Making the Move to Microsoft Office 365

[Pages:12]Making the Move

to Microsoft

Office 365

Migrating with minimal hassle and maximum reward.

Introduction

O ffice 365 is Microsoft's productivity and email software suite delivered through cloud technology. With this shift to cloud delivery, Office 365 dramatically simplifies IT administration while delivering familiar Office programs with more collaborative capabilities and maximized user access.

Why Migrate?

Agility

Managing hardware lifecycles, software upgrades, and networking architectures for on-premise IT infrastructure is challenging for many organizations. Having such IT administration in-house has traditionally been an operational inefficiency that does not translate to a competitive advantage for many small- and mediumsized organizations. Because Office 365 utilizes cloud technology, IT infrastructure related to Office and Exchange is managed from Microsoft data centers.

Ease of Administration

With fully installed Office applications, documents are saved locally on users' personal computers. With Office 365, documents are stored in Microsoft's cloud, OneDrive. This gives total and complete visibility of who can access what files at what time. Office 365 puts an organization's privacy and security controls at a system administrator's fingertips in real-time.

Data Protection and Security

Office 365 is equipped with built-in Microsoft data protection technologies. Unlike other cloud productivity suites, which mine your business data, Office 365 has end-to-end data encryption via Microsoft's servers and is never mined for advertising purposes. Additionally, Microsoft stores off-site backups of Office 365 data in its cloud, simplifying organizations' disaster recovery plans.

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Simple Software Delivery

Office 365 includes an auto-update system that provides users with the latest version of the software. Instead of requiring system administrators to manage updates manually on end users' personal computers, Office 365 automatically schedules updates in the background. Office 365 also uses an agile release cadence to release features and security updates on a frequent basis, allowing users to take advantage of the latest and greatest software features and security updates and to maximize productivity.

Connectivity and Collaboration

Office 365 supports today's requirement for collaborative and connected organization operations. Each plan provides 1TB per user of OneDrive storage space. Users within an organization can share files and collaborate on documents with other users, both internal and external to their organization. Certain Office 365 plans are equipped with meeting features like Skype for Business, one-click screen sharing, and real-time note-taking. Many plans also come with Yammer integration for corporate communication, as well as Delve, an internal corporate search portal for finding files and collaborators.

Also, because software is delivered via cloud technology, users can access and collaborate from mobile devices just as easily as they can from personal computers.

Flexible Plans

Office 365 has a unique licensing model that turns what is traditionally a large, upfront CapEx software purchase into an annual OpEx purchase, giving IT professionals the flexibility to choose to renew or change Office 365 plans each year as needed. Additionally, the complexity of tracking Office software licenses is removed with Office 365.

Hybrid Capability

Many Office 365 subscription plans offer the Office suite as a download. Whether users want to be able to access the Office suite offline or migrate to the cloud at their own pace, the combination of cloud-delivered Office 365 and Office suite downloads can help make transitions smoother.

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Who Should Migrate?

O ffice 365 suits organizations of all sizes that want to combine the flexible pricing and agility of cloud models with the Microsoft Office product line's familiar workflows and interfaces. Additionally, migration to Office 365 is a good idea for organizations looking to streamline their IT departments and remove complexity in the management of on-premise IT infrastructures while fostering collaboration among users.

Before Migration

Choosing the Correct Plan

Microsoft offers many subscription plans for Office 365. There are also plans for specific verticals such as Government, Education, and Nonprofits. Below is a summary of plan options. Enlisting the expertise of a trusted third-party, such as Aventis Systems, can help you make the best choice for your organization.

Compare Office 365 subscription plans at

Small Business Plans Three of the Office 365 plans are geared toward smaller organizations. These have a 300-user limit. They all come with the Office 365 suite, but they differ in terms of email hosting services, mobile applications, and the inclusion of the fully installed Office applications. The Business Essentials plan is limited to the online version of Microsoft Office but includes unlimited HD video conferencing, Yammer corporate social networking, and productivity tools such as team sites and work management applications. This plan also includes email hosting services through Microsoft Exchange. While the Business plan does not include any of the email or online conferencing features that come with the Business Essentials plan, it does come with the downloadable Microsoft Office suite for up to five computers, tablets, and phones per user as well as access to the online version of Microsoft Office.

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The Business Premium plan offers the full range of features for up to 300 users. Organizations with this plan may download Microsoft Office or access it online, use Microsoft Exchange email hosting, conduct video conferences, and utilize all productivity tools geared toward small businesses.

Enterprise Plans For businesses with more than 300 users, or companies that need a more complete feature set, Microsoft offers enterprise plans that come with rich features for security, document discovery, collaboration, and analytics.

New features such as email data loss prevention, textual analytics, advanced malware protection, and advanced cloud administration can be extremely powerful when employed correctly in an organization. However, finding the right feature set and plan for your organization's needs requires an understanding of the utility of these features. Aventis Systems can assist you in choosing the right enterprise plan for your needs.

Education Plans For qualifying academic institutions, Microsoft has free and competitively priced plans for faculty and students. These plans do not place limits on the number of Office 365 users in an organization. Both plans include 50GB email plans through Exchange for all users.

Microsoft's Office 365 Education plan is free for both students and teachers. This plan does not include fully installed Office applications or some of the more advanced analytics and telephony features of Office 365 Education E5, but it should meet the needs of most educational institutions.

