# Moving your email to Microsoft 365 without stopping the office.

> We move your email to Microsoft 365 from Google Workspace or from an on-premise mail server: mailboxes, aliases, shared calendars and archives, with the DNS cutover at a time agreed with you and domain authentication in order.

- Service: Email migration
- From: Google Workspace, on-premise servers
- To: Microsoft 365, Exchange Online
- URL: https://cloudfactory.it/en/services/email-migration-microsoft-365/

## Email is the last thing you want to see stop.

A rushed migration leaves behind shared calendars, aliases, leavers' mailboxes, printers and business software that send email through the old server. Messages bounce, phones ask for the password again, and domains without SPF, DKIM and DMARC end up in customers' spam folders. Almost all of it can be avoided with an inventory done first.

## The DNS switch is a moment. Running it comes after.

For a group of laboratories we moved email from an on-premise antispam gateway with a Postfix relay to Exchange Online, sorting out SPF, DKIM and DMARC across 8 domains and taking DMARC to p=reject. After the migration we also look after licences: when someone leaves, their mailbox becomes a shared mailbox instead of disappearing after the 30 days Microsoft keeps unlicensed mailboxes.

## From inventory to DNS cutover.

1. **Inventory.** Mailboxes, aliases, groups and lists, shared mailboxes and calendars, devices, and above all the applications that send email: business software, scanners, printers, website, phone system. Everything has a place in the new system before we start.
2. **Tenant and DNS.** We configure the Microsoft 365 tenant, domains, users and licences. A few days before the switch we lower the TTL of the DNS records, so the change propagates quickly.
3. **Batch migration.** We copy mailboxes in groups: with Exchange Online's Google Workspace migration, over IMAP, or with a cutover or hybrid set-up from an on-premise Exchange. Mail keeps arriving at the old system until we change the MX records.
4. **MX cutover and authentication.** At the agreed time we switch MX and Autodiscover, run a final sync and enable DKIM. We publish SPF and DMARC and, once the reports confirm it, take DMARC up to p=reject.
5. **Outlook, phones and training.** We set up Outlook and phones, import PST archives, sort out signatures and shared mailboxes and explain to people what changes. In the first days we stay on hand for questions.

## Email, calendars and domains in order.

At the end of the migration you know who has which mailbox and licence, and which systems send email on behalf of your domains.

- Mailbox and alias inventory
- Mailboxes and calendars migrated
- PST archives imported
- MX and Autodiscover
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC
- Outlook and phones
- Licence management

## Where you're starting from.

- **From Google Workspace**: Companies already using Office and Teams that want email, calendars and files in one system.
- **From an on-premise server**: Exchange in house, Postfix, antispam gateways: machines to maintain and patch, which can be retired.
- **Groups with several domains**: Several companies or brands, each with its own domain, in a single tenant with correct authentication on all of them.
- **The other way round**: When it makes more sense, we also migrate to Google Workspace or Proton: what matters is the right tool for you, not the vendor.

## Before migrating.

### Is any email lost during the switch?

Mail keeps arriving at the old system until the MX records change, and after the change we run a final sync. That's why we lower the DNS TTL first and choose the moment of the switch with you.

### What happens to a leaver's mailbox?

We convert it into a shared mailbox: it stays accessible to whoever needs it and, within Microsoft's limits, doesn't need a licence. If the licence is removed without converting it, the mailbox is deleted after 30 days.

### Do we keep the same addresses?

Yes. Addresses stay the same: what changes is the service that handles the mail, not the domain.

### Will business software, scanners and printers still send email?

Yes, if we plan for them. We list them in the inventory and configure them on Exchange Online with an SMTP connector or a registered app, or on a dedicated sending service such as Amazon SES.

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Cloudfactory S.r.l., Rome. Contact: hello@cloudfactory.it