Three things you will take away from the session:
• How to run an effective tenant-to-tenant migration
• Best practices for before, during, and after migration
• Tips for using migration as a springboard to prepare for Copilot in Microsoft 365
Main ideas:
Migration Overview: The presentation covers the current reality of cross-tenant migrations, the triggers, phases, best practices, and benefits of a successful tenant migration
Considerations: When considering a migration, it is important to consider the migration scope, performance, customization, flexibility, user-friendly interface, automation, monitoring, support, training, scalability, data integrity, data security, cost, and licensing structure
Next Wave: The next wave of change includes the launch of Copilot, which requires businesses to be prepared for upcoming changes related to Copilot and the cloud, and to consolidate data and tighten governance
ShareGate: ShareGate can help with pre-migration analysis, configurable migration tool, and automated, end-user driven collaborative governance
3. The next
wave of
change
Things to
consider for
a migration
Cross-tenant
migrations
The current
reality
What we’ll cover:
Overvie
w
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
3
5. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE CURRENT REALITY
The state of
cross-tenant
migration
5
• Relevancy of cloud and Microsoft 365 tenant-to-
tenant migrations
• Preparation for Copilot launch
• Increase in collaboration through Microsoft 365 tools
• Dynamic business world of mergers,
acquisitions, divestitures, and reorganizations
• Organizational and individual benefits
7. IT hosting costs
go toward the
cloud by 2024
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE CURRENT REALITY
Industry stat
7
80
Source: McKinsey & Company (2021)
8. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE CURRENT REALITY
The state of
Microsoft
365 Copilot
8
• Adoption of Copilot for Microsoft 365 by organizations
• Challenges related to deploying Copilot
• Potential sprawl associated with the explosion of content
creation stemming from access to Copilot
9. %
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE CURRENT REALITY
ShareGate’s survey
respondents are planning on
deploying M365 Copilot in
2024-2025
68
%
20
%
80
Stats:
9
Enterprises
will incorporate
generative AI by
2026, up from less
than 5% in 2023
ShareGate’s survey
respondents are in the pilot
phase of M365 Copilot
Source: ShareGate (2024)
Source: Gartner, Inc. (2023)
11. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
The triggers
11
• Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
• Corporate restructuring and reorganization
• Data security and compliance
• Optimization of resources and cost savings
• Streamlining collaboration and productivity
• Standardizing IT processes and policies
• Scalability and flexibility
• Optimize Copilot’s efficiency
12. Phases of tenant-to-tenant migration
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
12
Pre-migration Migration Post-migration
Plan, assess,
and inventory data
Set up the target tenant
Prepare the source and
target
Configure your domain
Pre-stage your
mailboxes (for larger
migrations)
Migrate your data based
on your migration approach
Update user accounts
Reconfigure applications
and integrations
Communicate with and
train users
Finalize the
migration
Conduct post-migration
testing
Clean up old tenant (if
necessary)
Provide ongoing support
and troubleshooting
13. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
Pre-migration
13
• Plan, assess and inventory data
• Set up the target tenant
• Prepare the source and target
• Configure your domain
• Pre-stage your mailboxes
14. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
Pre-migration
Best practices
14
Meticulously inventory your data during pre-
migration planning
Evaluate multiple tenant migration tools
Add buffer time to your migration timeline for
inventory overlooked during pre-migration
Choose the right migration approach
Clean up your data before you migrate it
15. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
Migration
15
• Migrate your data based on your migration
approach
• Update user accounts
• Reconfigure applications and integrations
• Communicate with and train users
• Finalize the migration
16. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
Migration
Best practices
16
Migrate identity data first
Pre-instantiate users to avoid business
disruptions
Understand the compliance aspects of
your cross-tenant migration
17. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
Post-migration
17
• Conduct post-migration testing
• Clean up the old tenant (if necessary)
• Provide ongoing support and
troubleshooting
• Think about your governance strategy
18. Benefits of a successful tenant migration
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
CROSS-TENANT MIGRATIONS
18
• Enhanced collaboration and productivity
• Optimized resource utilization
• Streamlined governance and
management
• Seamless user experience
• Scalability and future readiness
• Improved data management and
retention
• Enhanced collaboration with external
partners
• Simplified IT support and training
• Enhanced Copilot efficiency
20. • Migration scope
• Performance
• Customization and flexibility
• User-friendly interface
• Automation and monitoring
• Support and training
• Scalability
• Data integrity
• Data security
• Cost and licensing structure
