You may have heard that Microsoft has announced \u201cfree\u201d migration services for organizations looking to migrate to Office365.\u00a0 This is great news for many organizations but you need to be aware of what the \u201cterms and conditions\u201d are of the offer.<\/p>\n
For now, Microsoft is limiting the migration services to email only (SharePoint migrations are said to be following down the road) and there are a number of conditions that are wrapped around the offering.\u00a0 At this point it is bound to \u201cvanilla\u201d email migrations which translates to \u201csimple\u201d.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t look like complex migrations (meaning multiple forests, public folders (if coming from Exchange) and a number of other things) are being considered as Microsoft will still try to have organizations connect with partners for the \u201ccomplex\u201d migrations.<\/p>\n
Frankly, if you have a simple email config at this point you could probably do the migration yourself BUT there is some \u201cwarm and fuzzy\u201d in knowing that Microsoft will perform the onboarding and email migration process for you.\u00a0 Keep in mind that Microsoft is a big, monster corporation and they have to design their engagement framework to fit a certain baseline, there is not going to be a lot of latitude for the Microsoft O365 techs to stray from the guidelines they work under (as in they won\u2019t be able to do much tailoring to fit any \u201cquirks\u201d you might have).\u00a0 If you have anything \u201cweird\u201d or complex in your current config then you will be better served by working with a partner that can tailor the migration engagement to fit your specific needs.<\/p>\n
To be fair to everyone, O365 can be a bit \u201cdaunting\u201d to configure when you first get into it but it really isn\u2019t that hard to migrate a few email users into it provided you have done your prep work (just like many other things in the IT world, prep can be everything).\u00a0 But when things go wrong, and they often do, it can get pretty hairy pretty fast, specially so if you have a timeline that you have to meet.\u00a0 There is a reason why there is an \u201cindustry\u201d that has sprung up to support O365 migrations.\u00a0 One of the biggest reasons is that users and organizations do things inside Outlook and Exchange that the good folks at Microsoft never dreamed of when they laid down the \u201cfeatures list\u201d for the various versions of Exchange and Outlook.\u00a0 Things that you might consider to be \u201cnormal\u201d might be considered quite mad by the Outlook and Exchange teams and it is this kind of \u201cmadness\u201d that can really mess up a migration.\u00a0 Oh, and there is the whole issue of \u201ccleanliness\u201d or \u201chygiene\u201d inside Outlook that also raises the bar.\u00a0 I have seen truly idiotic things being done inside Outlook that will bork a mailbox migration to O365 dead in its tracks only to have the user dig in their heels over the things that need to be done to \u201cclean up\u201d.<\/p>\n
So, back to my initial point:\u00a0 there may be value in the free migration being offered by Microsoft and if you fit within the parameters then you should take advantage of the offer.\u00a0 But if you know you have a complex or \u201cweird\u201d environment or if you are looking for more than just an email migration (as in you want SharePoint, too) or if you just don\u2019t know then you should still look at working with a Microsoft partner that knows the \u201cropes\u201d.\u00a0 They should be able to advise you on the options including the free migration from Microsoft if you are a fit.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth it to do the groundwork as there is nothing like messing up a Cloud migration to truly sour your day \u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"