How Long Does an Office 365 Migration Take?
Office 365 Migration
Many factors can affect the length of time a migration takes. Often, the new environment includes a new Information Architecture, so the content must be moved around. Cherry-picking content may increase the overall migration time by moving files one-by-one. The process also requires remapping content, so users may have to select files individually. To get a more accurate estimate, work with your migration partner.
Before the migration, determine the size and location of data. Large mailboxes can take a long time to move. The first step is identifying which mailboxes are larger than 90 GB. Changing a mailbox’s MX record on DNS is time-consuming and may cause some messages to bounce. Make sure to schedule your migration outside of core office hours, or on a weekend, if possible.
When a mailbox is over 50 GB office 365 migration, it could take two weeks to migrate it. In contrast, a migration of only ten mailboxes can take as little as two hours. The actual migration time will depend on the size of the mailbox, the batch size, and the content in each mailbox. Messages over 35 megabytes or containing more than 500,000 items may take up to a month to migrate.
How Long Does an Office 365 Migration Take?
A company’s source email system may have connection limitations that can affect the migration process. To overcome these limitations, it is a good idea to increase the number of connections in the source email system. Connection limits can include total client/server connections, per-user connections, and IP addresses on the server and firewall. More details can be found here. If you’re trying to reduce the overall migration time, a Cutover/Express Migration can be the best option.
To maximize the efficiency of your migration, you should consider scheduling a test migration beforehand. A test migration helps you understand the workload involved and the potential queue times. During the migration, you should plan to migrate as many mailboxes as possible before the big event. The quickest and easiest way to migrate mailboxes is to schedule the migration early. If you’re unsure how many mailboxes you need to move, schedule a test migration first.
Despite what you may think, there is no definitive answer on the length of time a migration takes. The speed of the migration depends on the network connection speed and the throttling of Microsoft 365 resources. If you’re transferring many mailboxes, the migration process will take longer. The same is true of the number of files on a file share. The more files you move, the slower it will take.
Before beginning a migration, your team should develop a plan and determine the best way to migrate specific items. You should also plan how to migrate your content. Metalogix Content Matrix and Sharegate Migration are two options to consider. In addition to these options, your migration team should look into the cost of different software programs. If the cost of a test migration is too high, you should consider a separate cost.