Best Practices for Migrating Email to Office 365

Written by Chad Lindley, product manager, Dell Software, and Ron Robbins, product manager, Dell Software

Abstract

Many organizations today are considering moving from a legacy email system — Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Gmail or another platform — to Exchange 2013 and Office 365. After all, Office 365 offers a lower cost of ownership, reduces the burden on IT, ensures you have the latest fixes and enhancements, and guarantees enterprise-level reliability.

This whitepaper explains key migration best practices to help ensure a complete, seamless transition. You’ll learn how to properly prepare for your migration — including not just planning the technical details but also considering how the migration will impact your business and operations. You’ll also see why it’s important to give special attention to large attachments, PSTs and other local email files, and why coexistence is critical to avoiding disruption and an impact to productivity. Finally, you’ll discover how to evaluate migration solutions, and why engaging a migration partner can be a smart investment.

Introduction

Why migrate to Exchange 2013 and Office 365? Before we get into best practices for migrating to Office 365, let’s first explore the business benefits of moving to this consolidated platform. As shown in Figure 1, they include:• Lower cost of ownership

• Reduced burden on IT

• Regular updates

• High reliability

Lower cost of ownershipExperts agree that Office 365 is usually more cost-effective than the on-premises alternative. For mid-sized to enterprise users, Office 365 rates range from US$8.20/month to US$23.20/month, or US$100–US$300 per user per year.

Compare that to the total cost of ownership on an on-premises environment. First, there are the licensing costs for each Microsoft component you need: Exchange 2013,

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Experts agree that Office 365 is usually more cost-effective than the on-premises alternative.

Office 2013, SharePoint 2013, Lync and so on. Then there are the costs associated with the hardware: you’ll need multiple servers, including web, application and database servers, which you will have to maintain and replace regularly, and the proper licensing for them as well. You’ll also need a secure location to house the servers, and you will bear the associated power and cooling costs. Last but by no means least, there are the staffing costs: you’ll need skilled resources to install, manage, maintain and troubleshoot the environment — resources that are in high demand and that are therefore expensive. Add up these costs, and the total likely dwarfs the annual cost of an Office 365 subscription.

Reduced burden on ITAnother big advantage of Office 365 is the reduced support burden — everything is managed as part of your subscription. While you won’t be able to completely eliminate IT staffing costs, you will need fewer people with the most in-demand (and therefore expensive) skills, such as SharePoint administrators and Exchange specialists. And the IT staff you do have will be able to focus on strategic projects that add value to your business, rather than on maintenance.

Regular updatesRegular software updates are critical to security, performance and efficiency,

and they often deliver valuable enhancements and new features. But installing service packs and upgrading to new versions while minimizing risk and disruption requires significant planning, skill and effort.

With Office 365, Microsoft takes care of updates for you, eliminating both the effort and the risk. In fact, unless you check the web page that lists the updates, you may not even know that an update has been performed. Moreover, you’ll have the latest fixes and new features as soon as they are available, while on-premises deployments will have to wait for the next service pack or version.

High reliability and securityFinally, there’s reliability and security. You need your critical applications, especially email, available 24/7/365. Mid-sized and enterprise Office 365 plans come with a service level agreement (SLA), a financially-backed uptime guarantee, and a dedicated development and operations team to ensure those commitments are met.

To ensure security, Office 365 stores your data in an environment completely separate from the service itself. Office 365 supports many security and compliance standards, including SAS 70/SSAE16 assessments, ISO 27001 certification, HIPPA and FISMA. And your information is not mined for any reason.

Lower cost of ownership

CapEx vs. OpEx

No servers

Fewer resources needed for support

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99.9% reliability

O�ce 365 comeswith a financially-backed 99.9% up-time guarantee

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Reduced burden on IT

No need for dedicated adminsor consultants

Frees your IT sta�to focus on othertasks/projects

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Regular updates

Microsoft will release updates to O�ce 365before on-prem

Updates will bemore frequent

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Reasons to consider O�ce 365

Figure 1. There are many good reasons to consider Office 365.

