Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are two popular cloud services all over the world. However, in recent years, many users are switching from G Suite account to Office 365. Why is that, and how can we do it? I will explain everything related to the topic in this article. So, get ready.
In today’s modern data management, cloud computing become very popular. Now, each individual or companies want to use a cloud platform to improve their productivity. Therefore, big IT companies, Google and Microsoft, have built their own cloud productivity suites known as Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. These suites provide you with many advanced features and collaboration tools.
Those who have been using G Suite for a long time are now moving to Office 365. There are many reasons behind this, which I have mentioned below.
Why Switch from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365?
Most people have their own personal reasons to move to another account. Nonetheless, many of them have common reasons to do that. Which I am going to explain below.
- G Suite is an entirely web-based platform. Whereas Office 365 apps also run on your desktop. So, O 365 can easily integrate with Windows, Active Directory, and Azure AD, which helps you to manage the user accounts, control the devices, and much more.
- Microsoft 365 provides you with enterprise-grade security features, such as Data Loss Prevention, eDiscovery, legal hold, retention policies, archiving policies, Microsoft Defender, and Purview. These help the business to secure its account data.
- Employees who are comfortable using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneDrive. Will demand for Microsoft 365 over G Suite.
- As the size of the business grows, the demand for more cloud features also increases. So, companies switch to Office 365 from G Suite.
Hence, organizations prefer Microsoft 365 more than Google Workspace because of better collaboration, familiar productivity tools, and strong security features. If you want to know how to move from G Suite to Office 365. Below, I have mentioned the process and pre-migration checklists for you.
Preparations for G Suite to Office 365 Migration
When you are performing the migration, you need a well-prepared plan. This is very important as it makes the process run smoothly. Below are the pre-migration steps that you must first follow.
- First, count the total number of users, groups, and shared accounts in your G Suite environment.
- Find out active and inactive users, storage usage per user, and list all the Google Shared Drives and their owners.
- Then, decide what data you need to be migrated. Also, remove any unnecessary, duplicate, or obsolete data to reduce the migration time.
- Make sure you first backup your Google Workspace data before starting the migration process.
- Create Microosft 365 tenant with verified domain ownership and other basic settings.
- Properly plan user mapping between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 user accounts.
- Also, enable MFA, configure conditional access, set data retention policies, and enable audit logs.
Properly follow these checklists and then start the migration process.
How to Switch from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365?
Migrating from G Suite to Office 365 can be a difficult job because you are completely transferring your account with the data. So, the process is long and may be confusing to non-technical users. However, to make the process easier, I am going to explain the methods in proper steps. So, carefully follow them.
Step 1: Sign Up to Microosft 365 Subscription
The first step is to create an Office 365 for business account. So, start it with purchasing the new license, and choose the plan wisely by understanding all the features you need.
Step 2: Set Up Office 365 for G Suite Migration
Once you have added your domain and added the users. Now, it is time to start the migration process. Below are the processes to transfer your data from G Suite to Office 365.
- Log in to the Microsoft 365 admin center, then click on Go to guided setup.
- Or you can install the Microsoft 365 productivity app and hit the Continue button.
- Choose the default domain and then press Use this domain.
- Provide the user's names and usernames. Verify the email address. Then select the Add users and assign licenses.
- Type the email addresss which is used to send the new credentials. Click the Send email and continue button.
- Click the Continue button again to connect to the temporary domain.
- You can choose inform users in your organization about teams. Hit the Continue button.
- Review the Android and iOS settings and select the Create mobile app management policy.
- After that, go to the admin center.
Step 3: Add Google Workspace Domain to Microsoft 365
- In the Microsoft 365 Admin center, click on the Show all option in the left navigation.
- Select the Settings and then the Domain button. Click on Add domain button.
- Provide the domain name and select the Use this domain option.
- Add a TXT record to the domain's DNS records. Press the Continue button.
- Copy the TXT value. Now, go back to the Google Admin.
- Choose the Domains, Manage domains, View Details, Manage domain, and DNS options. and then scroll down to Custom resource records.
- Open the record type drop-down, select the TXT, and paste the TXT value. Press the Add button. The update usually take few minutes up to 48 hours. So wait till the effect takes place.
- Then, return to the Microsoft admin center. Click on the Verify button and close it.
- If you want to set the domain as the primary email of all your users. Select the Users and then the Active users option.
- Choose a user and then click on Manage username and email and Edit. Select your domain, and then Done and Save changes.
- You have to repeat this process for each user.
After that, migrate the users' email and contacts from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. Below are the steps that migrate the email and calendar
Step 4: Transfer Email and Calendar from G Suite to Office 365
- In the Exchange admin center, select the Migration button.
- Click the Add migration batch from the Migration batches page.
- Provide the migration batch a unique name and then click on Migration to Exchange Online from the Select the mailbox migration path. Hit the Next button.
- Choose the Google Workspace migration as a migration type. Hit the Next button.
- Click on the Start button on the prerequisite for Google Workspace Migration page.
- Sign in to your Google admin account. Then, continue the EAC migration wants access to your Google Account page.
- Complete all four tasks, note the ClientID and Scope values. Select the Link button.
- Click on Add new option on the API Clients page.
- Copy the clientID and Scope values and paste them into the required fields. After that, click the Authorize button.
- Next, the prerequisite for the Google Workspace migration page. Then, click on the Create a new migration endpoint. Press the Next button.
- Provide the unique Migration endpoint name and use default values for Maximum concurrent migrations and Maximum concurrent incremental syncs. Hit the Next button.
- Enter the email address of the Google Admin account in the Gmail migration configuration page.
- Choose Import JSON and browse the location where the JSON key is created, and download it to your local computer.
- Create a CSV where you list all of the mailboxes that you want to migrate. After that, import the CSV file. Hit the Next button.
- Enter the target delivery domain in the Schedule batch migration page. Either enter the email address that you want a report to be send or select how you want the batch to be started.
- Press the Save button and run the process.
- After it is done, select the Migration in the Exchange Admin Center.
After that, connect your domain in Microsoft 365 using DNS records. Here you go, now you have moved G Suite to Office 365. During the process of transferring the account, people have difficulty migrating their data. For this, I have a perfect solution.
Use Professional Solution to Move G Suite Data to Office 365
On the internet, you find several programs, one of which is the SysTools Migration Tool for G Suite to Office 365. A great solution to completely move your Google Workspace emails, contacts, calendars, and documents into Microsoft 365. Download the software for your Windows and Linux operating systems. Here are the steps of the software.
Steps of the Professional Tool
- Download the sotware in your computer or laptop.
- Choose G Suite as the source and Microsoft 365 as the destination.
- Choose your Workload selection and then click on the Next button.
- Add G Suite Admin Email, Application ID, and Certificate File. Click on the Validate button.
- Provide Microsoft 365 Admin Email and Application ID. Press the Validate button.
- Add the users by choosing Fetch Users and Import Users.
- Then, press the Start Migration button.
Conclusion
In this article, I have provided ways to switch from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365. Manually, you can migrate your account with data. But some of you may have a problem in transferring your data. Then, you can choose the professional tool with simple steps.
Tags : google workspace microsoft 365
