Migrating to Microsoft 365 has become a strategic opportunity for companies to move away from the traditional local Exchange servers to the cloud, shifting their IT budgets in favour of features, collaboration, and security, while having a scalable solution which is resilient. Without good planning, there might be serious issues during migration. Even if you plan the migration well, there are still risks involved.
In this article, we will be discussing the risks and challenges you might encounter when migrating from a local Exchange Server to Microsoft 365. We will be also talking about a specialized Exchange migration tool that can migrate the data from local server to the cloud without any risk and with a peace of mind.
Why would you Migrate to Microsoft 365?
Traditionally, you would have a data center with servers, network, resilient hardware, and an IT team to maintain hardware, software, backups, security, software licensing, and upgrades. Some of the companies would have Database Availability Group (DAG) for resilience. With Microsoft 365, the Capital Expenditure (CapEx) will shift to Operational Expenditure (OpEx), where the access to resources will be the company’s responsibility and the underlying hardware, upgrades, uptime, and SLA, redundancy and servicing, are handled by Microsoft, thus reducing the infrastructure overhead of the company.
With Microsoft 365, you will have the Microsoft ecosystem into one interface with collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Co-Pilot, and other productivity tools. You can also enhance security with advanced features, like built-in threat protection, multi factor authentication, conditional access, and others, which are available using additional licenses such as Intune, Business Premium, and Entra ID P1.
Challenges you might Encounter when Migrating to Microsoft 365
When migrating to Microsoft 365 using the hybrid method, there are some challenges you might encounter. Although it is the smoothest migration method, it is also the slowest one with a complex setup. Additionally, you can encounter different challenges, such as issues with directory synchronization, DNS misconfiguration, certificates issues, etc., which could lead to delays in the migration.
Large mailboxes can cause long migration batches and network bandwidth constraints. In Microsoft 365, there are a number of limitations, such as mailbox size which if not planned correctly can cause issues during migration. You can also have throttling issues with Microsoft 365.
Risks Involved when Migrating to Microsoft 365
Microsoft has the shared responsibility model where the security responsibilities are shared between the company and the customers. For this reason, there are some risks that you might need to consider or may encounter when migrating to Microsoft 365. These include:
Data Loss or Corruption – When exporting the mailboxes, there could be missing data, corrupted PST files, or failed exports. This could happen due to limitations of the export software, human error, or the export exceeded the recommended size.
DNS Misconfiguration – During and when completing the migration, you would need to update the DNS. The DNS records take time to propagate. There could be delays, misconfiguration, or mistakes that could lead to data loss and impact the operations.
Complex Setup – When having a complex local setup, you can encounter issues at a number of locations or systems. When performing the migration, you should have the entire IT team involved.
Best Practices for Successful Exchange to Microsoft Migration
Here are some best practices you can follow to reduce the risks and mitigate the challenges during the Exchange to Microsoft 365 migration.
Pre-Migration Assessment – This is a crucial element as this will cut down the risks and issues that you might encounter. The tasks would include assessment of local inventory with resources and their sizes, mapping users to the right licenses, public folder mapping, local AD readiness, Exchange Server health check, installing all the necessary Cumulative Updates, testing the internet connection for the migration of data, and choosing the right migration method depending on the number of resources and the size of data.
Cleanup Process – This is another essential element as there might be resources such as mailboxes, shared mailboxes, and public folders of employees which are no longer working or shared resources which are not used anymore. This will reduce the migration effort and risks. You should also check the compliance regulations to ensure that older data is not migrated. The cleanup process would also include resources which can be migrated as shared mailboxes, distribution lists, or Microsoft 365 Groups. This would reduce the operational costs.
Preparing the Users – Preparing the users and the stakeholders pre, during, and post migration is important to ensure their acceptance. The users should be provided training and hands-on experience to ensure that they are comfortable using the new tools.
Keep Right Migration Tools in Hand – When it comes to migration of data, there are various challenges and risks that you might encounter. However, with specialized Exchange migration software, such as Stellar Migrator for Exchange, you will be able to reduce the risks, limit the human errors, and other challenges. This software ensures smooth and seamless migration of mailboxes, archives, shared mailboxes, and public folders from local Exchange to Microsoft 365. In addition, it supports migration from one local Exchange Server to another, from one Microsoft 365 tenant to another, and from Microsoft 365 to local Exchange. It offers features such as automatic mailbox matching, parallel exports, real-time reporting, and incremental (delta) migration.
Conclusion
As we have seen, migrating to Microsoft 365 has a lot of benefits for the company and the users, with a number of collaboration tools and integrations. However, you might encounter various challenges and issues during the migration. You can follow the best practices mentioned above to avoid the challenges and issues. When it comes to data migration, you can use a specialized migration tool, such as Stellar Migrator for Exchange. With this tool, you can have a seamless migration with a peace of mind.