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There is more to pre-migration planning than just the technical details. It’s critical to consider how the migration will impact your business and operations.

Take a broad perspective in your pre-migration planning.

How will the migration impact your business and operations?Once you’ve decided Office 365 is the right platform for your organization, how do you get there? Obviously, you need to gather information about the current environment, create an inventory of the data you’re going to migrate, determine what cleanup needs to take place, calculate the available bandwidth and so forth.

However, there is more to pre-migration planning than just the technical details. It’s critical to consider how the migration will impact your business and operations. You must carefully plan the project in order to minimize disruption, loss of productivity and potential revenue impact. Focusing on the business will expand the types of information you collect and the analysis of that data.

For example, you certainly want to gather information about the users and mailboxes, including where the data is located. And you’ll want to review the bandwidth and calculate how much data you can migrate in a given time period. However, you also need to take

a more holistic approach and analyze how these factors could potentially impact the business during the migration. For example, you need to consider delegation relationships between users — if a user is migrated but his or her delegate remains on the source platform, how will this impact their daily work? If these individuals are key resources in an acquisition attempt or ongoing litigation, how might this separation impact the organization as a whole? More broadly, you need to consider how the migration project could impact all important business and operational workflows.

With that in mind, we recommend looking at pre-migration assessment within four areas, as shown in Figure 2, to ensure you cover each area with the appropriate depth for your organization. However, at the same time, you must also consider the relationships between areas.

It is important to analyze multiple aspects simultaneously, because there are interaction points that can be problematic if overlooked as you start moving through the project. For example, as you work through your

Figure 2. Pre-migration planning should cover not only technical details but business impact.

Messagingassessment

Type, amount & location of data

Attachments

Local content

Usage and need

Email retention policies and quotas

Encrypted content

Delegation relationships and sharing

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Applicationconsiderations

What functionality mustbe preserved?

Leverage native features if possible

What is required to support workflows?

Will process changes be implemented?

Archive content or rebuild app

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Contingencyplanning

Maintenance schedules

Backup and/or archive prior to migrating

Back-out & recovery plan

Compliance or security concerns

Prepare for the unknown

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Existinginfrastructure

Locations / distribution

Bandwidth tests and considerations

Plan to support mobile devices

Are you planning hardware changes or a server refresh?

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Analysis

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It is critical to plan your application migration in concert with your messaging migration.

messaging assessment, it is crucial to analyze applications simultaneously and consider the interactions between mail routing and application workflow. Depending on your mail platform, it may be more or less common for applications to leverage the email platform. However, with a system like Lotus Notes, there are typically key integration points that, if disrupted as the migration begins, will negatively impact the organization. As a result, it is critical to analyze these interactions in detail before initiating any aspect of the project.

Messaging assessmentDuring the messaging assessment, be sure to consider the following:• How many users and mailboxes will be

involved in the migration?

• What types of data are included? How

much is there, and where is it located? Be

sure to pay special attention to encrypted

content, private folders and, in particular,

large attachments. One of the common

obstacles in migrations is large attachments

that were acceptable in the source

platform but that violate the policies and

limits in Exchange Online. Some migration

solutions log these exceptions and

continue processing, but other solutions

may fail and stop processing mailboxes

altogether. In either case, the end result

is lost data and additional complication.

In addition, be sure to plan where large

attachments will be migrated to on the

target platform. Consider migrating them

to OneDrive for Business, an unlimited

storage location within Office 365.

• What are the current and future retention

policies and quotas? Which users have

private or local storage files, such as PST

files in Microsoft Outlook? In fact, this topic

is so important that it merits a separate

discussion; see the next section,

“Give special attention to PSTs and other

local email files.”

• Which users have delegates, and how

could disruption to those relationships

affect business workflows?

• What apps and business processes rely on

the message environment? For example,

any key integration points between the

applications and messaging, such as

workflow approvals, will be critical to

migration planning and scheduling.

