Last updated: December 1, 2021
The world of work is becoming increasingly flexible and mobile. At the moment, everyone is talking about the home office, for example. But the way we work together is also changing dramatically. Project teams are no longer only working together locally, but more and more often across locations, countries and even time zones. This brings with it completely new challenges for IT, which many classic on-premises environments are simply no longer able to cope with. For this reason, most companies are writing a move to the cloud into their IT strategy.
Cloud services enable simple, fast and, above all, secure access to company data from anywhere in the world. This is perfect for mobile collaboration and home offices. But cloud environments also simplify work for IT administrators.
Probably every admin knows the usual procedure when installing an update: Since these are always associated with downtimes, an appointment is needed outside of regular working hours. This sometimes means that the admin has to work in the evening or at the weekend. Then it is also not certain whether the update will run smoothly or whether it will perhaps lead to a failure of the updated systems or whether there will be undesired side effects on other systems and so on. Updates are always a very nerve-racking affair. So it’s nice when you can leave this completely in the hands of the cloud providers. They guarantee high availability without annoying downtimes due to patches and security updates.
This also has a second, very pleasant effect: all cloud services are always up to date. Gone are the days when ancient software versions were kept running with two eyes closed because no one dared to update them – in the hope that nothing would happen. As a rule, the latest patch versions always offer the highest possible protection.
And a third point in favour of the cloud is that new functions are now always available in the cloud first, before they appear on premise, if at all.
Exchange Online as the first step into the cloud
All in all, a migration to the cloud seems not only inevitable but also very sensible. However, it is probably clear to everyone that this cannot happen in one fell swoop in a big bang action. For this reason, Microsoft Exchange Online is often chosen as the entry point into the world of cloud services. The shift of the mail and groupware solution Microsoft Exchange Server from the classic on-premises server to a hosted e-mail service in the cloud is generally regarded as the easiest conversion.
But beware! Even if this migration seems very simple and you are told by the Microsoft sales channels: “Just connect the OnPremises servers with Exchange Online and off you go!” It is not quite that simple after all. There are some dangerous stumbling blocks waiting here that, if ignored, can lead to massive problems. Old domains that are no longer used but still exist or even outdated permissions are just two examples that can lead to a failure of the migration. And no one wants to be at fault for an email failure in the company.
Are you ready for Exchange Online?
So a migration to Exchange Online requires a clean slate and, if necessary, a clean-up of legacy issues.
The Docusnap Exchange Online Readiness Check, included as standard in Docusnap from version 11, guides you during this transition. Docusnap analyses your existing Exchange environment, your Active Directory Domain Service (AD DS) and your company’s Windows systems. Docusnap checks whether the necessary prerequisites are fulfilled, detects possible synchronisation problems in advance and shows any necessary adjustments in your Exchange environment, Active Directory and Office installations.
The Readiness Check consists of three clear reports, each of which examines different sub-areas. If you are already a Docusnap user, you can find them in the recently released version 11 under Company – Infrastructure – Domain – Reports – Microsoft Exchange:
- Readiness Check – AD DS Syntax
- Readiness Check – Domain and Exchange
- Readiness Check – MS Office
Readiness Check – AD DS Syntax
Based on AD DS scan results, this report provides recommendations for migrating the Exchange OnPremises environment to Microsoft 365, including checking the syntax of AD DS attributes and highlighting issues that may cause problems when synchronising to the cloud directory service. AD DS accepts characters in attributes that are not permitted for Microsoft 365 directory synchronisation and can cause synchronisation to fail. Attributes that are checked include:
- Attribute UserPrincipal Name (UPN)
- Attribute Mail
- Attribute MailNickName
- Attribute ProxyAdresses
- Attribute TargetAdress
In addition, groups and contacts that have a mail address are also checked for invalid characters and displayed in the report in case of a conflict. Since mail addresses for Mail, ProxyAddresses and targetAddress must not contain duplicates, this is also checked and output in the report if necessary.
Readiness Check – Domain and Exchange
This report is based on Docusnap’s AD DS and Exchange inventories and provides a compact comparison of the domain prerequisites and the as-is state of the domain to be migrated.
AD DS synchronisation is limited by default to 50,000 objects that have at least one mail address. For this reason, the report contains a clear list of the number of the following objects, divided into number of objects and number of objects with a mail address:
- AD User
- AD Computer
- AD Groups
- AD Foreign Security Principal
- AD Contacts
- Public Folders
In the Exchange section of the report, in addition to important configuration settings, notes are provided on the objects to be synchronised and the certificates found on Exchange servers.
Readiness Check – MS Office
Finally, the third report is about the Microsoft Office products on your network. Based on the Docusnap Windows inventory, all Microsoft Office products found are listed, enabling a check for outdated installations. As of 13 October 2020, access to Microsoft 365 services (e.g. Exchange Online) requires at least Office 2016.
From OnPremises to the Cloud with Docusnap
The Docusnap Exchange Online Readiness Check gives you a quick and easy overview of which construction sites you still need to close before you can migrate to the cloud.
But don’t worry, even after a successful transition, Docusnap won’t let you down. With the new Docusnap Inventory of Exchange Online, you can keep track of your data at all times, whether it’s in the cloud, on-premise or in a hybrid environment.