GroupWise to Office 365 Migration
GroupWise has been around for a long time, and for the record, I like it as an email system (server and client). The GroupWise product is still actively being marketed, now with Micro Focus https://www.microfocus.com/products/groupwise/
GroupWise is now at version 2014 R2 SP1. There are lots of new features, and you can now use Active Directory SSO and even the Outlook Client (via ActiveSync). This is all very impressive, and shows the product continues to be developed.
However, surely Microsoft Office 365 must be an attractive option to consider for any CIO whose company is still on GroupWise ? Rather than ask: ”Why should I migrate from GroupWise to Office 365?” – I would ask: “Why would you not migrate off GroupWise to Office 365?”.
GroupWise versus Cloud
There is no true cloud offering for GroupWise, apart from hosting your own GroupWise Postoffices in a private cloud. There are tangible savings to be had with migrating your email system to Office 365, and reducing your on-premise messaging infrastructure. This is especially the case for Education Sector customers, due to Microsoft licencing price structures.
If users are already using Microsoft products, then it is likely not going to be mush of an uplift to have Office 365 licence costs covered.
Risk: GroupWise Market Share
How many businesses are moving to GroupWise ? I would say that GroupWise has fewer customers each year. This is a business risk. If it was my business, I would like to know that for the next 5 years, my email system will be fully supported and developed, with a choice of IT professionals to support it.
Collaboration
Office 365 offers strong collaboration features, above and beyond what GroupWise can offer. Examples are Skype for Business, and OneDrive. You also get 50GB of mailbox size to use up ! 3rd Party tools are available for GroupWise coexistence with Office 365. There are more GroupWise migration products available then there are GroupWise coexistence products.
Directory Services
If you use eDirectory still, then it is more of a change to move to Office 365 – unless you go cloud only. However, if you already use Active Directory as your primary Directory Service, then a migration to Office 365 is a well-documented path.
