It comes by no surprise with the exponential rate businesses are moving to the cloud that Office 365 is the fastest growing product in Microsoft's history. Core productivity of the cloud offers possibilities of enhanced business agility, real-time communications, functionality and most importantly- cost savings.
As Windows Server 2003 hits its end of life next year, migrating to Office 365 will become crucial. The process for this can come by a bit complex, so it is vital to execute careful planning. With years of experience under our belt, here are our top 8 things to do in order to secure a safe migration.
1.Plan ahead to ensure you get what you expect
Make sure to know what are you looking for, whether it be a collaborative environment for employees or equal functionality from cloud apps and on premise equivalents.
Take for example: If you are a heavy SharePoint User to the extent that you have built custom integrated environments around it, please note that Microsoft discourages customization during transition.
2.Determine what licensing options are most appropriate for your business
You will need to consider the differences in licensing options. Office 365 licensing options differ significantly from on-premises Office 2013, SharePoint, Lync, and Microsoft Exchange implementations.
Please note that while each Office 365 licensing plan excludes Exchange Online and SharePoint Online as core individual services, Project Online is a separate add-on service, and Yammer Enterprise is missing from a number of configurations.
Another important factor to consider is the financial implications when choosing your migration route. The transition approach is generally intended for organizations looking to change their Enterprise Agreement to a user-based license model, while the simpler Add-ons approach enable organizations to continue to pay for existing on premise license and pay an additional fee to access Office 365 (Up to 24% increase on fee).
3.Ready your infrastructure
Make sure to assess the hardware and software infrastructure changes you'll need in place to ensure a smooth transition and optimize all of your systems ahead of time. At a minimum, Office 365 requires Azure Active Director, Azure AD Directory Synchronization appliance (DirSync) and Active Directory Federation services (AD FS) to be deployed. There is also SQL Service if you have larger directories, and, if you have more than one Active Directory forest or want to sync with an additional LDAP directory, factor in a custom deployment of Forefront Identity Manager 2010 R2 (FIM). Lastly, make sure all of your software is up to date.
4.Choose your identity management model
You will need to figure out how to manage one single password across multiple channels. There are three models to choose from; take the time to understand them and what each model entails to your rollout and your business.
The reality is that most business will want real-time single-sign on authentication (Integrated Windows Authentication), support for a complex directory infrastructure, and/or require more advanced compliance reporting capabilities. So federation is probably where you're going to end up. You will then need to determine whether to go the Microsoft route or the third-party route through a cloud based Identity Access Management (AM) vendors. These vendors are increasingly referred to as Identity as a Service (IDaaS) vendors.
5. Don’t forget the data protection piece
Remember to take note of roles and responsibilities during and after the migration. Take an inventory of user profiles and map them to roles, then categorize the role each user has, the sensitivity of the information and applications they have access to, and whether that user is able to access that information from outside the firewall and/or using a mobile device. Determine the frequency of synchronization you need for provisioning and de-provisioning users as well- for some users, daily synchronization will be fine, but for others, real-time will be essential.
6. Identify any outside assistance you may need
As you consider options for managing your migration, make sure you have vendor expertise as part of your deployment planning. You may need assistance with reconfiguring custom integration around SharePoint if you have significant investments in that area. Map out critical paths and look for holes you may not be able to fill with current resources.
7.Communicate the benefits of the Office 365 rollout early and often
Change will be challenging and you should expect to encounter users who are resistant to change. Make sure to communicate the benefits of cloud migration to your users. Offer drop-in sessions to talk though change anxieties. Make video demonstrations, and lunch and learns.
8.Track and validate the success of your cloud migration
Have monitoring tools to help track, monitor and analyze the benefits the company is accruing from the move to cloud. You may use the same tools to measure the user experience- something that should prove particularly valuable as you move from pilot groups to wider deployment. Encourage users to give you feedback.
And there you have it, our top 8 tips on how to secure a safe migration! Like/Tweet/ Share to let us know if you found this useful or have any further questions!