Migrating from an on-premises email organization to any other does not only involve the migration of the mailbox but it also includes the calendar, meeting details along with all your saved contacts. Migration to Office 365 is possible from various systems such as IMAP-enabled email system, and Exchange servers. This transition demands a secure and well-planned path.

This migration requires certain steps to be followed to ensure a smooth transition.

• Plan & strategize – Review the environments and compatibility, list down the requirements, & the time frame of the migration process. (You may want to consult a certified migration expert to jot down a plan for your organization)

• Try & test – Run a test trial with the available plan to be safe from any data dissipation during the final migration.

• Migration – Perform the migration procedure from your own email organization to Office 365. This can be performed in various different ways, some of which are listed down in the section below on this page.

• Monitor changes – The job is not completed only with the end of the migration process. One needs to manage the results across the network in real-time.

• Data Integrity – Validate the data and withstand its fidelity. A migration expert would know the best way to practice the same.

The performance of data migration data depends on the path one chooses to perform the transition. Here’s a list of different methods that a company can choose to migrate to Office 365:

Migrating mailboxes from Exchange Server

• All mailboxes at once (Express migration)

  • Used to migrate from Exchange 2003, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010, Exchange 2013.

  • Used when the mailboxes to be migrated are less than 2000.

• Migrate in batches (Staged migration)

  • Used to migrate from Exchange 2003 or Exchange 2007.

  • Used when the mailboxes to be migrated are more than 2000.

• Combine integrated Exchange Server and Office 365 environment

  • Both on-premises and online mailboxes of the organization are maintained simultaneously.

  • The users and mailboxes are migrated progressively in small chunks over time.

  • Used to migrate from Exchange 2010, Exchange 2013.

  • Used when the mailboxes to be migrated are more than 150-2000.

Migrating PST-files using Office 365 import service

• This method can be used when the organization has large PST files. There are two ways to achieve this:

  • Mail the PST files in a drive

  • Upload the PST files through a network

Migrating emails with a partner

• This method is used only when all the other methods fail to work appositely. The two ways to achieve this are:

  • Hire a partner to guide through the email migration

  • Use the third-party email migration tool

Migrating emails from IMAP-enabled email system

• This can be used to migrate from Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, and other IMAP support migration email systems.

• Only the user’s inbox and other mail folders are migrated.

• Calendar, contacts, and other tasks items cannot be migrated through this method.

• New emails sent to the old email source will not be migrated.

Import emails manually

• Import from Gmail

• Import from Outlook

The migration process works differently for every organization. It is of paramount importance to pick up the right plan and method for oneself to ensure optimum results out of the overall migration procedure.