The Office 365 Education E5 plan does include the downloadable versions of Office, as well as telephony features like the ability to dial-in using a telephone to Skype conference calls and the ability to dial phone numbers through Office 365. This plan also includes some analytics tools like Delve, which can improve your ability to search documents and find collaborators for documents.

Office 365's education plans provide excellent value for educational institutions that are looking to streamline their workflows across all departments; provide access to the same familiar productivity tools to students, faculty, and staff; and maintain a more versatile educational environment with cloud storage. Both options are generously full-featured for free or low-cost plans and provide excellent value for educational institutions of all sizes.

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Government Plans Microsoft offers unique plans that reflect the special compliance and security needs of government organizations. These plans do not place limits on the number of users in an organization.

Government Plan 1 and Government Plan 2 are distinguished from other plans mainly by their lack of ability to create and edit Office documents. In fact, these two plans only have Microsoft Exchange email hosting and attachment viewing, with Government Plan 2 adding compliance and prevention of data loss for files and email.

The Government E1, Government E3, and Government E4 plans are more fullfeatured. E1 delivers Office 365 online, and E3 and E4 add fully installed Office applications. These three plans also come with file hosting through OneDrive, Yammer social networks, Skype for Business, and Intranet site hosting. E3 also includes IT management features that allow administrators to easily manage Office software on a fleet of machines, business data search and analytics, compliance tools, and voicemail. E4 adds enhanced calling with unified communications delivered through the cloud, which can completely replace an on-premise PBX phone system.

Government organizations will find that Office 365's government plans clearly address the unique security and compliance concerns encountered by those who work with sensitive data. Along with these security features, Microsoft has turned Office into a connected and collaborative cloud, allowing government organizations to work faster and collaborate better than ever before.

Nonprofit Plans For qualifying nonprofit organizations, Microsoft offers five plans that are differentiated from one another by their levels of analytics tools, the inclusion of fully installed Office applications, security features, and cloud telephony.

Microsoft donates Office 365 Nonprofit Business Essentials and Office 365 Nonprofit E1 to qualifying nonprofits for free. These versions do not come with fully installed Office applications, but E1 does come with corporate video hosting and an unlimited number of users.

Though not provided for free for qualifying nonprofits, the Office 365 Nonprofit Premium plan adds the downloadable Office suite for a relatively low subscription rate of $2.00 per user per month. Office 365 Nonprofit E3 and Office 365 Nonprofit E5, which are available at slightly higher rates, include Microsoft Access

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for organizations with relational data. E3 also includes some IT management tools, while E5 also includes analytics and cloud calling features.

Nonprofits will find that Office 365 is a great way to remove IT inefficiencies while introducing cloud connectedness to their organizations. From free basic plans with essential features to fully-featured plans that enable advanced workflows, Office 365's nonprofit plans can help those organizations become more agile and connected through OneDrive while saving resources.

Choosing the Correct Migration Method

An organization should select a migration plan to move to Office 365 based on how that organization uses Office applications and Exchange. Uptime and data requirements should also be taken into consideration as some migrations can be done in stages to avoid complete downtime, others must be done all at once causing some downtime, and some will not sync all types of data, e.g. contacts, calendars, and documents. The type of migration required will vary depending on each organization's unique needs. Reach out to the experts at Aventis Systems to determine which method is right for you.

Not sure which method to use?

Give us a call. We'll point you in the right direction!

1.855.AVENTIS (283.6847)

Below are some of the common methods of migration that may be recommended.

Cutover Migration Organizations with fewer than 1,000 mailboxes, smaller organizations, and organizations without large user mailboxes may consider a cutover migration.

? Pros: The simplest and easiest migration option.

? Cons: All mailboxes have to be migrated at once so your entire organization will lose access during downtime.

IMAP Migration

Organizations that aren't currently on an Exchange platform, or organizations that need to migrate mailboxes from an outdated version of Exchange or Google Apps for Work, may consider an IMAP migration.

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? Pros: Email is live and accessible during the migration. IMAP is a protocol that is shared among most email systems, including legacy email systems, so this is a viable migration option for most organizations.

? Cons: Only migrates mailboxes, not contacts or calendars, and is limited to 500,000 emails per user. It also requires manual mapping of email accounts between old and new systems using comma-separated values (CSV) files.

Hybrid Migration Larger organizations, or organizations with large user mailboxes, may consider a hybrid migration.

? Pros: The most flexible migration type. Allows the migration to be implemented in batches to prevent complete downtime from email.

? Cons: The most challenging and complex migration option.

Note: A hybrid approach is usually not recommended for long-term use. If you aren't ready to give up on-premise Exchange but know you will move to the cloud eventually, you can set up a temporary hybrid environment. This approach also means that you will have most of the steps already completed when you are ready to move 100% to the cloud Exchange environment.

Making a Plan

Migrating to Office 365 requires detailed planning. Because Office applications are critical to workflows in many organizations, downtimes that affect business continuity are unacceptable. Getting a second opinion from a trusted third-party expert, such as Aventis Systems, can help you make a seamless transition to Office 365.

Play it safe.

Don't be afraid to ask for a second opinion from a third-party expert, such as Aventis Systems, to assess your plan and timeline before migrating. There are hundreds of factors that could require each method to be tweaked in order to work best for your environment. Sometimes, a migration plan may consist of multiple types of staged migrations, depending on each team's needs and requirements.

We can help you develop a comprehensive plan within your budget. Check out our Virtualization Services to begin.

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