Exchange to Office 365 Migration – Easy Solutions

If you are planning to migrate from a traditional on-premises email server to the Microsoft cloud service Office 365, you have come to the right place. It is never easy to understand the steps for Exchange to Office 365 migration. In this article, I will share a few easy solutions to migrate Exchange to Office 365. I will be trying to make it as simple as possible so even a non-technical user can successfully migrate from Exchange to Office 365.

In the previous articles, we have already discussed how to migrate Exchange data from EDB to PST file. There are many organizations today switching from Exchange Server to Office 365, a cloud-based version of Microsoft Office. Office 365 contains the Exchange Online that is much easier to manage than the actual Exchange Server. Additionally, it reduces the overall cost required to run and maintain the Exchange Server edition.

Exchange to Office 365 Migration. Why?

Microsoft Exchange Server is a great way to manage, store, and distribute the company’s emails. It also contains various useful features that enable users to store contact details, schedules & tasks, and share them with one other. But we know that the on-premise server has become old technology. The long-term success of any business simply depends on making the right decisions. Choosing the right cloud solution for an organization is one of the most important decisions one has to make.

 

If your organization is still using Exchange Server, it is the right time to plan to switch to Office 365. It has been a number of years since Microsoft launched Office 365. It can help your employees work together more efficiently than ever. Microsoft Office 365 is not just a tool, it is actually a new way of working. There are several reasons why small businesses and large enterprises should consider using Office 365.

Office 365 Benefits

  • It is easy to migrate to Office 365 from any on-premise solution like Exchange Server. If you perfectly plan the migration and execute it properly, it works so fine. Since a lot of work happens in the background while the migration process is being executed, inconvenience for the end-user is minimal.
  • Office 365 works on a subscription basis so it is completely scalable. You can pay for the service as a monthly subscription. No need to pay a big amount in advance.
  • Being a cloud-based service, Office 365 allows users to work from anywhere on any device. This means users are no longer needed to sit on the desk to access the organization’s data. Since they can work on mobiles, tablets, and laptops from anywhere, they can be more productive than before.
  • By switching to Office 365, you can simply reduce the cost you are spending on Microsoft Exchange Server.
  • With Office 365, you know how much each user will cost. Since organizations are primarily concerned about cybersecurity, Office 365 supports features like data loss prevention, mobile device management, email encryption, etc.
  • While using Office 365, you do not need to worry about the latest product and security updates because it runs on the Microsoft Servers itself.
  • Office 365 comes with some highly useful applications, depending on the subscription levels you have. You get OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Flow, PowerBI, and Sway. You also get PowerApps that helps you build custom business applications without requiring prior knowledge of app development.

Exchange to Office 365 Migration. Why?

Above we have discussed Office 365 benefits. Now let us learn how to migrate data from Exchange to Office 365. Some easy solutions I would like to share here that will help you in Exchange to Office 365 migration:

 

  • Exchange Hybrid Migration
  • Cutover Migration
  • Migration by PST

Before you use any of these solutions for Exchange to Office 365 migration, make sure that Exchange Server, the source environment you are migrating from, is in a good state. If you using Exchange Server 2010 or any later version and it is a part of Active Directory, the Exchange Hybrid Migration will definitely work for you.

Exchange Hybrid Migration

The Exchange Hybrid Migration solution allows users to migrate on-premises mailboxes to on-site. It is commonly used for Exchange to Office 365 migration. Exchange Hybrid creates a relationship between the on-premises Exchange Server and Exchange Online. Using this, you can migrate the existing mailboxes from Exchange Server to Office 365.

 

If you have a lot of data to migrate and the process may take a lot of time, this manual solution is extremely useful for you. Exchange Hybrid is the only solution that can easily migrate over 2000 mailboxes. In fact, it is strongly recommended to use Hybrid if there are 150 mailboxes or more to migrate.

Cutover Migration

If you are one of those users who want to migrate to the whole environment at a time, the Cutover Migration best fits your needs. This migration solution is helpful for business customers running Exchange Server 2003 or any later version and can be used to migrate less than 2000 mailboxes. The Cutover Migration solution specifically works for users who are using Exchange Autodiscover service against Exchange 2007 or any later version. This will help them determine the mailboxes available for migration.

 

But if you are running Exchange 2003 as an on-premise server, you need to enter the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) proxy addresses manually in order to access the Exchange mailboxes to migrate. This option is available for both Office 365 Enterprise and Business customers.

Migration by PST

There are so many articles on the Internet that contain more information on the manual solutions I have discussed above. There is one more way by which you can migrate the data from Exchange to Office 365. All you need to use is Office 365 PST Import Service. First, you need to export Exchange mailbox to Outlook PST file. And then, you can upload the PST file to Office 365. This process will require an administrator to do perform manual tasks that include creating a new Office 365 environment.

Limitations

The above solutions for Exchange to Office 365 migration are highly effective, and also they do not require any 3rd party software. Unluckily, each of the migration solutions has some drawbacks:

 

  • The Exchange Hybrid migration can take a lot of time and manual effort. You are likely to encounter many difficulties during this process.
  • A cutover migration is something like an all-or-nothing solution, and also it is not recommended for more than 150 mailboxes at a time. In addition, it does not allow Exchange and Office 365 coexistence.
  • If you are trying Office 365 Import Service, keep in mind that the migration process will neither be automatic nor reliable. It is only helpful in a case when there is not much data to migrate. Do not forget that you need to recreate the Exchange environment from scratch in Office 365.

So if you are looking for the most effective and reliable solution to migrate data from Exchange to Office 365, you should consider using a professional email migration tool. There are many vendors in the online marketplace that provide professional solutions to migrate data from Exchange to Office 365, Bit Data Conversion is one of them.

Professional Solution for Exchange to Office 365 Migration

The Exchange Migration tool provided by Bit Data Conversion is one of the best solutions for Exchange to Office 365 migration. This software can entirely change the migration process from the administrator’s nightmare to an easy and automatic experience. In addition, it enables some extraordinary features that are not available in the above migration solutions.

 

Using this software, you can execute different types of email migration, and Exchange to Office 365 is one of them. The Exchange Migration tool will help you migrate single as well as multiple mailboxes from Exchange Server to Office 365. It supports almost all versions of Microsoft Exchange Server including the latest 2019. Here are some of the key features of Exchange Migration tool:

 

  • You can add any size of mailboxes, and migrate them comfortably to Office 365 in no time.
  • During Exchange to Office 365 migration, it keeps the original folders hierarchy intact.
  • Before you can actually perform Exchange to Office 365 migration, you can check the preview of your mailbox data that include emails, contacts, calendar notes, sent items, attachments, etc.
  • Using this software, you can successfully migrate public folders and archive mailboxes.
  • It also supports migration from Exchange Server to Live Exchange Server.
  • You can use this to migrate Exchange data to Outlook PST files.
  • It supports saving the source mailboxes into different formats, such as RTF, vCard, HTML, EML, MSG, etc.
  • Unlike other migration solutions, this tool does not require any prior technical expertise. Even a novice user can use this software with ease.

You should download the free demo version first that will help you evaluate the software before purchasing its licensed version. By using the demo version, you can successfully migrate the first 50 items of each mailbox your select from Exchange to Office 365.

Conclusion

In this article, we have discussed why one should switch from an on-premise server to Office 365. We also discussed some solutions that can help you migrate the data from Exchange to Office 365. But such migration solutions have some drawbacks. Therefore, a professional Email Migration tool should be considered here for Exchange to Office 365 migration.