Microsoft 365

Migration
Checklist for
MSPs
Migrations can either be an easy task or a complex project. While it can
be manageable for small organizations with simple structures, larger
enterprises may struggle with the chore.

Certainly, for Managed Service Providers who handle both small and
large organizations, migrations tend to be more complex, with primary
focus on accuracy and swiftness of the migration process. Depending
on each business’s need, every migration preparation must be handled
smartly.

Without the help of the right tools, MSPs can easily get lost with the
various demands of their customers. As organizations seek effective
guidance from you as their service provider, you must find the right
strategy in handling your various projects as efficiently as possible.

To help you achieve this, the following is a comprehensive checklist for

a successful migration to help you map out what you need to do from
pre-migration up until post-migration.
 Source Environment Discovery
The accuracy and speed of a migration greatly depends on your pre-
migration planning and the proper implementation of it. As
organizations put a higher priority on the swift implementation of work-
Source
Environment load migration alongside security and cost-effectiveness (Gartner 2021),
Discovery the need for a successful pre-migration discovery becomes even more
prominent.

Before you begin planning your

customers’ migration, it’s essential Don’t forget about
Design
Your
to understand the source data and Teams chats !
Strategy the workloads to be migrated. Your
migration deployment method will Chats in Microsoft
depend on what your source data is Teams house
and how complex or advanced your business-critical data
Prepare Your workloads are. and must be included in
Client’s your client’s migration
Destination For example, larger, more complex plan – or risk losing
Environment
migrations with multiple sources, valuable information.
destinations and complicated data
architecture might necessitate a
AvePoint Fly includes
migration tool like AvePoint’s Fly
Teams Chats in all
Communicate Server, which will help you migrate
With Your tenant-to-tenant
on-premises or cloud-hosted mail,
Client migrations. Learn more.
content, and collaboration into
Microsoft 365. Fly Server supports
migrations from existing Microsoft
365 workspaces or from SaaS providers such as Google Workspace, Box,
Implement Dropbox, or Slack.
Your Migration
If your migration involves consolidating, restructuring, or
moving data between tenants, such as migrating data from one
Microsoft Team to another, you might be able to take advantage of SaaS
migration tools, like AvePoint Fly, which allow you to complete
Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 3

 migrations without provisioning infrastructure. With tools like Fly, you
can migrate from Microsoft 365 workspaces, including Exchange Online
and Exchange Server (on-premises), Microsoft Teams, SharePoint Online,
OneDrive for Business, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Microsoft Teams Chat,
all without investing in and maintaining servers.

It’s a best practice to have both a server and SaaS-managed

Source
Environment migration option in your repertoire. Different clients will have different
Discovery needs and offering both deployment methods will help you meet all of
them. Whether you invest in AvePoint’s comprehensive Fly Migrators or
partner with another vendor, investing in a comprehensive migration tool
will have your bases covered.
Design
Next, you will need to analyze what type of content your client has,
Your
Strategy who in the organization owns it, how it’s structured, and its level of
importance. This is critical for many reasons, including enabling the
significant shortening of your client’s migration time by removing
redundant, obsolete, and trivial data (ROT), helping create a governance
Prepare Your plan for structuring your client’s data (AvePoint has solutions to help with
Client’s this too), securing sensitive content, and prioritizing which segments of
Destination
Environment content may need more attention.

You can create a plan that will save you and the organizations you
support tons of time in the long run by checking for:

Communicate
• Customizations that may need to be rebuilt
With Your
Client • Functionality that can be replaced with new features

• Content with stakeholders who may need to be more involved in the

project

• Data that can be moved in its current structure and form

Implement
Your Migration • Email Boxes that may not need to migrate or may be archived

Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 4

 Source
Environment
Discovery

Design
Your
Strategy

This will help set up your clients for

long-term success and a higher rate of Read More
Prepare Your adoption as their business users begin
Client’s utilizing their new technologies. Discover how to talk
Destination
Environment
about governance and
Some migration solutions, like security issues with your
AvePoint Fly, offer a free discovery customers.
tool. Using this tool, you take the
manual work out of the pre-migration Download the eBook
Communicate stage by identifying required, relevant,
With Your Right-Sizing Teams
Client and sensitive content, customizations, Management and Security
and potential risks. Some MSPs use
the free tool to help scope and price
projects for their clients based on what
they discover.
Implement
Your Migration This is also a great opportunity for you to introduce the topics of
governance and security assessments, educating your clients on the
time- or cost-savings of a controlled, safer environment, and building
another stream of revenue for your business.

