How to Move from Google to Office 365 Without Losing Productivity?

Worried about the possible downtime during Google Workspace migration to Office 365? All the businesses that plan to migrate from G suite to Office 365, experience hassles at running smooth migration. However, this migration is a big decision that requires major consideration to avoid challenges that might come during the way.

Efficient move is not the one that is achieved within a breath, rather it’s something that is done after preparing a well-thought roadmap. If you’re also planning to get onboard with your migration journey, this article is going to guide you to make a move from Google to Office 365 with higher productivity.

Possible challenges during G Suite to Office 365 migration

When migrating data between Google Workspace and O365, it is important to be aware of the possible challenges that can interrupt the transition. This will help you be proactive and take precautionary measures to escape them.

1. Migration can often lead to business downtime, which will disrupt your email services and productivity.
2. Gmail labels in Google Workspace can often become a challenge in preserving the folder structure during migration as Office 365 do not have any labels.
3. When migrating shared links and external users from Google Workspace, you can face problems in migrating data.
4. When there are improper DNS configuration settings, there can be issues with email delivery or email accessing.

Executing G Suite to Office 365 migration with optimized performance

The process includes multiple phases and there is a lot of complexity involved in it. Therefore, make sure to be attentive and cautious of the move you make during the transfer. Here is the complete guide to migrate Google Workspace to Office 365 to deliver high performance:

Prepare the destination

To prepare the Office 365 environment, follow the steps as given below:

• Set up the domain and then verify the domain ownership in Office 365.
• Create user accounts in O365, and assign licenses to the required users.

Configure Google Service account

Once you’ve prepared Office 365, follow the steps to make adjustments in the source:

• After signing in to Google Developer Console to create a new project.
• Go to Service Account and create a new Google Service account with the domain wide delegation rights across the domain.
• From the console, create a JSON key, note the service account ID.
• Go to Google API library, then select the project you just created to enable the following APIs:
  • Gmail
  • Google Calendar
  • Contacts

Allow API access

Once the APIs are enabled, you have to grant the API access as explained ahead:

• In the Google Workspace admin console, go to Security and select Advanced Settings.
• Click Manage API Client Access, provide client Id from Google Service account or JSON file.
• Now authorize the following scope:
  • https://mail.google.com/
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar
  • https://www.google.com/m8/feeds/
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.settings.sharing

Verify the domain ownership and users

• Verify your Google Workspace domain within Office 365.
• Check that all Google Workspace users are now created in Office 365 and available too.
• Import a CSV file in Office 365 to add users in bulk within the Office 365 admin center.

Set up migration in Exchange admin center (EAC)

• Go to EAC from the Office admin center.
• Click on Recipients > Migration and then click + icon to select Migration to Exchange Online.
• Choose Google Workspace (Gmail) migration and hit the Next button.
• Provide the JSON file, enter the admin account credentials, and name your migration batch.

Map users and start

• Upload a pre-mapped CSV file containing Google Workspace users with their corresponding Office 365 users.
• Pick the destination domain to create mailboxes.
• Create a migration endpoint and provide a suitable name.
• Select to start the migration process manually or automatically.
• Choose the mailbox items to migrate and start the migration.

You can monitor the progress of the migration batch from the dashboard. The admin center also allows you to download reports after completion.

Conclusion

With the process as explained in this article, you can move from Google to O365 migration. However, the native process to do this is quite tricky and involves a lot of complications. Therefore, you must go with a professional solution like Kernel Google Workspace to Office 365 Migration tool to execute the transition without any errors. Download the tool today to migrate data with all its metadata, structure, and email properties.