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR A
MIGRATION
What really matters in the end
Choosing the right migration tool
20
21. Expertise and experience
Access to specialized tools
Reduced downtime
Data security and compliance
Scalability
Proactive support
Cost
Dependency on third-party
Alignment with business
objectives
Data privacy concerns
Communication and collaboration
Benefits
Working with a service
provider
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THINGS TO CONSIDER FOR A
MIGRATION
21
Challenges
22. The next wave
of change
S E C T I O N
4
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
22
23. • Adopting to the latest technology can lead to
improved productivity and collaboration
• Change is constant and businesses need to be
prepared for upcoming changes related to Copilot and
the cloud
• Consolidating data and tightening governance is
ever more important with the launch of Copilot
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE NEXT WAVE OF CHANGE
Enter Copilot
23
24. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE NEXT WAVE OF CHANGE
24
Preparing for Copilot
success through
migration
Validate access and permission
Data consolidation
Content management and
archiving
Teams lifecycle management
25. Pre-migration
• Analyze your environments,
cleanup your source
Migration
• Configurable migration tool
to modernize and restructure
as you go
Post-migration
• Automated, end-user driven
collaborative governance
How ShareGate
can help
MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE NEXT WAVE OF CHANGE
25
26. MICROSOFT 365 CONFERENCE 2024
THE NEXT WAVE OF CHANGE
• Mailbox migration
• OneDrive for Business
external sharing reviews (coming soon)
What’s new
26
State of things
Before, during and after migration considerations, steps and best practices
Tools and partnerships
AI
Cloud and Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant migrations have become increasingly relevant with the growth of the cloud. Our client data shows a significant increase in these migrations over the last three years. This trend is expected to continue, with most companies investing heavily in cloud IT hosting by 2024. Tenant-to-tenant migrations can help organizations maintain secure and organized Microsoft 365 environments, even amid constant business changes like mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and reorganizations. Using third-party tools like ShareGate can further simplify the migration process and ensure business continuity.
Source for "Most companies expect to have $8 out of every $10 for IT hosting go toward the cloud by 2024": Kinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/cloud-migration-opportunity-business-value-grows-but-missteps-abound
Microsoft 365 Copilot, the intelligent workspace assistant, helps teams work smarter and more efficiently than ever before. Its potential to unlock value for organizations is enormous. However, the adoption of Copilot can be a challenge in itself. Deploying Copilot effectively requires careful planning and preparation, as well as a solid understanding of your existing information architecture. Organizations also need to be aware of the potential for sprawl, as the explosion of content creation stemming from access to Copilot can quickly spiral out of control. Despite these challenges, the benefits of Copilot are clear: greater productivity, better alignment, and faster time-to-market.
Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A): M&A often result in multiple Microsoft 365 tenants. Consolidating these into a single tenant enhances collaboration, streamlines license management, and reduces administrative overhead.
Corporate Restructuring and Reorganization: During restructuring or reorganization, merging multiple tenants into one can help eliminate redundancies, streamline processes, and realign teams, resources, and communication channels.
Data Security and Compliance: Consolidating tenants centralizes control over security policies, data access, and compliance measures. This simplifies audits, monitoring, and enforcement of security protocols.
Optimization of Resources and Cost Savings: Consolidation can optimize license allocation, eliminate redundant subscriptions, and enable better licensing agreements with Microsoft, leading to significant cost savings.
Streamlining Collaboration and Productivity: A unified tenant can foster better communication, data sharing, and teamwork across the organization, driving productivity and innovation.
Standardizing IT Processes and Policies: Migrating to a single tenant allows standardization of IT processes, security measures, and governance policies, improving management and support capabilities.
Scalability and Flexibility: For rapidly growing companies, migrating to a new, scalable tenant accommodates an increasing number of users, applications, and data while maintaining optimal performance.
Optimize Copilot’s Efficiency: Integrating multiple tenants into a single, streamlined environment significantly enhances Copilot’s ability to provide intelligent and context-aware assistance. This consolidation leads to a unified data landscape, which Copilot can leverage to deliver more accurate results. By optimizing Copilot’s efficiency, organizations can ensure that their teams are supported by a robust AI that is fully aligned with their operational dynamics and can scale with their evolving business needs.”