Whether you complete your discovery manually or through an

Post
Migration
automated tool like AvePoint’s, there are some key things you should
check for.

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 5

 CHECKLIST

ANALYZE TO ASSIST IN PLANNING

Email SharePoint Other Office 365 Tenants

Source
Environment
q Users & Groups q Farm Overview SharePoint Online
q
Discovery Email Boxes
q q Farm Topology (Any SharePoint objects
(shared or individual) – Site collections, pages,
q Web Applications
and more mentioned in
q Archive Email Boxes q Content Databases the SharePoint section)
q Public Folders q Site Collections q Teams
Design
Your Other File Systems q Sites q Team Channels
Strategy
Personal Storage
q q MySites q Teams’ Members
Locations q Lists and Libraries q Group Members
q Shared Storage q Pages q Team or Group Sites
Prepare Your q Items Team or Group
q
Client’s Cloud File shares
q Web Parts Mailboxes
Destination
Environment Google Drive
q
Master Pages &
q Team Connectors or App
q
Box
q connections that may
Page Layouts
not be maintained or
Slack q Site and List Templates
require post-migration
Channels
q q Custom Content Types steps to re-establish
Communicate
With Your (with conversations) q Custom Columns q OneDrives
Client
Members
q q Alerts
Exchange Online
q
Content
q q Event Receivers components
q InfoPath (see Email section)
Teams
Managed Metadata
q
Implement Channels
q
Your Migration Service
(with conversations)
q Workflows
Members
q
q Nintex Workflow
Tabs
q
q Nintex Forms
Content
q
q URL Length Warning
Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 6

 Design Your Strategy
Once you’ve figured out which types of content and structures you need
to move, segment the information you’ve gathered. As you evaluate the
details, focus on how the new structure will be built according to your
Source
Environment implementation and the end-user experience that will come out of it.
Discovery
Business and technology decision-makers now see the value of content
platforms, not only in digitizing business processes but also in keeping
with their security, privacy, and lifecycle obligations (Forrester, 2021).
As you design your migration strategy, make sure that you’re taking all
Design
these into consideration.
Your
Strategy
Find out any regulatory or privacy
requirements they have so you can
Migrations don’t
secure and archive data appropriately. have to be hard.
See what type of data structure will
Prepare Your See how easy they can
be effective for the end users, so you
Client’s be with AvePoint Fly. Get
Destination can reorganize libraries and folders or
Environment a free demo today.
delete sites that will no longer be
useful. Identify which workflows will
interact with data, so you’ll know
which ones need to be migrated on schedule to avoid business
Communicate disruption.
With Your
Client
This is also where deciding on the right migration tool is crucial. Migra-
tion paths—your source to your destination—must be clearly supported
to avoid data being left behind. With all this information in hand, guide
your client in properly preparing their data. Automate as much of the
processes as you can, and keep in mind that there are third-party tools
Implement
Your Migration that can help you make your client’s requirements a reality—like AvePoint
Elements for Partners, which can extend and differentiate your modern,
cloud-based managed services offerings.

Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 7

 CHECKLIST

STRATEGIC PLANNING STEPS FOR MIGRATION PREP

Once you’ve analyzed the content from the steps above, you can begin to do the following:
Source
Environment q Communicate with content owners to q Consider migrating existing content
Discovery rule out any unnecessary files, mail- from OneDrives or Sites into Group
boxes, folders etc. or if you’re coming or Teams’ Sites to take advantage of
from Slack or other Microsoft 365 modern Microsoft 365 workspaces
instances, unused Channels or Teams q Rethink and reorganize very large
Design
q Find out if there are any chats, email lists, libraries, Teams, and folders
Your boxes, public folders or archive email q Determine whether to migrate
Strategy boxes that don’t need to be brought empty lists, libraries, or folders
to the new environment
q Determine if any mappings
q Identify mailboxes that should are required
be converted to a new type – for
• Template Mappings
Prepare Your instance, an existing Shared mailbox
Client’s • Column Mappings
into a Group Mailbox.
Destination
Environment q Find sites or content that hasn’t • Content Type Mappings
been modified in over a year, and • User Mappings
see if you still need the information
• Mailbox Type Mappings
q Find large Site Collections or Teams
q Redesign the branding if necessary
Communicate
• Break them up into multiple Site
With Your q Determine which customizations
Client Collections or Teams
are required to be kept during the
q Find large Sites migration
• Promote them into Site Collections q Determine the migration approach
q Find Slack Channels with • Native Microsoft tools for mail or
Implement common traits select file & collaboration sources
Your Migration • Consolidate Slack Channels • Database detach/attach for
into Teams on-prem SharePoint migrations
• Use a third-party product/tool
such as AvePoint Fly

Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 8

 Prepare Your Client’s
Destination Environment

Source
Environment
Discovery

Design
Your
Strategy

Prepare Your
Client’s
Destination
Environment The next step is to prepare your
client’s destination environment, No matter your
which is equally vital in establishing customers’
successful user adoption. Making challenges,
sure the end users have a positive
Communicate AvePoint has the
With Your experience with data structures,
Client
workflows and other features will have
solution.
a major impact on your client’s business
Retention requirements? Try
users’ productivity. Cloud Backup.
Most organizations of all sizes Automation issues? Try
Cloud Governance.
Implement prefer to create a new structure in their
Your Migration Security concerns? Try
destination environment to cater to the
Policies & Insights.
agile workplace that the majority of the
Budget struggles? Try Cense.
workers are now used to as a result of
the COVID-19 pandemic (Gartner 2021).
If your client aims to support these new
Post work models, it is critical to create systems that can maintain how informa-
Migration
tion workers use data to do their jobs.

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 9

 Understand the culture of their business—how they best collaborate, what
practices they prefer for knowledge sharing, and what guardrails they need
to keep security part of the collaboration equation.

Administering the new Microsoft 365 environment is a complicated busi-

ness, but preparing for it in advance by establishing data structures and poli-
Source cies, configuring user settings and license requirements, determining backup
Environment
Discovery
plans, and planning for long-term governance early can make the transition
smoother.

Again, keep in mind that there are tools you can introduce to your clients
that are essential for effective Microsoft 365 management in the long run,
Design such as AvePoint Cloud Backup, Governance, and Policies & Insights.
Your
Strategy

CHECKLIST

Prepare Your PREPARATION STEPS BEFORE MOVING DATA

Client’s
Destination
Environment q F or Office 365, configure all user accounts, integrate applications, and set
your feature and security settings, and then determine which business
processes will utilize which applications like Teams, Planner, etc.

q Perform a backup of all possible data

Communicate • Test the restore
With Your
Client q Rebuild and deploy necessary customizations

q Disable system email notifications, if you plan to migrate SharePoint alerts

q Ensure the blocked file types in destination are same as source

Implement
Your Migration

Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 10

 Communicate with Your Client
Any change is bound to receive some resistance. Effective change
management—proper communication especially—will help smooth out
adoption resistance.
Source
Environment
Discovery Communicating with your clients’ stakeholders about the parameters of
the migration can be a tricky process, but it is extremely necessary. It will
be advantageous to have some people to help you justify the changes
with the data and its structure, especially when it will be affecting the
business users’ productivity.
Design
Your Adoption will also be greatly influenced by how you introduce the new
Strategy
processes to the clients’ users. If necessary, extend proactive help in
solving end user business cases and conduct contextual training to
help users adapt to the new environment. If your client is new to
Microsoft 365, be sure to check out AvePoint’s Microsoft 365 onboard-
Prepare Your
Client’s
ing and training capabilities to determine if this could help streamline
Destination adoption.
Environment
Remember, the more similar your end environment is to the source,
including all data structures, settings, and customizations, the less
resistance you will face from your customers’ end users. Not all
Communicate
providers offer these features, so if you skimp on functionality, you will
With Your need to prepare to spend more time assisting with user adoption.
Client

CHECKLIST

STAKEHOLDER COMMUNICATIONS
Implement
Your Migration q Communicate which content should be migrated

• Explain the reason for the change and the value for them

q Inform your clients users before starting

• Downtime planned by the migration

Post • Estimated timeline and end date for the migration
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 11

 Implement Your Migration

Source
Environment
Discovery

Design
Your
Strategy

Prepare Your
Client’s
Destination What makes leveraging Fly or Fly Server advantageous as compared to
Environment
the native Microsoft migration tools is the accuracy of your migration
implementation. The Fly Migrators are designed to make your migration
plan a reality.

Communicate You can run comprehensive discovery of your source environ-

With Your
ment(s), schedule incremental migrations to sync, and easily get
Client
the URL information you need to test the data as it’s moved to the
destination. Supporting a comprehensive range of migration paths while
also leveraging SharePoint Migration API, you can ensure that data is
transferred accurately—and swiftly.
Implement
Your Migration
To test your migration throughput, you can run pilot tests. Report
dashboards are also available to track progress of the project—which
you can easily share to your clients’ stakeholders for more transparent
communication.

