Best Practices for Migrating to Office 365 – Step By Step Explained

Best Practices for Migrating to Office 365 - Step By Step Explained

author
Published By Mohit Jha
Anuraag Singh
Approved By Anuraag Singh
Published On October 13th, 2023
Reading Time 8 Minutes Reading
Category Office 365

Summary: In some of the situations, there is a requirement for Office 365 migration. That’s why through this article, you will find the Office 365 migration best practices in detail. The complete solution is also discussed to perform Office 365 migration with the help of an automated tool. So, without wasting the time let’s deep dive into it.

Why do you think we need to follow Office 365 migration best practices? People across the world have already strived to find the optimal ways to perform certain activities through trial and error, then why bear that pain again?

According to Wikipedia, “Best practices are the standard procedures that an organization accepts or prescribes as superior to other alternatives.”

Ever since its inception in 2011, Office 365 has proven to be a gold mine for the industries.  How Outlook 365 has helped increase the productivity of the major companies globally, does there remain a doubt why users should not migrate to it?

No matter how badly our heart is set on Office 365, switching over to it is not an easy road to walk on. Even the biggest corporations face numerous issues during the transition. The only way out of this is to have a layout prepared for migrating.

Must Read: The Ultimate Microsoft Office 365 Migration Checklist for Pre & Post Migration

Why not use this article to learn about the best practices for Office 365 migration? Thus, in this post, we will go through the recommended practices that a user should strictly adhere to while migrating to Office 365. The important question is, how will you execute the migration? For this, we will recommend the most recommended tool, which will enable you to perform the migration with ease.

Now, let’s begin by focusing on the best practices a user can follow for office 365 migration.

Table Of Content

Learn the Office 365 Migration Best Practices Step By Step

The plan of a company’s migration to Microsoft Office 365 should decide to keep in mind its needs and suitability.

  • Identify the Types of Office 365 Migration

Before performing the migration of Office 365. Firstly educate yourself about the distinct methods that can be used for migration. There are different methods such as the Cutover, Staged, Hybrid, and Professional methods. Explore all of the methods and find the best one out of them as per the requirement.

  • Need to Analyze the Network Connectivity

Basically, the network performance matters a lot while migrating the data. The improper and inconsistent connectivity of the Internet affects the migration performance. So, here is the requirement to monitor the connectivity of the Internet to evaluate the downtime.

  • Requirements for Email Security

Email security may be divided into several categories, such as virus detection, malware detection, spam detection, data loss protection, and so on. Every company has a set of policies that define the threshold for these security measures.

As a result, it is critical to determine if Office 365 meets those standards. Email security is provided via Office 365 integration, which includes anti-malware, anti-virus, and anti-spam protection

  • Requirements for Compliance

Many corporations, as well as government laws, set the rules for the data that each firm may keep or use. Although Microsoft tries to include dynamic compliance elements such as HIPAA Business Associate Agreements, EU Safe Harbor, and so on into Office 365, some compliance capabilities are not covered by the Office 365 integration. Other compliance concerns may arise as a result of cloud storage. Companies must ensure that they are not in violation of any ownership rules or agreements with their customers or the government.

  • Archiving Requirements

Any company’s archiving needs are being determined by the domain they are working on, their client-side, and so forth. These are not precisely specified by Office 365 setup, but must be fully met by Office 365 suit if the organization wants to rely totally on it. Many third-party archiving players provide Office 365 with specific plans that allow businesses to continue utilizing existing archiving technologies and techniques after migrating to Office 365.

  • Requirements for eDiscovery

Every day, businesses deal with a huge volume of data and must regularly search for and discover documents. As a result, they require an effective e-discovery and indexing infrastructure. Examples include lawsuit Early Assessment, information requests, internal investigations, and so forth. Office 365 offers some eDiscovery features, however, they are still quite not in use in meeting the requirements of any corporation. And in this way, we can conclude it in Office 365 migration best practices.

