Complete and Comprehensive Guide to Exchange to Office 365 Migration

by Shoviv Software Email Data Recovery and Conversion Tool

Companies and organizations all over the world have reached a significant turn in the road in the current cloud-driven business landscape. They must choose whether to keep their IT infrastructure on-premise in-house servers or migrate to a cloud-based platform such as Office 365.

Even while many businesses have on-premise data, communications, and email management systems, shifting to a cloud-based platform has shown to be a simpler, more user-friendly, and ultimately more lucrative option for many businesses, regardless of size or industry.

It can be hard to know which procedures to take and in what order if you're planning an Exchange to Office 365 migration. We'll walk you through the stages and decisions you'll face while moving to Exchange Online in the Office 365 cloud in this guide.

Reason for Exchange to Office 365 migration

Many businesses are debating why they should transition to Office 365 and whether it is the right decision for them. Migration to Office 365 is a difficult undertaking, but it has numerous advantages for the following reasons:

Cost certainty from the start
Keeps your company flexible
Improves internal communication
Increases staff productivity
It makes IT operations more efficient

Now, we’ll look upon various steps for Exchange to Office 365 migration.

Steps to migrate from Exchange to Office 365

Step:1 Verify the domain

The first step is to add the domain to your Office or Microsoft 365 tenant and verify it. The on-premises domain must be established and validated before you can start the migration process, as you will need to create email addresses for your users in the Office 365 environment.

Use your Microsoft account to log into Office or Microsoft 365.
Then, select Domains from the Settings menu.
To begin the domain wizard, go to the Domains page and select Add domain.
Click Next after entering the domain name for your on-premises Exchange business.
For domain verification, choose TXT record. The TXT record is frequently required to confirm ownership.
Wait about 15 minutes after adding your TXT before moving on to the next stage.
Click Done and then Verify Now in the Office 365 domain wizard, and after that, you will sent to a verification screen.
Then, select I will take care of my DNS records next. Do not go to the domain wizard's following step.

Step 2: Then start the minimal migration

To begin the migration, sign in to your Office or Microsoft 365 account on a computer that is domain-joined to your on-premises company using global admin credentials. Then, initiate the Exchange Hybrid Configuration Wizard on the Data migration page of the Microsoft 365 admin center once you get signed in.

Go to Setup and then Data migration in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Select the Exchange under Select your data service on the Data Migration page.
You can download and execute the Office or Microsoft 365 Hybrid Configuration Wizard by selecting the Download program.
A welcome screen appears on the first Hybrid Configuration Wizard page. Then click on Next.
Leave the default options on the On-premises Exchange Server Organization page and click Next. The wizard connects to Exchange Server by default.
Then you need to mention your credentials for both Exchange On-premises and Exchange Online on the Credentials page. To verify these credentials, click Next.
Select Minimal Hybrid Configuration from the Hybrid Features page and click Next.

Step 3: Assign Office 365 licenses to the user

After Azure AD Connect has synchronized your user's passwords with Office 365, you'll need to grant Office 365 licenses to your users so that they may get allocated cloud mailboxes to which their on-premises mailbox data will get moved. Visit to Users in the admin-center and choose Active Users. Assign your users licenses.

Step 4: Start migration of user mailboxes

After assigning licenses to your users, you can begin moving mailboxes by going to the Data migration page.

Take the following steps:

Select Setup > Data Migration from the drop-down menu. Select Exchange.

Select the users whose mailboxes you want to move on the Data migration screen, then click Start migration.

The migration status will get displayed on the Data migration page as it progresses.

The manual method holds a completion and requires a user to be technically skilled to perform Exchange to Office 365 migration. Users can look for professional third-party migration tools to simplify the migration task.

Professional approach to migrate Exchange to Office 365

The simplest way to get around these constraints is to utilize a dependable and secure third-party software like Shoviv Office 365 migration tool. This tool is automated, simple, quick, and effective. It's a fantastic tool for exporting Exchange mailboxes to Office 365 directly.

This software allows you to extract Exchange mailbox data such as attachments, contacts, emails, notes, calendars, tasks, and to-do lists fast and easily. The software has a user-friendly interface that makes Exchange to Office 365 migration simple for everyone.

This software can immediately retrieve both private and public EDB files.
Source mailboxes can be migrated to the PST format using the software.
It has a powerful Incremental Export/Backup functionality.
It allows you to map source and target folders both automatically and manually.
This software provides a message class and item date-based filtering option.
This software comes with the feature to search out source mailbox files instantly according to criteria.
The tool is compatible with all versions of the Windows operating and Exchange Server.
The first 50 items/folders from Exchange to Office 365 can get converted using its free trial version.

Conclusion

You can begin the migration after you have received all of the necessary information about the Exchange to Office 365 migration. However, you should be aware that it is not a simple procedure, and you can expect numerous hurdles, risks, and setbacks along the way. You may make the conversion easier with the help of a professional Office 365 migration tool.