In today’s technologically advanced environment, many businesses find themselves needing to switch their Office 365 tenants for various reasons like mergers and acquisitions or company rebranding. The concept of migrating from one Office 365 tenant to another may seem complex, but with the right steps and strategy, it can be a smooth and efficient process. In this blog post, we will see some best practices to perform Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration.
Best Practices for Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration
Follow the below mentioned practices for hassle free migration between two Microsoft Office 365 Tenants.
Establish a Migration Plan
Like any significant IT operation, you need to start an Office 365 Tenant to Tenant migration process with a detailed plan.
- Identify which data and services need to be migrated (e.g., Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Teams).
- Develop a feasible timeline for the migration.
- Mitigate potential downtime risks.
Prepare the Source and Target Tenants
To prevent potential issues, you need to prepare both source and target tenants.
- Set up user accounts in the target tenant.
- Secure licenses for the users in the target tenant.
- Ensure the target tenant is ready to accept the migrated data.
Execute Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration
This is a critical step and involves transferring the actual data.
- Use Microsoft’s native tools or opt for a specialized third-party tool.
- Be cautious of data loss issues that can occur during the migration, always have a backup.
- For emails, contacts, and calendar items, use the Office 365 Exchange Migration tool. You can check out this guide on tenant to tenant migration for detailed manual procedure.
- For SharePoint Online and OneDrive, consider using the SharePoint Migration tool.
- For Teams, consider Office 365 Group to Group Migration.
Note: Manual migration process requires cross-tenant user data migration license. It needs to apply either on the source user mailbox or target user mailbox. Contact Microsoft 365 support for more information about the cross-tenant user data migration license.
Post-Migration Actions
Once the data migration is completed, there are post-migration actions that you should take.
- After migration, run a thorough verification check to ensure all data has migrated correctly.
- Update the DNS records.
- Instruct users about the changes and provide new access details.
Decommission the Old Tenant
This is the final step in the process.
- After successful migration and validation, you can begin to decommission the old tenant.
- Provide sufficient time buffer before completely deleting the old tenant. It can act as a backup in case some data retrieval is required.
Conclusion
Tenant to Tenant migration could appear as a daunting task and might require dedicated effort and resources. However, meticulous planning, strategy, and using the right migration tools can make the process hassle-free. The five-step approach outlined here is a guide to achieve that. While native tools provided by Microsoft can help in the process, depending on the complexity of your migration, a third-party tenant to Tenant Migration services might be worth considering.
Remember, the vital aspect of any migration process is to ensure zero data loss. Therefore, pay utmost attention to the integrity of your data throughout the migration process, and don’t skip on post-migration verification. Happy migrating!
Also read about migrate from Google Workspace to Office 365 for manual process on migration of mailboxes from Google Workspace (G Suite) to Microsoft Office 365.