Top 10 Factors to Consider when Moving Email to a Cloud Platform 

Posted by Liam Neate on Jul 26, 2024 Last updated Oct 04, 2024

  • Cloud
  • Compliance
server and cloud

Migrating mission-critical data like email to a Cloud platform demands expertise and precision. The project is fraught with complexities, leaving no room for error. Beyond grappling with the sheer volume of data, ensuring trust is paramount.

From navigating security protocols to addressing compliance standards and managing costs effectively, every facet of the migration requires meticulous attention.

The significance of pre-migration strategy cannot be overstated; it sets the tone for the entire experience. This is where Managed Service Providers (MSPs) emerge as indispensable partners, guiding enterprises through the maze of considerations, services, and migration solutions. By offering tailored expertise, MSPs empower businesses to navigate the migration journey securely, seamlessly, and in full compliance with regulatory frameworks.

1. Access Hosted Email Benefits:

Managing, maintaining, and securing email servers on-premise is expensive and resource-intensive, so enterprises should look to migrate their enterprise data, inclusive of legacy archives to a robust and all-inclusive compliant Cloud platform such as Veritas Alta, Proofpoint and Microsoft 365.

As a result, enterprises can permanently reduce their software and hardware footprint, eliminating the costs of maintaining them, as well as unburdening staff from administrative and security tasks associated with running in-house systems.

2. Automate the Migration:

Whether choosing to migrate legacy archive email in line with a mailbox move or adopting the “Archive first” approach, a migration can run into issues without proper planning and execution.  For best results, businesses should consider leveraging a proven, trusted migration service with the ability to create batched commands for tasks, like deciding what archives to move and applying selection criteria.

When managing email that is user-accessible, ensuring a positive end user experience is incredibly important. A solution that can synchronise and clean up legacy shortcuts/stubs and sync folders with their owners will ensure users’ experience is seamless and accurate.

3. Set a Migration Path:

The completion of key preliminary steps is crucial to a seamless migration for end-users. Such steps include cleaning up existing mailbox shortcuts to prevent confusion, setting a path for archived email to the correct folders after the migration, and creating rules to migrate only the required information. Paying attention to such details can save time and money.

4. Security is Paramount:

Email archives often contain sensitive information and proprietary business data, so enterprises need assurances of a reliable, safe migration to the Cloud. Verify that the migration solution you use can maintain data security during the move, ensure a complete migration of shared data, and ensure a full end-to-end chainofcustody throughout.

It’s not enough to just say you can migrate data, you have to be able to migrate the entire legacy email while managing the chain-of-custody so the right users get access to their email post-migration.

5. Understand the Costs:

In weighing migration options, businesses must consider the costs. Installing migration servers on-site potentially introduces costs and causes delays.

When migrating to Microsoft 365, for instance, it makes sense to leverage a migration tool that works with the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform to drive the process. This way, no migration servers are needed because you are migrating to the Cloud, from the Cloud.

6. Optimise User Experience:

For some businesses, the very thought of how long a migration can take is enough to discourage a move to the Cloud – and they tend to stick with ageing, hard-to-maintain systems.

To prevent such a scenario, choose an efficient migration solution that leverages virtualisation and reliable high-speed connectors to move the data. This accelerates the process and lessens the chance of disruption to users.

7. Prioritise Multiplatform Support:

The migration solution you leverage should support as many Cloud platforms as possible to avoid compatibility issues. A migration to Microsoft 365, for instance, should include support not only for Microsoft platforms but also ancillary solutions that handle functions such as security, data backup and recovery.

8. Audit All Data and Files:

For regulatory compliance and data-control reasons, businesses must keep track of all email data, down to every attachment, the size and content of each email.

Auditing the information on an ongoing basis is a good practice, and the same is true when preparing a Cloud migration. Make sure all relevant data is audited to meet compliance requirements and preserve chain-of-custody.

9. Maintain Compliance:

Microsoft 365 gives businesses access to an archiving solution to help meet regulatory compliance and locate individual emails, should that ever be necessary.

When migrating your on-prem email, check that the Cloud platform is secure and complies with all relevant regulatory requirements, such as GDPR, CCPA HIPAA and FINRA.

10. Execute a Seamless Migration:

Migrating your email archives to the Cloud is a critical step in ensuring seamless accessibility and compliance. Leverage Transvault’s expertise to effortlessly migrate your valuable data, safeguarding it against potential loss or inaccessibility.

With Transvault’s proven track record in archive migrations, you can trust us to deliver a seamless migration, minimising downtime and maximising ROI for your Cloud investment.

 

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Relevant resources

Questions to ask your email archive migration vendor ebook image

Questions to Ask of an Email Archive Migration Vendor

To ensure the ‘archive’ component of your migration to Office 365 goes well, there are some vital questions you need to ask ‘up front’ of a prospective solution provider.

Download – Questions to Ask of an Email Archive Migration Vendor