Tenant to Tentant Migrations - Which Third-Party Providers?

Copper Contributor

Hi there,

 

We're going to be performing an O365 -> O365 migration for about 250 user accounts. I realise that we need to use third-party tools to do this and I've had experience using BitTitan.com for O365 migrations but the service is quite expensive and so I wondered if there were any other reasonably priced alternatives?

 

We'd be looking at migrating Emails, Contacts, Calendar and personal OneDrives for all users.

 

Thanks

 

Olly

7 Replies
If you want to be successful in a T2T migration, I would recommend to evaluate best products in the market without considering prize as a key decision point. Named T2T migration vendors apart from BitTitan are Quadrotech, AvePoint or Quest

@Juan Carlos González Martín 

 

Hi Juan,

 

Thanks for your reply. I know cost isn't the only factor but with a migration like this there is no difference between the services: either the account is migrated or it is not, so the only measure of success is if it works. 

 

To rephrase my question: which is the cheapest third-party cloud migration platform that works?

@OllyLennox Tenant to Tenant migrations are a bit tricky because they require moving the domain.  Microsoft only allows a Domain to live in one tenant at a time.  So to move the domain you need to release (remove) it the current tenant in order to move it across to the new tenant.  Removing the domain requires disassociating the domain from all User Names (UPN), email addresses, (including) aliases, Distribution Groups, Security Groups, O365 Groups. Public Folders, Azure Applications & Sharepoint (you get the idea).  Typically most orgs will change all domain associations to the tenant .onmicrosoft.com domain. i.e bob@bobsautoparts.com to bob@bparts.onmicrosoft.com. Now if you have some PowerShell gurus to do all of this, it is laborious and can result in some extended email downtime.

 

To move the data efficiently with least amount of potential email interruption, most orgs will create new mailboxes at the destination on that tenants .onmicrosoft domain.  Do an email sync of existing email prior to all the moving of domains.

 

Second piece is obviously adding the domain to the new tenant and getting everything switched over to the moved domain.  And again you would need your PS wiz to flip all the email addresses to their original designation.

 

Don't forget if you use Outlook for email, your users will need to create brand new profiles for all desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, etc.  Even though the address is going to be the same, the mailbox has moved to a new exchange GUID and that necessitates the re-connection.

 

Side Note - SharePoint movement is a complicated beast all unto its own and would require a completely separate methodology, that usually occurs independently of email movement.

 

Whew - lot of moving pieces there, but it is good have a baseline for researching vendors.

 

Several choices for companies, but I know several orgs that have used SkyKick with good results. They have pretty solid rep with Microsoft, and a dedicated team to manage this type of email migration.

 

Good luck with your migration!

Try SkyKick - they have a dedicated team for Tenant to Tenant migrations.

@DOS_Lover 

 

Thanks DOS_Lover. Would I be correct in thinking SkyKick is ~ $12  per mailbox to BitTitan's  ~ $15 per mailbox?

 

EDIT: Do you have any experience of CodeTwo?

@OllyLennox Hi, I'm a rep of CodeTwo and just wanted to add that CodeTwo Office 365 Migration comes with a free trial version, so I'd recommend giving it a try. This way you can run a test T2T migration for a couple of mailboxes to see how it works. Of course, in case you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me or our Customer Service team directly. Always happy to help.  

 

As for pricing, it's available on this website: https://www.codetwo.com/office-365-migration/pricing

 

All the best,

Adam

I would give them a call to see current pricing. If you plan on doing all the domain work yourself I know they have a lower priced option. If you want them to do the domain move as well as the data it is probably a bit more expensive.
BTW - I was reading that they have a promo where if you sign up for their Back Up service that you can get the full migration for free.
Research is king....