Migrate Exchange Server to Office 365 – Path from Exchange to Cloud Gets Shorter

The user of Exchange Server in multiple organizations is to support several business requirements. It is available as On-Premise Exchange and off Premise as Office 365. As the popularity of Offline-service Office 365 is growing magnanimously, users prefer to move from Exchange to the Cloud. Office 365 offers a large number of tools and has a much easier interface to manage Exchange Service and eliminates the capital cost which is associated running Server Edition. Along with good points for moving Microsoft Exchange to the cloud, it also has some bad points that the user faces. In this blog, we will be discussing the pros and cons moving Exchange to the cloud, to help the user avoid headaches in the end.

Advantages of Exchange to Office 365 Migration

Let's first cover the advantage of Exchange to Office 365 migration which leads user to get all the data sync and more understandable.

• Increased ReliabilityMoving Exchange to the Cloud refers to high emails reach without any type of interruptions and headache of having to maintain On-premise hardware. Cloud vendors provide the higher uptime guarantees that allow to speed up the work. However, users should properly plan the migration process from Exchange to Office 365 in order to avoid downtime in the transition.
• Better Security
  Using Exchange Server in the cloud means lesser machines where Anti-virus software needs to be installed, upgraded, or tested. Users should always enquire security standards that vendor provides before moving to cloud. IT department apply updates automatically & focusses more on troubleshooting issues, providing better security for Exchange Server and confidential data involved. 
• Reduced CostMoving Exchange to Office 365 may involve a very high cost initially but in long terms. Organizations save money due to reduced capital on servers and lower cost of operations with only a few staffs involved in maintenance. Less time spent on monitoring & resolving problems means more time spent on revenue-generating projects.
• Increased Flexibility
  As deploying Exchange Server to Office 365 Cloud requires lesser machines. IT department provides better flexibility in determining the new and improved solutions to apply to Cloud environment. Increased flexibility in the migration from Exchange to the cloud will not only lead to higher productivity but also more employee satisfaction.

Disadvantages of Migration

• Upfront Costs Moving Exchange Server to the Cloud can lower capital costs for long terms, but a business also needs to ensure that they can handle all the short-term costs involved. It includes finding best possible solution structures, assigning resources for planning, performing migration etc. Sometimes, Hosted Exchange may involve additional costs if resources other than employees are managed through Exchange.
• Increased Bandwidth
  The organizations using hosted Exchange, especially highly collaborative ones may need to double or triple their bandwidth upon moving to Cloud Environment. Increased bandwidth means more megabits, which can be costly. On-Premise Exchange has ability to send/receive emails internally with a LAN while in hosted Exchange, no internet means no emails can be communicated both internally & externally.

  Conclusion

  In the blog, we have discussed about the pros and cons of moving Exchange to Cloud. As such there are two possible way to migrate Exchange to Office 365, either by exporting exchange database to Outlook PST and then migrate Outlook Data to Office 365 manually or using a direct tool to migrate mailbox items directly to Cloud. The process helps in moving the On-Premise or Off-Primises Exchange environment to Hosted Exchange infrastructure that provides several benefits like more flexibility, security, reduced expenditures etc. It is recommended that Organizations consider all the aspects like migration plan, security standards provided before moving Exchange to the cloud.