Lastly, AvePoint offers 24/7 support so any concerns with the migration
Post project are addressed accordingly.
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 12

 CHECKLIST

IMPLEMENTATION OF DATA MIGRATION

Source Fly Installation

Environment Full Migration
Discovery Install Fly Platform on any on-
q
Compare item count to ensure allcon-
q
premises or cloud server (e.g. Azure)
tent has been moved over. Consider
Pre-scan & Set-up using Fly’s pre-scan capabilities on both
source and destination environments
Establish connections to your
q
for comparison.
Design source environments
Your Create and run a pre-migration report,
q Run tests to see if customizations will still
q
Strategy work after the migration
evaluating outputs to identify potential
risks and irrelevant content (if not already Don’t be scared to wipe the destination
q
completed in Discovery phase) and/or test multiple mapping options to
Dictate performance settings to increase
q ensure data is properly transformed
Prepare Your or decrease threads based on your avail- Conduct end users to perform
q
Client’s able server resources and best practices
Destination UAT testing
Environment Consider setting up a migration database
q
Incremental Migration
to enable more granular incremental
migrations (only migrating failed, skipped, Set the source environment as read-only
q
new, or modified objects), and detailed before the final incremental
performance and throttling reporting If you’ve selected High Speed method,
q
Communicate
With Your any changes to the Destination made
Pilot Migration
Client since the first migration may be overwrit-
Validate if all content has been moved
q ten. To enable conflict resolution by “Last
over (Mailboxes, Chats, Public Folders, Modified Time”, select Classic method
Sites, Lists, Folders, Items, Versions,
Metadata, Users, and Permissions)

Locate any unsupported elements

q
Implement
Your Migration

Post
Migration

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 13

 Post Migration
After the migration, ensure that your client’s destination environment is
working properly and that data integrity is maintained. It’s always good
to be ready to roll out the end user trainings you mapped out during the
Source pre-migration preparations. Make sure that it’s super easy for them to access
Environment
Discovery the new environment and redirect them if they try to access the old one.

Help out with the post-migration operational management by offering

Microsoft 365 administration tools you might have introduced when you
were preparing the destination environment.
Design
Your
Strategy CHECKLIST

POST MIGRATION OPERATIONS

Create a backup of your client’s new environment

q
Prepare Your
Remove access to the old environment
q
Client’s
Destination Cut over to start using the new environment. For mail migration, run the Outlook
q
Environment Configuration Tool automatically, or let Fly send further instructions to your end users to
make sure their local Outlook instance works with your upgraded Exchange services. If you’re
migrating from Exchange on-prem, you will also need to create an Autodiscover DNS record.
Enable redirects to send users to the new environment when accessing the legacy site URLs
q

Communicate Decommission, or at least lock or archive legacy environments

q
With Your
Client

WHEN IT COMES TO MIGRATIONS, PLANNING IS EVERYTHING

The more you know, the better you can plan! Understanding what your customers
need to move and what can enhance their business productivity will help you imple-
Implement ment a successful migration. Remember—discovery is key.
Your Migration
Testing and planning a migration project and clearly defining the implementation
of your strategy will ensure a smooth migration, minimize downtime, and build an
accurate migration to ensure data integrity is preserved during the transfer.
Lastly, communicate with the businesses you assist to make sure they’re ready to
move forward with the new features in their destination platform. Add value to their
team and position your MSP organization as a thought leader by truly enabling
Post
greater business productivity and efficient management by offering third-party tools
Migration
that help secure, govern, and manage users and data in their new environment.

| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 14

 GET YOUR MIGRATION PLAN
OFF THE GROUND TODAY!

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shares, on-premises Exchange and
STEP 1: Analyze
SharePoint data, or cloud content in Teams,
With Fly Migrators, discover what’s relevant or collecting dust
Groups, Box, Dropbox, Slack and Google
before your move. Understand your existing information archi-
Drive—into your Microsoft 365 cloud.
tecture to avoid risks and improve your migration strategy.
SIMPLE. Mitigate timeline and complexity
STEP 2: Migrate
concerns with the Fly Migrators’
Achieve your desired end goal data structure by taking only
user-friendly dashboards and capabilities for
what you need. Move entire drives, mail instances, site col-
discovery, cleaning up data, and migration
lections, or as granular as individual lists and libraries to your
implementation.
destination with drag-and-drop ease.

AUTOMATED. Fly Migrators enable you to STEP 3: Monitor

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real-time monitor. directly to stakeholders.

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| Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist for MSPs 15