A growing number of companies are making the jump to Microsoft Office 365 (O365). This is because O365 is more than just Microsoft Office in the cloud— it offers benefits that allow businesses to grow, improve productivity, and save on operating costs. However, not every organization is ready to migrate all at once. Fortunately, when you work with a managed service provider (MSP) like Stability Networks, there are different office 365 migration options that allow you to migrate the way that works best for your company.
Office 365 Migration Options
There are multiple ways to migrate to O365. Three plans in particular are the most popular routes. These office 365 options include staged, cutover, and hybrid. Before we get too deep into these topics, however, first you have to know what O365 is and why businesses choose to migrate.
What is Office 365?
Microsoft Office 365 is a suite of cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools that integrates Microsoft’s applications—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more—into a cloud service. It allows for better communication, accessibility, and productivity. While migrating to a cloud infrastructure like O365 can be a big step for a business, its robust tools and benefits enhance success by making your company more effective.
Why Migrate to Office 365?
Migrating to Microsoft Office 365 can be a difficult process for any business, so why do businesses decide to make the switch? While transitioning can be difficult, it allows a business to revamp its infrastructure. It also provides many benefits like:
- Support and Maintenance: Since O365 is based in the cloud offsite, support and maintenance are taken care of for you. This allows you to minimize your own organization’s support and maintenance efforts, which can lead to lower operational costs.
- Extended Cloud: Whether your employees are in the office, at home, or in another part of the world, they will have the freedom to work from anywhere and on their device of choice. The only thing necessary is an internet connection.
- Improved Collaboration: Communication plays a large part in any business. O365 gives your team access to a variety of helpful collaboration tools like shared team sites, chats, video conferencing, and more.
Cutover Migration Office 365
By definition, the word “cutover” means the rapid transition from one phase of a business to another. As the word suggests, cutover migration is the process where your company’s mailboxes, contacts, and calendars between Microsoft Exchange servers are transitioned to the new cloud platform without hesitation. It usually takes several days to finish.
Staged Migration Office 365
Migrating to O365 doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing endeavor. If you think it would be best for your business to take a more gradual approach, there is staged migration. With staged migration, moving users and mailboxes can be done in batches over an extended period of time.
Hybrid Migration Office 365
Hybrid migration is a process used to address hybrid environments— environments that utilize both on-premise and cloud-based solutions. When you take this migration route, your on-premises Exchange server will be synced with Office 365. This means that some of your data will be stored within your local server and the rest will be stored in the cloud.
Office 365 Staged Migration vs Cutover
Which type of migration process you chose should be dependent on your business needs. A cutover migration is the simplest version of migration where data will be sent over all at once. This may lead to a period of downtime. Staged migration, however, minimizes downtime. As a result, staged tends to be a better option for medium-to-large enterprises that have a high volume of data or businesses that operate 24/7.
Office 365 Staged Migration vs, Hybrid
Like staged migration, hybrid migration allows a business to gradually move its data to the cloud over a determined period of time. Both are great options for organizations that possess a vast amount of data. However, the hybrid method may require a few extra steps the other doesn’t.
Make the Transfer to O365 Easy
When you work with Stability Networks, cloud migration is simple. We’re equipped to manage several types of O365 migration. We’ll use our knowledge and experience to figure out the right O365 migration plan for your business.
Contact us today to learn more about our services.
