Migrating your Gmail mailbox to Microsoft Office 365’s cloud productivity suite is easier than you can expect when using the right tools, according to Microsoft MVP Brien Posey. Here is a simplified guide to prepare for the migration to Microsoft Exchange Online.
Prepare Exchange Online
Your Exchange Online platform should be able to receive mailbox data from Gmail. To enable this, you will need to create and license mailboxes in Exchange Online with the same names used on Gmail, and for all the Gmail users listed.
Proceed to link your mailbox domain to Office 365. Keep the MX DNS record intact to point to Exchange while the migration is in progress.
List all Gmail Mailboxes
The next step is to list all Gmail mailboxes that need to be migrated to Exchange Online in an Excel spreadsheet – a time-consuming process that, however, is very important in the migration process to align the exchanged data.
The spreadsheet must include three columns: EmailAddress (column A) with the Office 365 user email address, UserName (column B) with the user’s Gmail login username, and Password (column C) with the Gmail password. Save the spreadsheet as .CSV format.
Create a Migration Endpoint
A migration endpoint is a temporary link between Exchange Online and Gmail used in the migration process. Create the link in the Exchange Admin Center under the Migration Endpoints option.
Choose the type of the migration (e.g. IMAP) and configure the server name, e.g. imap.gmail.com. Give your migration endpoint a name and continue with the migration.
Migrate!
Finally, it is time to migrate the Gmail mailbox. Choose the Migrate option on the Exchange Online platform, select the migration type, and follow the prompts with the user information in the Excel .CSV file, the migration endpoint previously created, and the name of the migration batch previously defined. That’s it!
If you need help, you can find Microsoft’s documentation here, and read more here.
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