Microsoft Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration Step by Step – Detailed Information

Reasons for Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration

There are several reasons why organizations may need to perform a tenant-to-tenant migration in Office 365. Here are a few frequent situations:

Acquisitions and mergers: When two businesses merge or one business buys another, they frequently need to combine their Office 365 environments into a single tenant. They may integrate user accounts, emails, SharePoint sites, and other data from several tenants into a single Office 365 environment by using tenant-to-tenant migration.

Divestitures and spin-offs: If a corporation decides to sell or split a portion of its operations, the newly independent organization could need its own Office 365 tenancy. User accounts, data, and other resources can be moved from the parent tenant to the child tenant via tenant-to-tenant migration.

Consolidation of tenants: For a variety of reasons, organizations with numerous Office 365 tenants may decide to combine them into a single tenant. Consolidation facilitates collaboration and communication within the company, streamlines administration, and lowers expenses. Transferring users, emails, and data from many tenants into a single consolidated tenant is made easier via tenant-to-tenant migration.

Changes to branding and domain names: Companies may launch rebranding campaigns or modify their domain names. A tenant-to-tenant migration is required in these circumstances to update the Office 365 environment with the new branding components, domain names, and email addresses.

Requirements for compliance and governance: Businesses may need to match their Office 365 environments to certain compliance and governance requirements. This can entail moving data, putting in new security measures, or changing the environment to comply with rules. Organizations can change their Office 365 configuration to adhere to the appropriate requirements by using tenant-to-tenant migration.

Enhanced feature accessibility: Office 365 is constantly adding new features and functionalities. To benefit from these capabilities that weren’t offered by their present tenant, organizations could desire to switch to a new tenant. This can entail migrating to a newer version of Office 365 or a different subscription package with more sophisticated features.

Regardless of the precise causes, an Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration enables businesses to rearrange their environments, pool resources, and adapt their Office 365 configuration to their changing business requirements. It makes it possible for user accounts, information, and configurations to be easily transferred between Office 365 tenants.

#01. Migrate Tenant to Tenant in Office 365 Manually

The manual method is free but risky also because it can lose your data. It can be a challenging process for novice users. While using these four steps, you can easily Microsoft Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration. Step-by-step individual instructions are given below:

Step 1. Domain Preparation

• Determine your migration scenario: rebranding, no rebranding, or moving to a cloud tenant.
• Make sure you have enough licenses for Microsoft 365.
• Create admin accounts in both target domains.
• Set up user mailboxes, room/resource mailboxes, and distribution groups in the target domain.
• If needed, consolidate Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) using AD DS tools and synchronize the source domain with the target domain manually or through synchronization.
• Train your end users on how to use Microsoft 365 after the migration.

Step 2. Domain Verification

• Go to the Microsoft 365 admin center for your target domain.
• Add your source domain in the admin center.
• Create TXT records in your domain’s DNS settings.
• Ensure that only one tenant is using the domain. If it’s associated with multiple tenants, the verification will fail.
• After completing these steps, the changes may take up to 72 hours to be visible.

Step 3. Migration Scheduling

• Select the mailbox items that you want to migrate.
• Determine the lowest Time-to-Live (TTL) value on the MX record of the primary email domain.
• Create a CSV file for mapping the mailboxes during the migration process.
• Disable directory sync for the source tenant by accessing the Microsoft 365 admin center.
• Disabling directory sync will prevent any modifications to the source tenant’s Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) from syncing to the Microsoft 365 platform.

Note: The disabling process may take at least 24 hours to complete.

Step 4. Migration Stage

• Stop inbound mail flow to the source tenant by making the primary MX record unreachable or using a third-party service. Choose the time for this step based on the lowest TTL value you noted earlier.
• Prepare the source tenant by removing the primary mail domain from all objects.
• Reset the default email address to the initial Microsoft 365 address.
• Remove Lync licenses from the source tenant.
• Delete the default email address from the distribution column to the initial domain.
• Delete all tenant objects from the secondary email address.
• Use Windows PowerShell to identify any objects still using the primary email address. Set the target domain through the source tenant.