Application considerationsAs we have just seen, it is critical to plan your application migration in concert with your messaging migration. In addition to exploring how applications and messaging interact in key business processes, be sure to ask questions such as:• What components and critical features of

applications must be preserved?

• How can you leverage the native features

of the new platform to best achieve the

functionality you need — and perhaps even

get new functionality that you want?

• Do you need to archive any inactive

content for data retention purposes?

• Will you need to rebuild any applications to

run properly in the new environment?

Contingency planningMigrations involve many moving parts and interactions, so it is likely, despite your best planning efforts, that something will be missed. You may overlook a dependency, connectivity may be lost during a migration, or a scheduling miscommunication may result in a group of users being migrated before they are ready. Therefore, you need to be able to back users out of a migration event and recover to the state they were in before they were migrated. This needs to be planned and tested in advance so that it can be executed efficiently if required to ensure the business does not suffer.

You also need a plan for addressing security and compliance requirements. Data needs to remain safe throughout the migration, with proper access controls in place. In addition, the migration needs to address any compliance policies your organization has in place. For example, if your retention policy requires that email be deleted after 90 days, the migration process should filter out all data older than 90 days when moving mailboxes and PST files.

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Discovering users’ PST files is, of course, essential for migration planning — PST files contain business-critical data that cannot be left behind.

Also plan for how you can optimize e-discovery by centralizing data on the target platform. Migrate archives, PST files and other data stores into one storage platform in Office 365 to facilitate searching and compliance.

Analysis of existing infrastructureWith the business concerns fleshed out, it’s time to return to the technical details, such as the specifics about data location and bandwidth. As you inventory your existing infrastructure, be sure to consider the following:• Will everyone move to Office 365, or just

part of the organization?

• Are there any critical timing

considerations for the organization or

particular departments?

• How do you currently support mobile

devices? How do you want to support

them in the future?

• Are you planning any hardware changes or

server refreshes? Could those impact the

migration, or be part of the migration plan?

Give special attention to PSTs and other local email files.

Why users create local email files — and why they’re a problemOut of necessity, many organizations create storage quotas for users’ server mailboxes. Many also establish email retention policies to comply with internal or external regulations and support e-discovery for legal and other purposes. Users, however, often find their storage quotas too restrictive, and do not want to be negatively impacted by retention policies. Therefore, users often create local files to store some or even most of their email on their desktop. For Exchange users, these are PST files; for Notes and GroupWise users, they are archives or local mail files.

This strategy reduces the annoying emails users get about exceeding their server mailbox quotas, but it also introduces new problems. With today’s compliance and e-discovery requirements, and the consequences for non-compliance, many messaging administrators have begun to worry

more and more about PST files. PST files become large quickly, which makes them prone to corruption and may lead to data loss. Administrators can’t easily back up the files because they can reside in any number of locations and the users typically have them open. They can’t make sure the files follow retention policies, or discover data in them. In fact, administrators have a hard time even determining which users are using PST files, making management all but impossible.

Considerations for migration planningDiscovering users’ PST files is, of course, essential for migration planning — PST files contain business-critical data that cannot be left behind. But discovery is only the first step. You need to analyze the data to determine what should be moved, what should be deleted, and what could be archived. You need to devise a strategy to re-integrate the valuable data back into the messaging environment either before, during or after the migration process.

Moreover, you need to consider how to manage the messaging environment going forward and prevent users from circumventing policies that support business needs, including compliance and e-discovery — while also respecting users’ needs for easy access to historical email and a seamless user experience that facilitates productivity. For example, if you choose to archive PST file content, you need to ensure that users retain easy access to archived data they need while also automating timely deletion to comply with retention regulations.

Plan for coexistence.

