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Migration from Exchange Server to Office 365

The corporate sector, several organizations are getting attracted to the thought of giving up running Exchange Server and turning their interests towards Microsoft Office 365. The online exchange offering in Office 365 is much easier to handle and work with. It eliminates the costs involved in running the server edition and the management overhead associated with it.

Now the problem of smooth migration from Exchange Server to Office 365 arises. But there is nothing to worry about as we will be discussing all smooth and safe migration from the Exchange Server to Office 365 migration from an expert’s point of view.

It is very well known that the process of migration from the Exchange Server to Office 365 is a complex job. Without proper knowledge and guidance, the whole process will be a failure and data loss may occur which we can’t allow it to happen.

Here we will be laying down few important points to be kept in mind while performing the migration –

  • Choosing a proper Migration Method: One of the most important things to be done to ensure a smooth migration to Office 365 is to make an appropriate migration method. You may read in many places that the migration process can be completed in six easy steps. But in reality, only the small organizations can accept these steps as the standard of a migration process. Microsoft supports three primary migration types: – Cutover Migration, IMAP Migration, and Hybrid Migration.
  •  Estimation of time to be committed: For ensuring a smooth and hassle free migration, try to estimate the amount of time the migration process will take. In case if Hybrid Migration is applied, then you will be able to migrate data in batches thus making an estimation of time much easier and accurate. Microsoft provides a chart outlining the average time you can expect during an Office 365 migration. In normal cases, a staged migration takes an average time of 10 GB to 14 GB per hour. Though factors such as Wan bandwidth availability is a major factor in impacting the estimation of time taken by the process.
  • Don’t neglect the Migration Infrastructure: One need to adhere to some infrastructure requirements to perform a smooth staged migration. Microsoft recommends larger organizations to use physical, enterprise standard hardware for ensuring a smooth migration.
  • Usage of a multi stage pilot migration: It is a good idea to plan for a pilot migration program for migration of mailboxes from local Exchange servers to Office 365. But users recommend to put up a multi-stage pilot migration into action.
  • Being aware of impacts to existing functionality: It depends on what version of Exchange Server you’re currently using, the migration process may affect the Exchange Server functionality in many ways. One common issue is the inaccessibility of servers during migration.
  • Version specific events during migration: In case of Exchange Server 2007, the process of migration is straight forward in comparison to the older versions. Organizations using the older versions must be aware of nuances that might take place during the process.
  • Verification of Organizational readiness: Preparation for a staged migration is a complex process. Improper preparation of a local Exchange Server before deployment will lead to failure in the migration process.
  • Client readiness: In case of clients preparation must be done properly before initializing the process of migration.
  • No actions in haste: It is nowhere written that a staged migration is to be performed quickly and then immediately access the Exchange Server.
  • Usage of reliable tools for the job: A very careful decision must be made on the choice of tool to be used. One of the standard tools for this job recommended by experts is opting for EDB to PST Converter.

It is a professional tool by Data Recovery capable of converting online as well as offline Exchange Server database (EDB) files into Outlook (PST) files. This particular EDB to PST tool assists you in the extraction of all important Exchange mailbox data such as emails, contacts, attachments etc.

Some of its salient features are as follows:

  • This EDB to PST conversion tool extracts all mail components within Exchange database (EDB) files and converts them into the corresponding (PST) files keeping the content intact.
  • EDB to PST Converter comes with a very useful feature of converting Exchange mailbox in both online and offline mode.
  • It converts Exchange mailbox (EDB) files into different formats like EML, HTML, PDF and RTF.
  • It can export offline EDB to live Exchange / Office 365 without the need of reconfiguring users.
  • The latest version EDB file of any language to PST files.
  • It facilitates selective conversion.
  • Helps in restoring accidentally deleted offline mailboxes.

The following steps will guide you for the conversion:

  1. Install and then run EDB to PST Converter
  2. Select the desired EDB file from ‘Open EDB file’ option.
  3. Click on ‘Start’ button.
  4. Click on ‘Save’ to save the file in different formats.
  5. Select ‘PST’ option to export Exchange mailboxes into PST format.
  6. The converter will now scan the EDB file and save into your desired location.
  7. The process is complete!

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