Exchange On Premise to Exchange Online Migration – Different Techniques Explained
As more and more organizations move from on-premises email setup to cloud storage and environment, there is the fact that there is no good or bad way. The organization must accept the challenge depending on its specific requirements, which include the number of users to migrate from On-Premise Exchange to Exchange Online, the size of the local environment, the underlying messaging environment, and expectations for coexistence. In this article, we’ll talk about one of the easiest ways to perform Exchange On-Premise to Exchange Online migration. But before we get into that, let’s take a quick look at the types of manual methods available for this task.
Different Ways to Migrate Exchange On-Premise to Exchange Online
There are several ways to migrate email from a Microsoft Exchange server:
You can opt for this migration if you are looking to transfer all mailboxes in one go. We recommend using this method if the total number of mailboxes you want to migrate is less than 2000 and if your organization uses Exchange 2003, 2007, 2010, or 2013.
Many experts suggest this method if you are planning to perform migration in batches. It is recommended that you use this method if the total number of mailboxes to be migrated exceeds 2000 and if your organization uses Exchange 2003 or 2007.
3. Hybrid Migration
Of course, hybrid migration is the smoothest, but also the most difficult to achieve. This method allows the organization to support both on-prem and online mailboxes and to gradually migrate mailboxes to Office 365. You can use this method only if you are using Exchange 2010, 2013, and 2016 and the number of moved mailboxes exceeds 2000. In addition, using this technique, the migration is performed in small batches over a period of time.
Limitations of Manual Method
1. The above-mentioned tasks are time-consuming and lengthy when compared to third-party applications.
2. The person who is implementing these procedures must have proper technical knowledge and experience working on Exchange Server.
3. Many users have experienced some scenarios where they didn’t get all their mailbox data in Exchange Online. It was later found that the data got lost during the process.
4. Every manual method is version dependent and has some limitations associated with it. As one method is capable to export a large number of mailboxes but compatible with older Exchange versions. The other method works with new Exchange versions but is suitable for fewer mailboxes.
Simplest Way to Migrate Exchange On-Premise to Exchange Online
If you want to seamlessly complete the migration process and do not want any difficulties during the process, you should consider using Exchange 2016 to Office 365 Migration Tool. This is a safe and reliable application for the entire process that is fast and smooth as well. Users can easily export emails, calendars, and contacts to the target account without losing any data. Moreover, you can also check the best practices for migrating to Office 365 to ensure zero data loss during the entire migration process.
Software Steps to Perform Exchange On-Premise to Office 365 Migration
Step 1. Download, install and run the software on your PC. Select Exchange as the source platform and Office 365 as the destination platform.
Step 2. In this step select the required migration workload from the mailbox items list such as emails, contacts calendars, etc, and apply the date filter if necessary to migrate Exchange On-Premise to Exchange Online.
Step 3. Provide the required details such as Exchange server version, Admin Email & password, Application ID, Active Directory IP, and Exchange Server IP to log in to the source Exchange server. Click on validate button to validate the required permissions.
Step 4. Use the destination Office 365 Admin Email and Application ID to log in. Click on validate button to validate the required permissions.
Step 5. Create user mapping and hit on the Start Migration button to migrate Exchange On-Premise to Exchange online.
Have a Look at Some of the Top Features of the Tool:
1. Migrate Mailboxes Without Data Loss – This advanced tool is loaded with so many features that it makes sure that users get complete data in their destination mailboxes. Users get the option to select all categories like Emails, Calendars, and Contacts or deselect any of them if they don’t want it. The software makes sure that 100% of data is migrated to Exchange Online without affecting data integrity.
2. No Mailbox Size Limitation – Many users who are using Microsoft Exchange for a long time now, might have large-sized mailboxes exceeding over 100 GB. So, in those scenarios, users might face issues with other methods. Whereas this tool transfers 100% of data without even losing a single bit of data.
3. Concurrent Migration – As many organizations have a large number of mailboxes that they want to export, this tool gets the option of concurrent migration. Moreover, this feature allows users to migrate On-Premise Exchange to Exchange Online in batches. Users just have to check the “Enable Multiple Accounts” checkbox in Settings Window, and you can add run migration of up to 200 mailboxes simultaneously.
Conclusion
Migrating from Exchange On-Premise to Exchange Online is such an important task for the organization and needs to be done correctly. Loss of data during the transfer process can create many problems and can be costly for the organization. Thus, in this article, we mentioned solutions with which users can perform an Exchange On-Premise to Office 365 migration without losing data.