate the public folders and assign the Office 365 license to complete the migration task.

Important Note: If you do not have enough time or experience to complete the migration, you may want to consider using the SysTools Exchange 2016, 2013 to Office 365 Migration Tool. You do not need to have a good technical background to use this application. This utility will help you migrate all Exchange mailboxes without compromising data integrity. Alternatively, you can opt for migration services and the experts will complete the task for you.

Conclusion

In this article, we’ve walked through the Exchange to Office 365 migration guide by following 4 basic steps. The whole task is divided into 4 parts and you follow the process the same way. Administrators should take extra care when performing tasks as any small error can result in data loss. The manual process is time consuming and requires technical knowledge. Therefore, if you don’t have proper technical knowledge, then it is recommended to use the help of a third-party application.