  • Need for Disaster Recovery

Although Office 365 has been designed to be very efficient and error-free, it is still insufficient to eliminate all chances of failure. Email, messaging, and collaboration tools are the foundations of any organization, on which they blindly rely. As a result, most businesses that use Office 365 are advised to use some of the professional services that are available to improve disaster recovery capabilities.

  • Necessity  for Backup

Although Microsoft Office 365 has an automated backup mechanism, businesses may wish to retain a separate backup as part of their policy or for peace of mind. As a result, clients may choose between a hybrid migration and any third-party backup plan on the market.

Preparing the Internal Needs & Setup Needed for Microsoft Office 365 migration:

Any company must prepare ahead of time to carry out the relocation process properly. We are providing some of the essential measures as follows:

  • Active Directory

It is essential to have an Active Directory on the internal server. During the migration process, we use to move and handle user accounts. It also enables workers to use a single sign-on to access both on-premises servers and Office 365 services.

  • Best Practice to Perform Pre-Migration Enhancements in O365

It is strongly suggestible that the firm upgrades to the most recent Exchange Server, SharePoint, and so forth. Shifting immediately from an older server to Office 365 may result in unforeseen difficulties. This simplifies the Exchange conversion to Office 365.

  • Capacity for Internet

Office 365 is entirely cloud-based. As a result, the firm must have an effective internet connection with adequate data limitations and bandwidth to facilitate the relocation procedure.

Related: OneDrive Migration Best Practices – The Step By Step Ultimate Guide

After Knowing the Office 365 Migration Best Practices, the Question Remains How to Migrate your Data?

You can accomplish this process with the help of an expert-recommended software- Office 365 to Office 365 Migration tool. The utility is a one-stop solution for all your needs to migrate to Office 365. This program even allows you to export data in bulk without incurring any loss and it is the best way to migrate to Office 365. Also, the Delta migration feature helps you to move newly arrived data from the source account.

Download Now Purchase Now

Automated Steps As the Best Practices for Smooth Office 365 Migration

Step 1. Download and run the software on your computer. Then, select the source and destination from the screen.

Start screen

Step 2. Select the required data for migration from the workload section and enable the Migrate Document Permissions and User Grouping Mapping.

enter domains

Step 3. Apply the Date Filter to filter out the required data only and Next.

enter domains

Step 4. Enter the Source credentials after validating hit Next.

login

Step 5. Fill in the details of the Destination window, validate them, and then Next.

login

Step 6. It’s time to fetch the users from the Fetch Users, Import Users, and Download Template options.

users

Step 7. After fetching all the required users click on Start Migration.

priority

Why do you think even the Biggest Industries are Flocking to Office 365?

1. Reduced Expenses: Several companies feel that deploying and operating a messaging and collaboration system for meetings, tasks, and so on is less expensive than just hosting it on internal servers.

2. Expenses are Foreseeable: When a messaging and collaboration system is hosted online, the prices are easier to predict than when it is deployed internally since the cost is based on a contract with the service providers.

3. Capex to Opex: Managing costs is a hectic most task in any organization. The Office 365 suite converts expenditures from a capital expenditure (CAPEX) to an operating expenditure (OPEX) system. It greatly minimizes the large installation fees associated with up-front hardware, software, and human expenditures, as well as helps with tax savings.

4. Lower Opportunity Costs: An on-premises deployment of messaging and collaboration tools is an invitation to an entire IT staff, which includes hiring and keeping personnel. The cloud-based Office 365 suite considerably reduces the potential expenses as well.

5. Flexibility: Because Office 365 is cloud base, employees may get access and interact with teams from anywhere in the globe at any time.

You will find it helpful: Different Ways to Migrate Multiple Email Accounts to Office 365 Suite

Conclusion

In our busy days, we don’t have time to migrate with trial and error. Thus, it becomes mandatory to go through the best practices and follow them before moving forward with the process of migration. To assist you, we have explained in detail the best practices you can follow. Also, a tool that can help you with the migration.

Office 365 Migration Services