A tenant-to-tenant migration project has three key phases: pre-migration, execution, and post-migration. The pre-migration phase involves inventorying, planning and identity migration. The execution phase focuses on data migration. Post-migration encompasses user account updates, reconfigurations, and user communication.
Step 1: Pre-migration planning and assessment
Conduct a thorough inventory of data, users, and resources in the source tenant.
Identify any custom configurations, domain settings, and third-party integrations.
Determine the criticality of data and plan for data clean-up or archiving if necessary.
Analyze the number of users, mailboxes, and data volume to choose the appropriate migration approach.
Decide on the domain migration process – I.e. will you start releasing the domain to move it to the target tenant or configure some sort of co-existence (“domain sharing”) or leverage 3rd party tools?
Communicate to users about planned migration and notify about possible outages, support plan and training options further down the road.
Step 2: Set up your target tenant
Create the target Microsoft 365 tenant (if it doesn’t already exist).
Configure the necessary settings, security, and domains in the target tenant.
Identity migration – provision user accounts in the target tenant, usually in disabled state, as you want to avoid having to deal with multiple accounts.
Step 3: Prepare source and target tenants
Set up proper permissions and administrative access in both source and target tenants for migration.
Step 4: Domain configuration
Confirm all domain settings and, if needed, update DNS settings to ensure proper domain verification and mail flow during migration. (Steps may vary depending on if you’re using a third-party tool or have set up co-existence etc.)
Step 5: Mailbox pre-stage (for larger migrations)
Pre-stage mailboxes in the target tenant to reduce the impact on end-users during the final migration.
Meticulously Inventory Your Data: Understand the total number of individual items rather than just the storage size to estimate migration time accurately.
Evaluate Multiple Tenant Migration Tools: Choose a tool that caters to all your needs; different tools have different strengths. SPMT doesn’t currently support tenant-to-tenant SP migration (public preview)
Add Buffer Time for Overlooked Inventory: Allocate extra time in your migration timeline for items missed during the pre-migration inventory.
Choose the Right Migration Approach: Select an approach based on your pre-migration inventory and organizational needs.
Clean Up Your Data Before Migration: Organize and clean your data before migrating to avoid clutter and ensure a smooth migration process.
Step 6: Data migration
Use a reliable third-party migration tool or Microsoft's native migration methods (e.g., Exchange Online PowerShell, SharePoint Migration Tool, etc.) to migrate data between tenants.
Migrate mailboxes, calendars, contacts, and other data based on the chosen migration strategy (e.g., staggered or bulk migration).
After migration, verify the data integrity in the target tenant to ensure all information is transferred correctly.
Step 7: Update user accounts
Change user UPNs (User Principal Names) to match the target domain to facilitate a smooth login experience.
Step 8: Reconfigure applications and integrations
Update any third-party applications or integrations to work with the new target tenant's settings.
Step 9: User communication and training
Inform users about the migration process, potential changes, and any required actions on their part.
Provide training or assistance on using the new Office 365 environment.
Step 10: Finalize migration
Complete the migration process, ensuring that all data is successfully migrated and verified.
Best Practice: Pre-instantiate Users to Avoid Business Disruptions
Pre-instantiate users in the target tenant when using a rapid switch migration approach, then switch those users over at a predefined time.
This approach is useful when moving user identities but be careful not to switch over everything before all other workloads have been migrated into the target tenant.
Pre-instantiation means setting up user accounts in the new tenant before moving data, ensuring each piece of data already has an owner in the new tenant, which can help ensure a smoother transition and maintain proper access controls and permissions.
Best Practice: Understand the Compliance Aspects of Your Cross-Tenant Migration
Do not underestimate the compliance aspects of a tenant-to-tenant migration.
Compliance needs might require you to move or retain prolonged access to data in the original tenant, including files protected by sensitivity labels/Information Rights Management (IRM).
Neglecting this can risk breaking compliance requirements or losing access to the protected data. Never assume that things will “just work”.
Post-migration testing
Conduct post-migration testing to ensure that all systems, applications, and services are functioning as expected.
Clean up old tenant (if necessary)
Once migration is confirmed successful, decommission the old tenant or perform any necessary cleanup tasks.
Ongoing support and monitoring
Provide ongoing support to users in the new tenant and monitor the system for any issues.
