The Latest Migration News in the CloudTweaks Podcast
“The new Active Directory tool in MigrationWiz is a game changer for cloud migrations.” That’s the bottom line from Mark Rochester, the Cloud Geezer, after his wide-ranging conversation with Steve Prentice on the CloudTweaks podcast.
Steve sat down with Mark to talk about cloud trends since the pandemic and what it takes to execute a successful migration. Then the two discussed how the new Active Directory connector from BitTitan significantly streamlines Microsoft 365 migration projects.
Cloud Trends
Mark Rochester has been performing data migrations for years, and his tool of choice is MigrationWiz from BitTitan. He currently architects major enterprise-scale cloud migrations—helping large organizations navigate the complexities of multi-user, multi-workload projects.
He notes that a lot has changed in migrations since the pandemic, when companies had to move quickly to get people set up on Zoom or Teams practically overnight. The demand for migrations hasn’t subsided, but now IT is focusing on cleaning up environments and strengthening security. A lot of migrations are still happening because of mergers and acquisitions, and also to increase efficiency and lower costs through consolidation.
Now that companies are settling their policies on work from home, hybrid work, and return to office, IT teams are re-thinking fixed infrastructure that’s been housed in corporate buildings. They’re looking at how to best support how people are working now.
Executing Successful Migrations
Mark points out that the keys to performing a successful migration depend a lot on the size of the organization. With MigrationWiz, an individual can move data and mailboxes for a small company over a weekend. But it takes planning and a dedicated team to execute a migration for 50,000 users. So Mark emphasizes that it’s important to choose the right migration tool as well as an experienced migration partner.
In fact, having a reliable and full-featured tool like MigrationWiz is just the start when it comes to complex migrations. The biggest test at the end of a migration project is whether users are happy. That usually means they’re able to use the tools they need and be productive with minimal or zero downtime.
Mark thinks the best role for IT is as an “invisible resource” that people don’t have to think about it. Doing a migration should feel seamless and boring.
Active Directory Tool Changes the Game
Mark calls the new Active Directory tool in MigrationWiz the “missing link in migrations.” Active Directory exists in a large number of organizations – it’s the source of truth for managing identities in one place. The previous process for setting up identities in the destination or target tenant was very manual. Now identities can be created automatically, keeping the structure intact and bringing along passwords securely.
Mark has been partnering with BitTitan to test out the new Active Directory tool and one thing he likes is that the source and target ADs don’t need to know about each other. Identities are taken from the source, processed in the console, then recreated in the target. An entire department or geographic area can be picked up and replicated with the OU structure intact.
What this new tool does is streamline migrations to the cloud. Because once the AD is transferred, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and mailboxes can be migrated based on the same set of identities. As companies are adopting the many different functions of Microsoft 365, migrations are becoming more complex. Having the ability to easily set up Active Directory simply makes projects easier.
In their 20-minute podcast, Steve and Mark will update you on the state of migrations today and outline what you need to know about the AD update to MigrationWiz. Mark has also created a hands-on video tutorial of the new Active Directory tool when you’re ready to study for your next migration.
