Questions You Should Ask Before Migrating to Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 incorporates amazing applications and offers many benefits. With low pay-for-what-you-use costs and better security through its cloud computing exchange, small and medium businesses are considering Microsoft 365 as their solutions suite. If you are thinking about migrating your current email solution to Microsoft 365, you should consider the following questions.
What is your current email solution?
Most organizations today use Outlook as their email solution. Knowing what email service you use will determine what options you have for migrating.
Are you using Office 2010 or Newer?
Older versions of Microsoft Office may need to be upgraded before migrating. Any version before Office 2007 will not connect to Microsoft 365 for data migration. Office 2007 can still be migrated but there may be issues with transferring data, resulting in loss, and issues with the calendar. Office 2010 and newer versions are most compatible with Microsoft 365.
Do you have access to your DNS records?
When you migrate to Microsoft 365 you will need access to your Domain Name System (DNS) records to prove you own your domain and to direct emails to your new mailboxes. This is a fairly simple and quick step but without access to your DNS, this can cause issues with time in the migration process and it will continue to send emails to your old non-existent server.
Are your applications or devices relaying through your current email solution?
It’s important to perform an inventory of applications and devices, such as scanners and printers, that are relaying information and emails to your current email solution. When you migrate to Microsoft 365, you will need to have a plan in place to direct all applications and devices to the new cloud server.
Is there a password policy?
Even though it is highly suggested to use long and complex passwords, your staff most likely uses simple passwords with your current on-site email solution. Once you migrate to Microsoft 365, your emails and information may be more exposed as it will be accessible over the internet. However, Microsoft 365 requires passwords to contain at least 8 characters long with a mix of upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. With default settings, Microsoft 365 will prompt you to change your password every 90 days as well, implementing an excellent password policy.
Will losing files or functions be problematic?
Certain files and functions you may have in place with your current email solution may not be carried over to Microsoft 365. Autocomplete files, signatures, personal storage files, and functions may disappear causing you to recreate them when you migrate to the new email solution. It is important to account for these items in your migration plan. It may be simple to recreate them when the migration process is over, or it may require some extra time and extra work.
Does your company rely on calendar sharing?
Calendar sharing is an excellent feature most organizations often use. If your company relies on calendar sharing, you may encounter some issues when migrating to Microsoft 365. Some permissions may not transfer over. You should map out the way you currently have everything set up in case you have to reset them in the new email solution.
Is there an antivirus/anti-spam gateway currently in place?
Microsoft 365 comes with an antivirus/anti-spam solution. If you have a gateway in place with your current solution, along with any whitelists or blacklists you have built up over the years, you should start thinking about how to migrate these. You may want to consider allowing Microsoft 365’s solution to keep your email safe.
Would you like to implement new features?
Upgrading and migrating to Microsoft 365 will allow you to audit your current email solution. This will allow you a great opportunity to take advantage of adding new features and security measures that Microsoft 365 has to offer. You will be able to implement new features such as encryption, data loss prevention, email archiving, and so much more.
Our experts at ExcalTech are here to help you answer all these questions and more. We are a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider and we have completed hundreds of migrations to Microsoft 365 for many of our clients. If you would like to migrate your current solution to Microsoft 365, we can do this with you. Reach out to us today by calling (833) EXCALTECH or send an email to sales@excaltech.com.
