It’s a scary predicament to suddenly face, but lifelines are available to companies that need an urgent change. We are here observing you on the frontlines supporting the need to move to the cloud now for your customers and there are plenty of headlines and data points emerging that all relate to how much pressure you are under today. MSPs can provide options that quickly enable customers to work remotely to help keep their business up and running. And implementing a remote work plan can be put into action faster than you might think, proving that it’s never too late to move to the cloud.
There are important considerations that are beyond your control that you need to know about. But here are some tips that are within your control.
How MSPs Should Approach Migrations Today
First, planning is essential.
- Identify the Migration Components
Always plan ahead and specifically identify what components your company needs to migrate.
- Assess all Potential Hurdles in Planning State
Look at your project holistically, assess the looming challenges and determine if the aid of a partner is necessary.
- Migrate Mailboxes First
Plan to migrate mailboxes first to ensure communication can be maintained, and then determine which Teams, groups or other workloads need to be migrated as well.
- Apply Some Risk Aversion Before Starting the Migration
Don’t jump into the project if uncertainties remain; enlist help where it’s warranted. It will make the process smoother.
- Consider Bandwidth
Be mindful of available bandwidth. Many organizations are currently working remotely right now and usage of software such as SharePoint Online and OneDrive has skyrocketed during daytime peak hours. Microsoft and Google have communicated that throttling, which limits the number of simultaneous requests to a service to prevent an overuse of resources, is lessened during evenings and weekends to allow migrations to happen. MSPs must be aware of the peak hour schedule to ensure they’re conducting a migration project during a window that allows swift execution and efficiency for a seamless migration.
Migrating Data In A Remote Capacity
Working remotely shouldn’t hinder cloud migrations for companies that need them now, as not all IT work requires people to be onsite. In fact, much, if not all, of a cloud migration can be completed while working remotely. The beauty of SaaS-based technology is that it’s available anytime, anywhere. BitTitan’s MigrationWiz is SaaS-based, which allows work to be completed remotely. If a company needs to leverage the cloud now, it can be remotely enabled.
With MigrationWiz, all that’s needed is a public IP address, a URL or a dedicated IP address if this is required to access a company’s email system. Once the address is securely entered into our system, the appropriate permissions are granted, and the information of the new Destination is entered, the project setup is complete and users may be added. To preview the completed project, you can simply create the project in MigrationWiz and run a free trial migration.
With the added pressures of COVID-19, our Customer Success team is available around the clock to ensure your project is a success. If you encounter issues during the process, extensive guides providing step-by-step migration instructions are available via BitTitan’s online Help Center. In addition, BitTitan’s support staff is available 24/7 by opening a support ticket.
Moving to the Cloud Overnight
Depending on the size of the client, a bare-bones cloud migration can be executed quickly. Migrating an entire workforce to the cloud for basic collaboration, using email and applications like Teams or Skype, will take 24 hours to a full weekend to complete. It all depends on the size of the migration, including the individual mailbox volume and the overall size of the company. Moving one gigabyte of data requires roughly one hour per user.
For small businesses of up to 500 employees, it’s possible to have the entire workforce moved to the cloud for email within a day. Larger companies can realistically have their workforce’s email up and running in the cloud in just over a weekend. However, moving files beyond email will require a longer timeline.
One way to expedite this is by leveraging the Date Range Filter in MigrationWiz. If you’re in a rush, use this functionality to only pull the last 90 days of mailbox data for each employee to get the entire workforce up and running in the new system. Once all of their email accounts are set up and working, you can run a second pass to migrate all data that’s older than 90 days and backfill the active mailboxes with no fear of duplicates.
Disruptions to routine and workflows are difficult, but resources and solutions are readily available to companies that need them now. Don’t be afraid to make a move and leverage new technology; it’s never too late to move to the cloud and find a plan that works for you. Cloud solutions can help improve your business operations and enable remote work sooner than you think, having your company up and running tomorrow and making today’s hindrance nothing more than a thing of the past.
