Migrate Exchange Mailbox to Office 365 Using Different Approaches

Exchange servers were cutting-edge technology when launched by Microsoft. Now, Microsoft has developed the Office 365 platform, which provides new functionalities compared to those in Exchange servers. Microsoft also ensures the safety and security of the data on its remote servers. These reasons are enough for users to migrate Exchange mailboxes to Office 365. Let’s discuss the advantages of moving from Exchange to Office 365.

What are the Advantages of Office 365 Over Exchange Servers?

Microsoft Office 365, being the latest piece of technology, offers a lot of advantages over Exchange servers. Below, we have listed some of the noteworthy advantages of migrating Exchange to Office 365.

• Office 365 comes with several cloud features and advanced cloud security features compared to the Exchange server.
• It offers a user-friendly and simple-to-use UI, which further motivates users to migrate Exchange mailboxes to Office 365.
• Using Office 365, users can access the data and services in their accounts remotely from any device with an internet connection.
• Office 365 is more flexible regarding scalability and provides various subscription plans. Users can easily change their subscription plan according to their needs.
• Using Office 365, users can synchronize their data on the cloud in real time.
• While using Office 365 service, organizations don’t have to maintain complex storage and cloud infrastructure. This significantly reduces maintenance and staffing expenses.
• Office 365 can serve as an integrated solution to manage users all over the organization.

These advantages make Microsoft Office 365 a much more reliable solution compared to Exchange servers. To use these benefits, users have to migrate their data from Exchange Servers to Microsoft Office 365.

What are the Different Ways to Migrate Exchange Mailbox to Office 365?

There are a few ways, that can be used to perform this task, let's discuss each of them step by step.?

1. Using Staged Migration to Migrate Exchange Server

Staged Migration exports mailboxes in clusters, making the process easier to perform. Though performing this process requires a certain level of technical knowledge. However, staged migration also has certain restrictions; it can only be used with Exchange server versions 2003 and 2007. The process of Staged Migration is performed using the Exchange Admin Center (EAC).

These are the steps for Staged Migration using EAC:

• Before starting, examine the amount of data that needs to be migrated.
• You need to be verified as the owner of the domain.
• Use directory Synchronization to create the users present on the on-premise server in Office 365.
• Create a mailbox list of the users on the exchange server by identifying which mailboxes are to be migrated to Office 365. A CSV file is generated after this step.
• Migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365 according to the batches created in the CSV files.
• To ensure the migrated users can find their mailboxes, On-premise mailboxes need to be converted into mail-enabled users.
• Redirect your emails to Office 365 mailboxes.
• Verify that all the mailboxes have been migrated successfully. After that, the staged migration batches can be deleted.

The process of Staged migration holds certain limitations as well. For example, this process is only valid for Exchange server versions 2003 and 2007. Moreover, to perform staged migration, the user needs to be technically sound. Also, there is a possibility of data loss if anything goes wrong during the process.

2. Cutover Migration to Migrate Exchange Mailbox to Office 365

First of all, Cutover Migration provides support for Exchange server versions 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 only. Cutover migration supports exporting multiple mailboxes in one go.

These are the steps for Cutover Migration using EAC:

• Start planning for a cutover migration by identifying the workload.
• You need to be verified as the owner of the domain.
• A cutover batch needs to be created for migration.
• Migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365 according to the batches created.
• Redirect your emails to Office 365.
• Verify that all the mailboxes have been migrated successfully. After that, the cutover migration batches can be deleted.
• Necessary licenses have to be provided to users in Office 365.

There is room for improvement in the process of Cutover migration. Some drawbacks to the process are listed below:

• There is a limit to the number of users that can be migrated at once, which is 2000 users.
• This process can be time-consuming. It can go on for days or even months if you have to migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365 with a large data size.
• This process does not support Exchange server versions 2016 and 2019.
• Even Microsoft suggests users use cutover migration to migrate a maximum of 150 users at a time; otherwise, they could potentially face technical issues, which can lead to data loss.

Keeping in mind the above advisory issued by Microsoft, cutover migration is not a practical method if you have to migrate a large number of users.

3. Using a Professional Tool to Migrate Exchange Mailbox to Office 365

By using SysTools Exchange to Office 365 Migration Tool , users can migrate data to Office 365 from Exchange server versions 2010, 2013, and 2016. This tool also supports the latest version of the Exchange server, which is 2019. The methods mentioned above do not support the latest versions. Moreover, this tool helps users overcome the downsides of the above-mentioned methods.

Software Steps to Migrate from Exchange Server to Microsoft Office 365

1. First, you have to install the software on your computer system and open it.
2. On the Setup screen, choose the source as Exchange server and the destination as Office 365.
3. Next is the Workload section. This provides a category filter for the type of data you want to migrate. (Choose the items you want to migrate like Contacts, Emails, Calendars, etc.).
4. Choose the Date filter according to your need to selectively migrate data.
5. Next, switch to the source tab.?

Here, provide the given details about the Exchange server:

1. Exchange Server Version
2. Admin Email
3. Admin Password
4. Active Directory IP
5. Exchange server IP
6. Tick the "Include Subdomain" checkbox to migrate the data from the Exchange server subdomain. Validate all the mandatory permissions for the source Exchange server to migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365.
7. Switch to the destination tab. Input Admin Email and Application ID for the Office 365 account. Tap "Validate" to get the mandatory permissions for the destination Office 365 user.
8. Now, to add the user accounts and groups to migrate, choose one of the two options provided - Fetch Users and Import Users. To get a CSV file to manually map the source and destination users, click "Download Template".
9. After the list of users is displayed in the software, validate the selected users to move forward.
10. Tap on "Start Migration" to migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365.
11. To check the progress of the migration process, select any of the three options - In-progress, Pending, and Completed.

Pros of Using This Professional Tool

• This tool offers users an upper hand in the migration of Exchange server data.
• This tool can easily export Exchange on-premise user account data to Office 365.
• It can simultaneously migrate data from multiple user mailboxes.
• Provides multiple options to re-run migration to migrate the items that did not migrate during the first migration.
• Supports Delta migration to migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365.
• It can even migrate data from a subdomain of the Exchange server.
• Users can choose to map source and destination users using a CSV file.
• Option to use Concurrent migration for simultaneous migration of data.
• Filters provided for Date and Category provide options for particular data migrations.
• The tool is compatible with the latest version of Windows OS.

Conclusion

The question - "How to migrate Exchange mailbox to Office 365?" is becoming increasingly relevant in the era of cloud infrastructure. Users face countless drawbacks and problems while using manual methods like Staged and Cutover migration. This article puts forward an advanced automated tool that makes the process of migrating Exchange server data quick and hassle-free.