Businesses can migrate to Office 365 from any mail system or server. They can import email data, calendars, files, and contacts to the Office 365 mailbox through different methods. Moving to O365 allows them to access their vital data on Virtual Cloud Desktop wherever they are and from any device. Data is even protected against disasters, which could wipe out on-prem equipment. However, the most suitable fitting ways have to be found based on your requirement.
Anyhow, whether you prefer cutover migration, staged migration, or hybrid migration while choosing the method, there are a few factors that you have to consider such as
- The number of files/data that needs to be migrated.
- The quantity of data/files to be migrated.
- The period of the email/data migration process
- The total cost and resources involved in the process.
Methods to migrate to Office 365
To migrate to office 365 users, have various strategies in place. To transfer the emails, calendars, data, and contacts from the existing email server to Office 365 there are primarily 3 methods such as cutover, staged migration, and hybrid migration.
- Cutover migration:
Cutover migration allows the users to send everything at once. This is the recommended way of Office 365 Migration in case you are migrating the entire email data to Office 365, and you wish to manage the users in Office 365. In this way, the vital email contacts and groups in the on-premises exchange system can be migrated.
- Staged Migration:
This method is more suggested for the exchange server 2003 and 2007 users. Plus, this is the Best Office 365 Cloud Migration Services method for those who plan for step-by-step migration of mailboxes to Office 365.
Staged migration helps to move data in batches, and it facilitates the users to send and receive emails from on-premises users and vice-versa, even their mailboxes are moved to Office 365 with on-premise synchronization techniques.
- Hybrid Migration:
Hybrid migration is most appropriate for exchange 2010, 2013, and 2016 users. This way of Microsoft 365 migration uses an integrated exchange server and Office 365 infra.
The hybrid migration method allows the mailboxes in the on-premises Exchange to be on-site or exchange to office 365 migration or vice versa.
- IMAP Migration:
The Internet Message Access Protocol migration method allows any user to migrate users/emails from any other email system that supports IMAP migration.
The users can make use of the exchange online PowerShell to migrate vital data and mailboxes from the IMAP system to Office 365 environment. However, the negative aspect of IMAP migration methods it transfers only email data from the source inbox. Also get free edu email.
- Third-party migration Service:
As it implies, third-party email data migration is entirely based on external tools. They have specific protocols and features. Some are more suitable than the native in-built migration tools, and some are the same as those. Apps4Rent is a popular Office 365 Migration Service Provider, which gives the best result than most native data migration providers.
Conclusion
Migrating to Office 365 is not as straightforward as it reads. So, it is always good to get help from a migration support provider with good domain expertise to migrate to Office 365. Apps4Rent has years of expertise in data migration domains and has done thousands of Offices 365 migrations with high data fidelity, minimal time, and cost. Apart from that they even provide Azure Virtual Desktop with 100% assistance and 24/7 tech support, which makes them the perfect partners to select for the service.
