Staged Office 365 Migration

• Swift Transition:

  The company operates continuously and currently uses Office 365. To improve efficiency, there's an urgent need to migrate mailboxes to Office 365. However, due to a significant amount of data, minimizing downtime is crucial. In EdbMails, users can select specific mailboxes and folders for migration. Additionally, they can migrate specific items within defined date ranges, such as data from the last month, while also excluding standard and custom folders as needed.

  The initial phase focuses on migrating data from the past two months, ensuring employees have immediate access to recent data critical for ongoing operations. After completing this phase, updating MX records directs email traffic to Office 365, facilitating a smooth transition to the second migration stage. Here, the remaining data is migrated, allowing all users to gradually access their older data over time.

• Company Merger Data Integration:

  Ahead of a merger, two companies using separate Office 365 environments plan to consolidate onto a unified Office 365 platform. During the transition, both companies continue operations independently. The strategy involves migrating the majority of their data beforehand, focusing initially on items older than one month and excluding non-email folder types. Migration operations continue uninterrupted, even during business hours. EdbMails helps by enabling selective data migration, allowing for the exclusion of non-email folder types, and supporting seamless operations during business hours. The initial phase migrates the bulk of the data, while the second phase just before the merger ensures all remaining and updated data is migrated, preparing both companies for unified operations on the new platform. After updating MX records, use date filters to ensure only the most recent and relevant data is migrated, ensuring a smooth transition to a unified Office 365 environment.

• Mitigating Slow Internet Connectivity:

  Due to poor IT infrastructure, a company plans to relocate quickly while migrating data to Office 365. Despite a small number of mailboxes, slow internet speeds necessitate a staged migration approach. Initially, migrating data from the past two weeks enables swift operations in the new location with Office 365. The first phase includes all data types configured with appropriate filters. Following the initial migration, MX records are updated, and the second phase commences. EdbMails plays a crucial role by facilitating selective data migration with advanced filtering capabilities, supporting uninterrupted operations during the transition, and ensuring the second phase of migration completes the data transfer smoothly.

In a staged migration, if some items are migrated in the first phase and MX records are updated, changing source or email addresses before the second phase may cause item duplication. To prevent duplicates and ensure incremental mailbox migration, follow these steps:

• Create alias email addresses for all mailboxes to be migrated. You can create aliases with different domains on both the source and target servers.
• Create corresponding alias email addresses on the target server.
• Download and install EdbMails application on your computer
• Enter the required details and click ‘Login’

  

• Select the Office 365 Migration option

  

• Keep the default ‘Automatic Registration’ to automatically register the EdbMails application on Azure AD and click the ‘Login’ button

  

• Select the migration operation among primary, public folder and archive mailboxes. Next authenticate on Microsoft Sign In page using Office 365 Global admin account

  

• Load source mailboxes using CSV files that contain alias email addresses
• Select the required mailboxes on the left pane and click ‘Migrate to Office 365’

  

• Connect to the target Office 365 server using Global admin account and load the mailboxes using a CSV file that includes the alias email addresses.

  

• Select the option to load the mailbox option and proceed with the mailbox mapping

  

• Click the ‘Folder and Item Filter’ and enable the filter settings to migrate selective data.

  

  For instance, if you want to transfer the majority of your data during the first stage of the migration, enable the 'Include Filter' option and select the relevant date range. If your goal is to move to a new Office 365 server as quickly as possible, migrate only the most recent data by choosing the corresponding date range.

  

  If you prefer to exclude certain folders from the first stage, click on the ‘Exclude Standard / Custom folders’ button and specify the folders you wish to exclude.

  

  Click the 'Save' button to apply the settings.

• Enter a job name and start migration

  

• Once the migration completes, a confirmation message will appear. You can click the ‘View Log’ button to get the detailed migration reports.
• Update the MX records on both the source and target servers, allowing users to access the target mailboxes.
• During subsequent migration phases, ensure consistent use of the same source and target alias email addresses for incremental migration.