Why coexistence mattersMost migrations do not happen overnight, or even over a weekend. In fact, many take weeks or months. During that time, it’s critical that users continue to communicate and collaborate effectively, no matter which users and resources have been migrated. Otherwise, your

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It’s critical that users continue to communicate and collaborate effectively, no matter which users and resources have been migrated.

organization faces inefficiency and user disruption that impacts the bottom line (see Figure 4). Moreover, it can lead to a negative first impression of the new environment, which can lead to resistance and lack of adoption.

Developing a coexistence strategyThe definition of “coexistence” can be different for each organization. Some organizations make heavy use of free/busy data; others barely use it. Some rely heavily on calendaring, while others are only concerned about a complete directory of users. As a result, it is critical to work with stakeholders to develop a coherent picture of what’s important within your organization and help everyone understand the importance of an effective coexistence strategy.

Be sure to consider not only email but also calendars and shared resources such as conference rooms. Users must be able to email one another and, in most organizations, be able to access free/busy information and schedule meetings. This includes both single-instance and recurring meetings. Whether meetings were already scheduled or created during the migration, the accuracy of calendar data is essential throughout the project. You must ensure that users can, for instance, change a meeting room for a single instance of a recurring

meeting or cancel a single instance without causing resource conflicts and end-user confusion.

Achieving full coexistence is particularly challenging if you are migrating from a non-Microsoft platform. Many of these systems treat and store calendars differently than Microsoft solutions. Therefore, proper planning and the right tools are particularly critical for those migrations.

Evaluate migration solutions carefully.

Considerations to keep in mindMigration planning, of course, also includes choosing migration solutions. What should you consider as you evaluate your options?• Your source platform —You need a solution

that can handle all the specific complexities

of your source data, whether you’re on

Exchange, GroupWise, Notes or another

platform. Many of these platforms provide

options for archiving and local content,

include different calendaring features, and

implement different sharing and delegation

models. The solution you select must be

capable of automatically translating these

differences to match the format expected

in the target platform. This is especially

true for features heavily used within your

organization and relied on by end users.

• Migration scope and options — Consider

whether the solution offers a fixed

These pitfalls = ine�ciency, user disruption and $$$

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Limited or inaccurate directory updates

Lack of free/busy information between systems

Inability to reschedule meetings

Improper handling of meeting cancelations

Improper processing of custom recurring meetings

Incomplete processing of assigned tasks

Di�culty scheduling resources and conflicts between systems

Severed application workflow

Why does coexistence matter?

Figure 4. Without full coexistence, employees can’t communicate and collaborate effectively, and the business suffers.

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Engaging an experienced migration partner can deliver a sound return on investment.

migration process or can be tailored to

your organization’s specific needs. For

example, a fixed migration process might

not include migration of PST files or public

folders or the consolidation of multiple

Exchange forests as part of the migration

to Office 365. Be sure to the solution you

choose offers all the specific functionality

and coverage required to meet the needs

of your organization.

• Migration fidelity & throughput — Consider

whether the migration solution provides

a complete migration that preserves all of

your email and calendar data, including

local content, delegations and access

control lists (ACLs). For migrations to

systems with different message and

attachment limitations (like Office 365),

the solution must provide automated

methods of preserving attachment data

and migrating content to other storage

mechanisms like personal archives and

OneDrive for Business. In addition, the

migration solution should be multi-

threaded and automatically handle any

migration throttles of the source and

target systems to ensure the most efficient

migration possible.

• Encryption & data security — Verify

that the solution ensures the security of

your data, including private folders and

encrypted items. If a vendor’s only option

for migrating private and encrypted content

is to expose it in the source prior to the

migration, you may want to reconsider

whether they have your best interests in

mind. The solution should provide options

for handling sensitive data throughout

the migration to ensure the integrity of

your data while preserving the content for

future use.

• Business continuity & workflows — As

discussed earlier, you need to think not

only about the data that’s being migrated,

but also about your business processes. As

you evaluate migration solutions, consider

whether they can ensure your business

needs are met on the new platform,

and whether they provide the coexistence

required to keep systems and employees

fully functional during and after

the transition.

