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With continuous innovations in cloud applications, Office 365 has turned out to be the most popular cloud service that is used by more than 1bn people worldwide. These days, almost every enterprise working currently on desktop applications and servers is migrating to Office 365 for better collaboration, communication, anytime accessibility, storage, and security. Such organizations have some or other knowledge about the platform in advance but it is not enough to take the decision of migration.

If you are also among those businesses who are planning to move to Office 365, then it’s good to get some detailed knowledge on the Office 365 cloud platform and its migration.

In this article, we will discuss everything about Office 365, as well as recommend some outstanding software that can help you migrate data to Office 365 in the easiest and secure manner.

What is Office 365?

Office 365 was launched as a business productivity application initially by the name Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). It provided users with all the basic productivity applications that an organization needs for their day-to-day tasks. But it later gave way to Office 365, which now is a complete cloud computing platform. Office 365 is now one of the leading cloud platforms with an array of software and services like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Azure, and much more. Also, it provides an online version of Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The various subscription plans available for Office 365 licensing include Personal, Business, Enterprise, Business Premium, etc. The applications and services you get depend on the license you are subscribing to.

How Office 365 is Helpful for Businesses?

Every organization is in need of high productivity and collaboration applications in order to improve their overall business. With the help of Office 365, organizations can meet essential requirements like enterprise-level emailing, collaboration & content management, user management, etc. without the deployment of on-premises infrastructure. It also gives more time to organizations to create, innovate, and move the business forward.

Moreover, some added apps to the Office 365 suite offer enterprises with even more essential tools to grow their business. Some of the newly updated apps include:

• Microsoft Listings – Help corporations manage their business information on various platforms like Google, Facebook, Yelp, or Bing
• Microsoft Bookings – Allow businesses to manage customer appointments and schedules
• Microsoft Connections – An email marketing tool and customer engagement platform
• Microsoft Invoicing – Help users to generate and send professional invoices to customers and accept payments on the go
• Outlook Customer Manager – An intelligent customer management add-on specially designed for businesses that do not need a full-blown CRM system

Having access to these applications and other features of Office 365 helps companies to enhance their productivity and competence. Moreover, cloud-based subscription services are more flexible and reliable, as they can be utilized as per business requirements.

Also, Office 365 does not require any hardware investments or maintenance because everything is handled by Microsoft, which reduces the need for hiring IT experts for the organization.

Migrating to Office 365

Whether you are using an on-premises platform, IMAP-based servers, or any other cloud service, you need professional migration tools if you want to migrate to Office 365. Though there are manual methods to migrate to Office 365, they are not always helpful.

For example, if you need to import PST to Office 365, then you must have good knowledge of PowerShell scripting or Exchange Management Shell; only then you will be able to import PST files to Office 365. However, having access to the best Office 365 migration tools provides you with multiple features and functionalities. So, let us have a look at the tools that can be used to migrate to the Office 365 cloud.

Office 365 Migration Tools

There are plenty of tools in the market, but only a few of them are recommended by users and organizations, which include:

1. Kernel Office 365 Migration

   If you are already using Exchange Server and want to migrate to Office 365, then Kernel Office 365 Migration is an ideal option for you. It offers direct Office 365 tenant to tenant migration with the option to skip already migrated items. Office 365 Migration is included with multiple features, such as:

   

   • Automated migration to Office 365 mailboxes with CSV file
   • Advanced filtering option to migrate specific data
   • Allow mapping the source mailboxes with destination mailboxes
   • Maintains original hierarchy and integrity of mailboxes
   • Migrates from on-premises and hosted Exchange Server
   • Migrates public folders, shared mailboxes, archive mailboxes, and more

   Additionally, it supports Office 365 tenant to tenant migrations too.

2. Office 365 Migrator for Lotus Notes

   If you are using Lotus Notes/Domino Server to manage your day-to-day tasks, then it is time to switch to Office 365. But there are no manual methods to migrate NSF files to Office 365. So, you can take help from Kernel Office 365 Migrator for Lotus Notes, which is specially designed to migrate IBM Lotus Notes/ Domino Server NSF files to Office 365. It provides multiple features to the users, such as:

   • Bulk migration of Domino Server/Lotus Notes NSF files to Office 365
   • Allow migrating Lotus Notes Groups to Office 365 groups
   • Skip empty/deleted folders or duplicate items during migration
   • Offers manual and automated mapping between NSF file and Office 365 mailboxes

   Kernel Office 365 Migrator for Lotus Notes is also helpful in migrating SmartCloud Notes to Office 365.

3. Kernel IMAP to Office 365

   Specially designed to migrate your entire IMAP mailboxes to Office 365, Kernel IMAP to Office 365 provides you with an extensive set of features and functions. Using IMAP to Office 365 Migration utility, you can easily migrate IMAP mailboxes to Office 365/Exchange.

   • Allow migrating single/multiple mailboxes from IMAP email servers
   • Offers incremental mailbox migration
   • Sective data migration from IMAP to Office 365
   • Compatible with almost every IMAP server, including Yahoo, Gmail, G Suite, WorkMail, etc.

4. Kernel Office 365 Backup & Restore

   Even if you are using Office 365, it is necessary to backup mailbox data time-to-time, as cloud platforms also prone to cyberattacks. Moreover, many users often need to restore data from a PST file to Office 365 mailboxes. In that case, using Kernel Office 365 Backup & Restore could be a great choice for you. This Office 365 Backup & Restore tool is an incredible software that offers multiple features, including:

   • Backup Office 365 mailboxes, public folders, and archive mailboxes to PST
   • Backs up Office 365 Groups to PST format
   • Perform selective data backup/restoration
   • Import Outlook OST/PST files to Office 365 mailboxes and groups

   Using this utility, you can perform backup/restore of multiple Office 365 mailboxes.

These are four essential tools that every organization should opt for if they are migrating to Office 365. However, you can also have some other cloud migration and import tools like Kernel Import PST to Office 365, Kernel Amazon WorkMail to Office 365, Kernel Office 365 Migrator for GroupWise, etc.

Conclusion

No doubt, Office 365 is an excellent choice for those organizations, which manage a large amount of data, need security and high productivity. In this article, we have highlighted what Office 365 is, its extensive features, roles of Office 365 platform and advantages to organizations, and how you can migrate your data to Office 365 from various platforms with the help of ultimate professional Office 365 migration tools with complete features and functions details.