Enhanced Collaboration and Productivity: Tenant consolidation streamlines communication, data sharing, and collaboration across your organization, driving productivity and fostering a culture of collaboration.
Optimized Resource Utilization: Migrating to a single tenant optimizes resource allocation, leading to cost savings and improved license management.
Centralized Security and Compliance: A unified tenant allows for consistent security protocols, ensuring data protection and compliance with industry regulations.
Streamlined Governance and Management: The migration process provides an opportunity to standardize IT governance and management processes across the organization.
Seamless User Experience: A single tenant environment offers a seamless user experience, enhancing user satisfaction and reducing the need for additional training.
Scalability and Future Readiness: Migrating to a new, scalable tenant prepares your organization for future growth and technological advancements.
Improved Data Management and Retention: Tenant consolidation enables the implementation of consistent data management and retention policies.
Enhanced Collaboration with External Partners: A single tenant environment facilitates seamless collaboration with external partners, vendors, and clients.
Simplified IT Support and Training: A unified Microsoft 365 environment reduces the complexity of IT support and training.
Enhanced Copilot efficiency: The consolidation, restructuring and cleanup stemming from a successful migration project leads to increased efficiency when leveraging Copilot
Migration Scope: Choose a tool that supports comprehensive migration, including mailboxes, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams data. Be aware of tools with limitations on the types of data they can migrate.
Performance: Opt for a tool with high-speed data transfer and scalability for large-scale migrations. Be mindful of tools that may experience performance issues or throttling during migration.
Customization and Flexibility: Select a tool that offers advanced customization options to tailor the migration process according to specific organizational needs. Some tools may have limited flexibility.
User-friendly Interface: Prioritize tools with an intuitive and user-friendly interface for easy migration planning and execution. Complex tools with steep learning curves may require additional training.
Data Security: Ensure the migration tool provides robust data security features, including encryption and compliance measures. Tools with inadequate data security features may expose data to potential risks.
Cost and Licensing Structure: Evaluate the total cost of ownership and licensing structure of the tool to align with the organization’s budget. Some tools may have higher initial investment or ongoing licensing costs.
Support and Training: Look for tools with comprehensive technical support and training resources. Lack of adequate support may result in challenges or delays during the migration process.
Automation and Monitoring: Consider tools with automation capabilities to streamline migration processes and real-time monitoring for tracking progress. Limited automation features may result in manual intervention and slower migration times.
Scalability: Select a tool that can handle migrations of varying sizes, from small organizations to large enterprises. Some tools may not scale well, leading to inefficiencies for larger migration projects.
Data Integrity: Prioritize tools with data integrity checks and validation to ensure that all information is accurately transferred. Inadequate data integrity features may result in data loss or corruption during migration.
Benefits of Using Service Providers:
Expertise and Experience: Ensures a well-structured migration plan and minimizes risk of data loss or disruptions.
Specialized Tools: Automates and simplifies the migration process, ensuring efficiency and accuracy.
Reduced Downtime: Minimizes downtime during the transition, maintaining productivity.
Data Security and Compliance: Prioritizes data security and compliance throughout the migration journey.
Scalability: Accommodates different migration sizes and complexities.
Proactive Support: Offers ongoing support and monitoring during and after the migration.
Challenges of Using Service Providers:
Cost: Migration comes with a financial cost. Evaluate potential budget constraints and determine if the benefits outweigh the expenses.
Dependency on Third-Party: Trusting an external entity with critical migration tasks. Choose reputable and reliable service providers to avoid potential risks.
Alignment with Business Objectives: Ensure that the chosen service provider understands your organization’s business objectives and aligns the migration strategy accordingly.
Data Privacy Concerns: Address concerns related to data privacy and data access when working with a service provider.
Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration are essential for a successful migration. Lack of proper communication can lead to misunderstandings and delays.
The technology landscape is constantly evolving. Copilot is the latest tool that businesses need to embrace to stay ahead of the competition. By adopting the latest technology, companies can improve productivity and collaboration. The cloud is the future of IT, and businesses need to be prepared for the changes that are coming.
Validate access and permission: by migrating content to the right place with the right permissions ensures that the right people have access to the right data. It allows Copilot to be more effective in managing content and improving collaboration.
Content management and archiving: archiving obsolete content during migration helps ensure the accuracy of Copilot when asked to resurface relevant content
Data consolidation
Teams lifecycle management