• Quality of support – In many cases, when

you’re selecting a migration solution, the

strength of its technical support is as

important as the quality of the migration

solution itself. Ensure that you will be

supported during the time that you plan

to perform your migration and that

you will be supported by a team who

has experience guiding customers to

successful migration projects.

Consider engaging a migration partner.

Most organizations are not involved in migrations every day; in fact, your IT staff may never have been involved in planning and executing a migration of this magnitude. However, there are organizations specializing in migration that are staffed with IT professionals with years of experience completing migrations. This experience, when applied to your migration, can help avoid the pitfalls that might otherwise occur and thereby streamline the entire migration process. In addition, your resources can stay focused on the core business strategy rather than attempting to plan and execute an unfamiliar migration project. All of this can add up to a sound return on investment.

Be sure to choose a migration partner that offers:• Customized process and timing

• Full coexistence

• Multiple migration options and approaches

• High migration fidelity

• Security, including proper treatment of

private and encrypted data

Ensure a successful transition with Dell.

One of the best ways to ensure a successful migration is to use Dell as a trusted partner. Dell has migrated more than 75 million AD accounts, more than 50 million mailboxes to Exchange and hundreds of terabytes of data to SharePoint. In gaining this vast experience, Dell has developed a proven methodology (see figure 5) to ensure successful migrations that is built on four key pillars:• Prepare — Mitigate migration risks with

detailed pre-migration assessments

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that analyze the current state of your

environment. You’ll have the details you

need about what should be moved and

what shouldn’t, ensuring a successful,

worry-free migration with no surprises.

You can also consolidate or restructure

your Active Directory environment before

the migration to properly prepare for

Office 365.

• Migrate — Mitigate the risk of data loss and

minimize IT and end-user impact with a

high-fidelity messaging migration.

• Coexist — Ensure interoperability between

users throughout the migration to

minimize lost productivity.

• Manage — Stay in control of your new

messaging and collaboration environment

with auditing, reporting, recovery and

email discovery in Office 365 or your

hybrid environment.

Conclusion

Moving from a legacy email system — whether it is Exchange, Notes, GroupWise, Gmail or another

platform — to Exchange 2013 and Office 365 offers a wealth of benefits, including lower costs, reduced burden on IT, fast access to fixes and enhancements, and guaranteed enterprise-level reliability.

The transition to Office 365 is one of the most important initiatives for any business because it has a direct impact on the business-critical email environment. Planning the migration with the business in mind, choosing the right tools, and engaging the right partner are essential parts of the process.

To learn more about how Dell can help ensure your successful transition, visit www.DellSoftware.com/Office365.

About the authors

Chad Lindley is a senior product manager with Dell Software for solutions including On Demand Migration for Email and the Notes

and GroupWise transition solutions. He has worked with Lotus, Novell, and Microsoft technologies since 1994 and has focused on migration since 1999. Chad joined Quest Software in 2005 and served in a variety of presales and systems consulting roles before assuming his current position as product manager.

Ron Robbins is a senior product manager at Dell Software, where he is responsible for guiding the direction of Dell’s migration solutions for messaging and Active Directory and providing assistance to customers and strategic partners. Ron has over 15 years of experience in IT and has authored several white papers and articles covering the topics of Exchange migration and management. Prior to joining Dell, Ron provided IT support and consulting services to many different organizations, including Fortune 500 companies.

Lotus Notes

GroupWise

Google

POP/IMAP

Exchange

SharePoint

Migrate

Pre-migrationAssessment

AD consolidation

Archiving and clean-up

Post-migrationIT management

Advanced reporting

Security and access

Coexist

Source platformsPrepare Manage

Exchange Public Folders

Windows file shares

Exchange Online

SharePoint Online

Schedule & automate tasks

Manage & reportstatus

Provision users& sites

Figure 5. Dell Software offers a full suite of ZeroIMPACT migration solutions.

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Whitepaper-BestPractMigrateEmailOffice365-US-MJ-25680

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