This reduces the load on IT divisions and enables the team to focus on more critical issues Thus providing additional facilitates support and maintenance and ensuring better collaboration and content management within the team. For migration different types and approaches of Microsoft Office 365 migration services can be used depending on the enterprise requirements.
Types of Office 365 Migration Services
For migrations from a current on-premise exchange email environment, the option to migrate all email, contacts and calendar to Office 365 can be done using the following Microsoft Office 365 Migration Services.
Cutover Migration
It works on the approach of migrating all mailboxes at once and if the user is running its exchanges using Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, or 2013. Also, it works if there are lesser number of mailboxes than 2000. This can be started from the Exchange admin centre. However, it is to be noted that it is more practical to migrate 150 users or less at a time than migrating 2000 users at once which could take a higher amount of time.
Staged Migration
This migration is useful if the enterprise is running their exchanges using Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007, and it is to be done for more than 2,000 mailboxes. Using this type the migration of mailboxes is done in batches. Not only emails, but contacts, calendars and more can be migrated using this technique.
Hybrid Migration
This is a type of migration which uses Office 365 environment and an integrated Exchange Server and is a choice to enterprises that cannot simply move to cloud because of regulatory and compliances within the companies. Migration is done gradually in small batches over time to Office 365. Using this approach, the migrated data and services are divided between on-premise and cloud thus providing enterprises to work on both the environments. This is used when the enterprises have mailbox exchange 2010 or 2013 and have 150-2,000 mailboxes.
Migrating PST files using Office 365 Import Service
If your company has several large PST files, then Office 365 Import Service for migration of email data can be used to where the PST files can be uploaded or mailed to a drive.
Migrating email from IMAP-enabled email system
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) can be used to move emails from email systems like Gmail, Outlook etc. But this type of migration does not create mailboxes in Office 365 and the admin needs to create a mailbox for each user to be migrated. However, only emails can be migrated and not contacts or calendar information.
Importing own emails / Working with partners
Users can import their exchanges, email, calendar, contacts, and other email information to an Office 365 mailbox after getting a reference from online guides. Another option is that a company can work with a partner to migrate their on-premise exchanges to Office 365 or using a third-party email migration tool for office 365 migration services. An enterprise can move its exchanges using Microsoft Office 365 migration services from other systems. But before starting an email migration, an enterprise must review their email exchanges limits and best practices to implement. This must be considered based on the expected performance and behavior after migration and can be get advice from experts if required.
