Office 365 migration guide

• Step 1: Evaluate your current infrastructure

  The first step in any Office 365 migration is to evaluate your current infrastructure. This includes assessing your hardware, software, and network, as well as identifying any potential compatibility issues.

• Step 2: Choose your migration method

  There are several ways to migrate to Office 365, including cutover migration, staged migration, hybrid migration and IMAP to Office 365 migration. Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to choose the one that's right for your organization.

• Step 3: Determine your migration scope

  After you've chosen your migration method, you'll need to determine your migration scope. This includes deciding which data and applications you want to migrate, as well as identifying any data that may need to be archived or deleted.

• Step 4: Create an Office 365 migration plan

  With your migration scope in mind, you can now create an Exchange online tenant to tenant migration plan. This plan should outline the steps you'll need to take to migrate your data and applications to Office 365, as well as any potential roadblocks you may encounter along the way.

II. Steps for Office 365 to Office 365 migration

To migrate your Exchange mailboxes to Office 365 or to perform a tenant to tenant migration, you can use EdbMails. It is a Microsoft partnered Office 365 migrator that can simplify the migration challenges and ensures a stress-free migration. EdbMails can migrate all of your data including mailboxes, emails, folders, contacts, calendars, appointments, tasks, journals and Office 365 groups. If you are looking to migrate from an on-premise Exchange, the application supports all Exchange versions starting from 2003-2019.

• Step 1: Download and Install the EdbMails application
  • Download EdbMails and install EdbMails on your computer.
  • Double click the EdbMails setup (EdbMailsSetup.exe) to install the application.
  • Follow the instructions that appear to complete the installation.

     See EdbMails system requirements for Office 365 migration.

    

• Step 2: Select the Office 365 migration option
  • Click 'Login' or 'Start Your Free Trial' to access the application

    

    Note: If Standard folders (such as Inbox, Calendar, Contact, and so on) on your source Office 365 tenant mailboxes are initialized with a different language, follow the steps to migrate these folders to their respective system folders on the target (destination) server.

    For Instance: If your source Inbox folder is named 'Boîte de réception', which is in French language, and you migrate this folder directly to the destination server, then by default, it will not get mapped to the 'Inbox' folder on the target server. In order to map this folder to the respective folder on the target, change the language settings on the target server to match that of your source mailbox (in this case, it is French).

  • Select the option 'Office 365 Migration' and continue to the source server connection.

    

   Tip:EdbMails can also help you perform Office 365 migration with same domain and can convert Office 365 Public folder to Shared mailbox

• Step 3: Connect to source Office 365 Tenant as Global Admin
  • Login to Source Office 365 Tenant. Click here for the detailed steps on Office 365 login using EdbMails
  • On successful login, EdbMails displays a list of mailboxes from the source server.
  • Click ‘Continue’ to connect to your source tenant.

    

   Tip: You can also load all the mailboxes with a .csv file. However, if the listing is successful then you can continue to the next step.

  

• Step 4 : Select the mailboxes and folders for migration
  • Select the mailboxes that you wish to migrate to the target server.
  • Choose the migration type as 'Full migration' or 'Incremental migration'.

    

  • Click ‘Migrate to Office 365’ to continue

   Tip: With EdbMails, you can perform EDB to Office 365 migration or migrate PST files to Office 365 depending on whether you have an offline Exchange EDB file or PST’s from which you want to migrate mailboxes.

  

• Step 5: Log in to the target Office 365 tenant as Global Admin
  • Login to the target Office 365 account. Click here for the detailed steps on Office 365 login using EdbMails
  • On successful login, you will be displayed a list of mailboxes from the target server.
  • Click ‘Continue’ to proceed to mailbox mapping

   Tip: If the automatic mailbox listing has failed to retrieve all the mailboxes, then you can load all the mailboxes using a .csv file. However, if the listing is successful then you can continue to the next step.

• Step 6: Perform Office 365 to Office 365 migration
  • Map the source mailboxes to target Office 365 mailboxes.
  • Click 'Continue' to start the migration operation.

    

  • That's it! During the migration operation, you can view the progress as shown below.

    

  • Appropriate messages will be displayed on completion of the migration operation.
  • Click the 'View Log' button to view the migration operation log.
  • Login to your Office 365 account to verify migrated items such as emails, calendars, contacts etc.

III. Actual Office 365 migration execution

After you've completed your planning and preparation , it's time to execute your migration plan. This is the most critical part of the migration process.

• Step 1: Start your migration with EdbMails

  The first step in the execution phase is to perform the actual migration with EdbMails as outlined in the preceding section. This may involve installing and configuring the necessary software, as well as moving your data and applications to Office 365.

• Step 2: Monitor your migration

  As you migrate your data and applications to Office 365, it's important to monitor your migration to ensure that everything is running smoothly. This may involve checking logs, running tests, and troubleshooting any issues that arise.

• Step 3: Address any issues

  If you encounter any issues during your migration, it's important to address them as quickly as possible. This task may involve making changes to your migration plan, or seeking help from the support.

IV. Environment Maintenance

After your migration is complete, you'll need to maintain your Office 365 environment to ensure that it continues to run smoothly. This includes ongoing monitoring and management of your data and applications, as well as regular updates and maintenance.

• Step 1: Regular mailbox backup

  One of the most important aspects of maintaining your Office 365 environment is to regularly back up your data. You can use EdbMails to perform Office 365 export mailboxes to PST or create AES-256 military grade Office 365 backups to ensure that you can easily recover your data in the event of a disaster or data loss.

• Step 2: Security and compliance

  Maintaining security and compliance is also crucial when it comes to Office 365. This includes regularly updating your security protocols, monitoring for any potential security threats, and ensuring that you're in compliance with any relevant regulations.

• Step 3: Ongoing Office 365 management

  Finally, ongoing management of your Office 365 environment is essential to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of your organization. This step may involve making changes to your configuration, updating your applications, and responding to user feedback and requests.

With these steps in mind, you should now have a good understanding of what's involved in migrating to Office 365, from planning and preparation to execution and maintenance. However, there are a few additional tips and best practices that you should keep in mind to ensure a successful migration.

V. Additional Tips and Best Practices for Office 365 migration

• Tip 1: Communicate with your users

  As you migrate to Office 365, it's important to communicate with your users to keep them informed of what's happening and how the migration might affect them. Provide training and support to help them adjust to the new environment.

• Tip 2: Test before you migrate

  Before you migrate any data or applications to Office 365, it's important to test everything in a staging environment or perform a test migration. This task helps you identify any potential issues and ensure that everything works as expected in the new environment.

• Tip 3: Migrate to Office 365 with EdbMails

  While Office 365 provides a wide range of tools and features, EdbMails can help you streamline your migration and improve your productivity without the hassle of complex scripts or other manual procedures. See Features of Office 365 migration with EdbMails.

• Best Practice 1: Choose the right Office 365 plan

  There are several different Office 365 plans to choose from, each with its own features and pricing. It's important to choose the plan that best fits the needs of your organization and provides the features and functionality you require.

• Best Practice 2: Follow a phased approach

  Migrating to Office 365 is a complex process, so it's important to follow a phased approach to minimize risk and ensure a successful migration. This may involve migrating different departments or applications in stages, rather than all at once.

• Best Practice 3: Work with an experienced partner

  It's important to work with an experienced partner such as EdbMails who can provide guidance and support throughout the migration process. EdbMails provides 24x7 free migration support and personalized Office 365 migration assistance for all your requirements.