Step 5. One hour after the previous step

1. Configure the auto-discover CNAME.
2. If using AD FS, set up a new domain in the target tenant.
3. Activate new user accounts in the target domain and assign licenses.
4. Set the source domain and determine how to communicate passwords to end users.
5. Once user mailboxes are active, change the mail routing, point the MX record to the new Office 365 email address, and test the speed in or out of the focus tenant.

You can individually migrate your data from one to another email client using the above steps. But the manual method has limitations and it’s also risky for non-technical users; it can lose data sometime while using the manual method. Here are a few limitations of the manual method.

Limitations of the manual method

1. This method is technical and challenging for non-technical users who need help using professional techniques.
2. It can lose your important data.
3. It takes too much time while processing.
4. You can’t convert your multiple items at a time. However, it can take too much time and effort.
5. This process is risky, and you can’t migrate your pertinent data if, by chance, you skip one step while converting.

#02. Direct & Professional Solution for Microsoft Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration

Aryson Office 365 Backup & Restore is a secure and trustable software that allows you to migrate Office 365 emails to multiple file formats/email clients. It has various features/functions. This application has a simple user interface; however, every user can only use this tool with technical experience. The software offers you to download a demo version. It can migrate under 50 items per folder.

Follow the Step by Step Guides to Migrate Tenant to Tenant in Office 365:

1. First, download and install Aryson Office 365 Backup & Restore on your computer and Run.
2. Select Office 365 from the drop-down list & choose the Use Modern Authentication Option, then enter User I’d and press the Sign-In button.
3. After that, choose the Office 365 Account and click on the “Import CSV” button to migrate various Office 365 accounts.
4. After importing Office 365 Account emails then, preview them.
5. Select the emails you want to convert to another email client.
6. Choose the emails that you want to migrate and Next.
7. Select Office 365 from Saves/Backup/Migrate AS option.
8. Next, choose the “Use Modern Authentication” option and click the Sign-In button.
9. Now, you can choose filters or features as needed, like Removing Duplicate Emails, Date Filters, Free Server Space, and more.
10. After selection, press the Next button, then choose the Office 365 I’d in which you are converting emails.
11. Then, choose the Mailbox/Public Folder/Online archive option where you want to convert emails per your requirement.
12. After choosing, click on the Convert button to start the process.

Benefits of Office 365 Tenant to Tenant Migration using Professional Software

When you have a lot of users and data to move, migrating to Office 365 may be a challenging process. The migration process may be greatly sped up and simplified with Office 365 tenant migration tools. Following are some advantages of utilizing such software:

• Process simplification: By automating many of the difficult activities required, Office 365 tenant migration solutions are created expressly to make the conversion process simpler. To reduce manual labour and possible mistakes, they offer step-by-step instructions, predefined templates, and automated workflows.
• Reduced downtime and disruption: During the migration process, a good migration tool helps reduce downtime and interruption. It enables you to move people and data gradually, guaranteeing a seamless transition with little disruption to company operations.
• Seamless User Migration: Users may easily move their mailboxes, calendars, contacts, and other data with the help of Office 365 tenant migration tools. In doing so, they support maintaining data integrity and protecting the user experience by ensuring that user accounts and data are appropriately moved.
• Cost and time savings: Tenant migration software may save a lot of time and effort by automating many of the migration activities. They assist in streamlining the procedure, lowering the requirement for manual involvement and limiting the possibility of mistakes. By cutting down on the total migration time and the demand for extra resources, this can also result in cost savings.
• Flexibility and scalability: Office 365 tenant migration solutions are capable of handling migrations of various sizes and complexity levels. Regardless of how big or little your company or corporation may be, these technologies offer flexibility and scalability to meet your particular migration demands.

In general, adopting an Office 365 tenant migration solution helps streamline the migration procedure, reduce downtime, and guarantee a seamless move to the cloud. It supports efficient data and user migration, upholds data security and integrity, and saves you time and effort.

Conclusion

As discussed above, two manual and professional methods exist for tenant-to-tenant migration. The first is manual, and the other is the professional method. Both are helpful solutions for Microsoft Office 365 tenant-to-tenant migration, but according to the professional approach, the manual strategy could be more efficient and lengthy. On the other hand, the professional way is the best and direct solution to Office 365 Tenant Tenant Data Migration. It provides various file formats and email clients. It has multiple features and functions to make your task more than manageable.

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