Introduction

Office 365 Advantages over SmarterMail

SmarterMail is undeniably popular due to its low cost and Exchange-like features. In comparison, Office 365, with its full-fledged productivity suite, is suited and tailor-made for enterprises. It's also worth noting that each service has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. But, in the end, it all comes down to the business requirements and making a decision that meets your needs.

1. Office 365 integrates in real time with applications such as SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, Google Drive, Yammer, and many more.
2. Collaborating with teams is made easier with an Office 365 suite that allows for the sharing of documents, files, and so on.
3. Office 365 includes the Microsoft brand, which ensures complete server uptime and security.
4. Office 365 is a fully packaged cloud solution that requires no in-house installation or server maintenance and upgrades.

User Query

“My company is planning to migrate from SmarterMail server to Office 365 cloud, but we don't have much information on how to do so yet. It would be extremely helpful if someone could provide us with a step-by-step guide on how to proceed. I've also looked into a few methods for importing a PST file. However, we do not want to use those PST upload methods. Thank you very much.”

1. How to migrate from SmarterMail to Office 365?

   To migrate SmarterMail to Office 365, obtain your SmarterMail server details and use the Exchange admin center (EAC) to create a migration batch to move user mailboxes to O365. Change the MX records so that incoming emails are delivered to your Office 365 email address. Another straightforward approach is to use EdbMails IMAP migration to connect to your mailboxes and migrate directly from a graphical user interface. Let's take a look at both migration methods below.

   Steps to migrate SmarterMail to Office 365

   • Step 1: Obtain SmarterMail’s incoming IMAP server details and Port Number
   • Step 2: Create suitable Office 365 mailboxes and assign user licenses
   • Step 3: Create a list of all users to migrate to Office 365 in a CSV format
   • Step 4: Navigate to the Exchange admin center and select ‘Migrate to Exchange online’
   • Step 5: Set up a migration endpoint by entering SmarterMail’s IMAP server details
   • Step 6: Create a migration batch for Office 365 migration by uploading the CSV file
   • Step 7: Start the migration and verify the sync status for completion
   • Step 8: Update the MX records on the SmarterMail’s server to route emails to Microsoft

   The limitation of the above method is that it requires technical expertise and a thorough understanding of the entire procedure to get everything right. Furthermore, if the migration is interrupted or you are unsuccessful, you must repeat the entire procedure, which is time-consuming.

2. SmarterMail to Office 365 migration using EdbMails

   EdbMails can help you migrate your mailboxes to Office 365 in a few simple steps, simplifying the entire manual procedure described above. Its step-by-step guide will ensure that you can complete everything from an intuitive wizard. Furthermore, if you plan to migrate to the same target in batches, its incremental migration avoids migrating duplicate items.

    First of all, download EdbMails and click 'Start Your Free Trial' to start using the trial version of the software.

   • Step 1: Get SmarterMail’s IMAP server HostName and Port Number

     Find out SmarterMail IMAP connection details from your web-client or in-house server and select 'IMAP migration' from the main EdbMails screen. Proceed to the login stage by entering your account's HostName, Port Number, Email address, and Password.

     • The HostName will usually be of the form : mail.yourdomain.com (imap.server.com)
     • Port Number is usually : 993 with SSL/TLS selected if you’re using secure IMAP

     If you need to migrate multiple mailboxes, select ‘Multiple server’ and follow the connection steps. EdbMails is a secure tool that does not store any of your credentials. Furthermore, it uses secure modern OAuth 2.0 authentication to login to Office 365.

     

   • Step 2: Login to your SmarterMail’s account and select the mailboxes

     After successfully connecting to the SmarterMail server, EdbMails displays all of your mailboxes, allowing you to view the folders and select the contents for migration. If you would like to customize the migration further, go to 'Settings' and use the advanced include and exclude filter options to choose which folders and emails to migrate.

     

   • Step 3: Connect to the target Office 365 tenant and map the mailboxes

     Then, click 'Migrate to Office 365' and connect to your target Office 365 tenant as a global administrator. Select the mailboxes and start the migration by mapping them between the source and target.

   • Step 4: Modify the MX records to receive new emails to Office 365

     When the migration is finished, you can check the log report generated by EdbMails, which summarizes the number of folders and mailboxes migrated. Change the MX records on SmarterMail's servers to match those of Microsoft in order to continue receiving emails to your Office 365 mailbox (retaining the same domain if you have any).

Summarizing the above

Although SmarterMail is designed as an email service similar to Exchange, many organizations that are moving away from on-premise environments would like to migrate to cloud-based Office 365 to take advantage of its full-fledged office suite that supports real-time collaboration and apps. Other reasons include company mergers and acquisitions, as well as changing email systems for compliance reasons. If you have a large amount of data to migrate and are short on time, migrating to Office 365 may appear difficult. Using manual methods increases the risk of data loss, which is where EdbMails, a Microsoft-partnered tool, comes in. It can migrate your data directly from SmarterMail to Office 365 without data loss or downtime, and it keeps a one-to-one replica of the mailboxes between the source and target. There is also no need for technical expertise to migrate, and its graphical interface makes migration operations highly intuitive and user-friendly.