After the official launch of Office 365, many small, medium, and big businesses have switched to Office 365, and Exchange to Office 365 Migration trend started. The cloud-based email service offers more flexibility and higher security.
Migrating mailboxes from Exchange to Office 365 is a significant undertaking, and it needs a lot of knowledge, effort, and technical expertise. Due to inadequate service, many firms abandon Exchange to Office 365 migration. This article covers a few techniques for moving mailboxes from the Exchange Server to Office 365.
Why is a move from Exchange to Office 365 necessary?
The two most important ones are the ability to control all Exchange data and global control over the hardware. However, as with all things, there are two sides to every coin, and maintaining the server’s security and ensuring 100 percent service availability can be difficult.
Exchange to Office 365 Migration reveals many noteworthy benefits. The following are a few of them:
- You can scale up more using Office 365 without spending money on the infrastructure. All that is required is buying the new users’ email addresses. It eliminates the need to purchase additional storage, secure additional hardware support, configure everything, etc.
- As you no longer need to maintain anything, hence it is cost-efficient. To receive all the functionality that the on-premise configuration offers, you only need to purchase an Office 365 subscription.
- You will feel confident about data security by leaving everything to professionals (Microsoft). You are no longer concerned about situations involving data theft or loss due to catastrophes, technological issues, etc.
- Updates to the most recent software versions are not necessary. Everything is automatically and flawlessly handled. As a result, your users wouldn’t experience server outages or any other such circumstances.
- After the end of support for Exchange 2010 by Microsoft, there is a hike to migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365.
Process for moving mailboxes from Exchange Server to Office 365?
Mailboxes can be transferred from Exchange to Office 365 in one of two ways:
- First, export Exchange mailboxes to PST.
You can export your mailboxes to PST files and import them into Office 365 if you have fewer mailboxes.
- Export Exchange mailboxes to Office 365
Straight exporting Exchange to Office 365 is the best option if you have many. Cutover, staged, or hybrid migration methods are some of these methods. Software such as the Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 migration tool is also available. It enables straight Office 365 export of the Exchange database file containing user mailboxes.
First approach: PST Export
Using the export-mailbox command or the ExMerge tool, you can export mailboxes to PST (if you run Exchange 2007 or an earlier version). To migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365, You can export mailboxes to PST using the New-Mailbox Export Request PowerShell cmdlet.
Second approach: Export Exchange mailboxes directly to Office 365
The methods to directly transfer Exchange Server mailboxes to Office 365 are listed below. These techniques, however, necessitate more planning and authorization.
- Cutover Migration: Use this method if you want to migrate all mailboxes (fewer than 2,000 mailboxes) at once. This method is compatible with Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, and 2013.
- Staged Migration: This is to migrate mailboxes (more than 2,000 mailboxes) in batches. The staged migration method works for Exchange 2003 and 2007.
- Hybrid Migration: It works for only Exchange 2010 and 2013. Go with this method if you want to migrate mailboxes (150–2,000 mailboxes).
Common problems when migrating Exchange mailbox to Office 365:
As we’ve already mentioned, moving on-premise email can be dangerous and has to be overseen by a professional. Numerous things could go wrong. Hence, only try to do anything if you are sure what needs to be done and how. If not, you can find yourself dealing with any of the following problems:
- Issues with Corruption and Stability in the Current Exchange Environment.
- Long-term Exchange server outage.
- Slow network connections bring time loss.
- Connectivity problems may result from improperly configured firewalls, CAS servers, and proxy devices.
- Users who still use outdated versions of the local MS Outlook mailbox
- Issues with policy compliance
The issues listed above are merely the tip of the iceberg. Nobody can “get the hang of” the Exchange to Office 365 transfer in one go because it is such a huge task. It requires a great deal of patience, skill, and in-depth knowledge. However, you can minimize the efforts and risk by using Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 migration tool.
Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 Migration Tool
To migrate Exchange to Office 36, Shoviv Software has an advanced utility. The tool (Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 Migration Tool) is developed by keeping users’ satisfaction at the center of the development process. It has a very user-friendly GUI and offers a lot. Some of its highlighted features are:
- Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 Migration Tool can migrate multiple Exchange Server Mailboxes of any size in a single go. There is no limitation on it.
- It is a multipurpose utility that acts as a one-stop solution. Along with Exchange Server Mailboxes, it allows adding EDB files, Office 365 mailboxes, Outlook Profile Store, PST/ OST, etc., as a source.
- An advanced feature called incremental export is present within this software. This feature comes in handy in situations interruption takes place in the process.
- It also prevents duplicate items from being processed.
- With migration, it is also an expert in recovering corrupted, deleted EDB files.
- A filter option, search option, and preview facility are some of its user-friendly facilities.
- The software proficiently does migrate Public folders to Office 365 and the same applies to the Private folder.
- This tool can easily migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365 and other versions to Office 365, compatible with all Exchange versions.
- The tool synchronizes with all the Windows Operating Systems.
Summary:
Exchange to Office 365 migration is in trend, and many users are performing this task. Several reasons are initiating users to migrate public folders to Office 365 and other folders to Office 365. Instant reasons are pushing Exchange 2010 users to migrate Exchange 2010 to Office 365.
But, manual methods do not provide a satisfactory way. Hence, a professional tool is in demand. Shoviv Exchange to Office 365 Migration Tool is the best choice for this. It has all the features professionals look for. You can quickly check the tool’s working by downloading the free trial version. Download and explore the software for a better understanding.