To migrate Exchange 2013 to Office 365 there are many factors to consider. Increasingly, companies who have kept up to date with Exchange On-Premise are now moving to Office 365. Exchange 2013 is no longer supported by Microsoft. This presents some clear options on how to proceed with migrating from Exchange 2013 to Office 365.
We are seeing many customer still using Exchange 2013 as part of their email system. This is not recommended, as Exchange 2013 is out of official Microsoft support. Therefore, using Exchange 2013 is a cyber security risk.
Exchange 2013 Migration to Office 365 via PST (Option 1)
As Exchange 2013 is out of Microsoft support, a valid approach to consider is to not use Exchange Hybrid from Exchange 2013 to Office 365. Instead, consider a PST migration from Exchange 2013 to Office 365, and setup a custom coexistence solution. As part of the work, you can plan to end up with Exchange 2019 SE in place on-premise, for user management actions.
A PST migration to Office 365 is often overlooked as migration method. It offers flexibility and rapid upload speeds, as Microsoft exempt this data ingestion type from throttling, when using the AZCOPY tool.
Or perform the necessary steps to move away from having to use any Exchange On-Premise infrastructure. This would have to be achieved by upgrading the on-premise Exchange 2013 servers to Exchange 2016, and then to Exchange 2019. All this can be done once all mailboxes have been migrated from Exchange 2013 to Office 365.
Special care is required to consider Exchange Web Services, autodiscover, and internet mail flow.
Exchange 2013 to Exchange 2019 Migration (Option 2)
In order to use the latest Exchange Hybrid wizard, a number of on-premise Exchange Server upgrades will be required, to be using only Exchange 2019 on-premise, and then to use the Exchange Hybrid Wizard to connect to Office 365 for coexistence and migration purposes. This method may take more time to achieve, but would be following the common migration pathway from Exchange 2013 to Office 365.
Active Directory Questions
There are strategic decisions to make around AD. Do you want to sync your local AD accounts/passwords to O365? Or do you want true Single Sign On (SSO)?
Exchange 2019 Hybrid Migration to O365
The Microsoft Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) is the free Microsoft tool to join your Exchange 2019 environment to Office 365, creating a single, logical entity. It can run on a supported version of Exchange 2019, preferably on a dedicated server. Azure AD connect is deployed to sync your local AD accounts to O365. HCW allows for full collaboration between Exchange and Office 365 for items such as:
- Mail Flow
- Common Address Book
- Calendar Free Busy
- Mailbox Moves
Conclusion | Exchange 2013 Migration to Office 365
Migrating from Exchange 2013 to Office 365 can be done smoothly, with good planning, and good skills. There are multiple decisions to make along the way. Contact us here today for a free Migration Consultation from an email migration consultant, on how we can help you migrate from Exchange 2013 to Office 365.