Actionable Insights to Plan a Large-Scale Microsoft 365 Migration

Planning a large-scale migration to Microsoft 365 requires a focused approach in structuring every aspect of the migration project. If you are representing a large-sized enterprise, your IT team must focus on security as well as other crucial aspects such as replication of the source cloud environment, performance capabilities of the migration tool, and more.

In this post, take a deep dive into understanding the intricacies of planning a large-scale migration to Microsoft 365.

Perform Pre-Migration Analysis of the Source Clouds to Migrate

In many cases, large-scale migrations to Microsoft 365 often translate into moving away from multiple source clouds. For example, an organization may plan to move from Box storage to OneDrive and SharePoint Online as well as other apps used in tandem, such as email service, chat app, and more.

Understand the collaboration structure of each source cloud and finalize the users, their permission levels, and collaboration with external users. The more in-depth the pre-migration assessment, the more insights your IT team can gain, which, in turn, helps prepare a well-informed scope of work.

Prepare an Extensive Scope of Work

If your organization is planning to migrate to Microsoft 365 from multiple source clouds, then it’s critical to plan the scope of work for each source cloud. Use the insights from the pre-migration analysis your IT team has conducted and finalize the users' accounts, data, chat messages, mailboxes, and other data to be migrated accordingly.

Approach the scope of work planning phase for each source cloud with a high level of granularity to ensure your organization does not under or over migrate. For example, if your organization is using Slack as a communication platform and plans to move away from it, have a clear picture of the direct messages, group messages, channels, memberships, and message features to migrate to Microsoft Teams.

Ensure Proper Conversion of Exclusive File Types

Many businesses overlook the importance of ensuring proper conversion of specific types of files during the migration. Make sure your IT team does not miss out on prioritizing this aspect, which, otherwise, can raise the risk of incompatibility issues.

For example, when migrating from Dropbox to OneDrive and SharePoint Online, ensure proper conversion of Dropbox Paper files into formats such as .docx that Microsoft 365 supports. Accurate file format conversion plays a profound role in lowering the risk of user impact post-migration.

Perform a One-time Migration of Every Batch and Validate Them

Segregating the total user accounts into several migration batches is the way to go when planning a large-scale migration to Microsoft 365. With this approach, your IT team can:

• Simplify the process of mapping user accounts with specific paths
• Lowering the risk of overusing API calls which, otherwise, can result in API throttling
• Simplify the process of validating the migrated users and data

Have a Proper User Training and Onboarding Plan

It is equally important to have a proper strategy around training and onboarding users to Microsoft 365 post-migration. The best approach is to evangelize about the transition and the benefits that Microsoft 365 offers. Start training the end-users to use Microsoft 365 apps from early on so that they do not have to play catch up post-migration which also can impact operations continuity.

With CloudFuze as the migration partner, your organization can plan and perform large and complex migrations to Microsoft 365 from a wide range of clouds. With their expertise in managed migrations, your IT team can avoid the heavy lifting involved in strategizing, performing, and validating Microsoft 365 migrations of large scales.