Implementing Office 365 for business
Hello all:
I am looking to move my existing company from an internally domain controlled environment to Office 365. Our company has contracted considerable since its glory day, where we had over 50 employees to now only having 4 (actually three because I am in the process of transitioning to a new company).
Because I am leaving I do not want to leave them high and dry, and wanted to create something that would be relatively easy to maintain.
My scenario is the following:
I have Win Server 2008 R2
Exchange 2007
MySQL Server (not a dc)
NAS Device
My domain is MyDomain.local with an external name of MyDomain.com with web presence (hosted, not internal - so this probably does not matter much)
What I want to do is move everything off premise with the exception of the MySQL server. I've been looking at Office 365 and it looks to be all they really need at this point. They have online storage (which will replace the NAS device), host exchange (will remove the Exchange Server), and of course MS Office.
Now while I understand this all from a high level, I want to really understand how to implement this solution. My main concerns are as follows:
1) How would I migrate the Exchange Store? Would I just copy mail to a pst file and then upload them?
2) Would I be able to create a sign on where once they log onto their computers locally, they will always be connected to their shares, etc? I looking to see if there is a way to emulate a locally networked environment.
These seem to be my two biggest hurdles as I want it to be as transparent as possible. I looked online, but could not find any numbers to call MS directly regarding this and everything seems to point to MS partners, and I do not want to go that route.
Any help with these items and any other items you may think of would be greatly appreciated. I may ask other questions on this thread as I deem fit for the overall discussion as I cannot think of any other major humps besides the two I mentioned.
Many thanks!
jocasio123
I am looking to move my existing company from an internally domain controlled environment to Office 365. Our company has contracted considerable since its glory day, where we had over 50 employees to now only having 4 (actually three because I am in the process of transitioning to a new company).
Because I am leaving I do not want to leave them high and dry, and wanted to create something that would be relatively easy to maintain.
My scenario is the following:
I have Win Server 2008 R2
Exchange 2007
MySQL Server (not a dc)
NAS Device
My domain is MyDomain.local with an external name of MyDomain.com with web presence (hosted, not internal - so this probably does not matter much)
What I want to do is move everything off premise with the exception of the MySQL server. I've been looking at Office 365 and it looks to be all they really need at this point. They have online storage (which will replace the NAS device), host exchange (will remove the Exchange Server), and of course MS Office.
Now while I understand this all from a high level, I want to really understand how to implement this solution. My main concerns are as follows:
1) How would I migrate the Exchange Store? Would I just copy mail to a pst file and then upload them?
2) Would I be able to create a sign on where once they log onto their computers locally, they will always be connected to their shares, etc? I looking to see if there is a way to emulate a locally networked environment.
These seem to be my two biggest hurdles as I want it to be as transparent as possible. I looked online, but could not find any numbers to call MS directly regarding this and everything seems to point to MS partners, and I do not want to go that route.
Any help with these items and any other items you may think of would be greatly appreciated. I may ask other questions on this thread as I deem fit for the overall discussion as I cannot think of any other major humps besides the two I mentioned.
Many thanks!
jocasio123
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ASKER
Thanks for the info. I am very appreciative of your help. I awarded a bit more points to Vasil as the link provided was great.
Thanks again,
jocasio123
Thanks again,
jocasio123
In office 365, the personal OneDrive (for business) is part of SharePoint. So if you are not planning to use SharePoint, OneDrive will not be available. You can use the free one, but that one is not related to Office 365 (apart from the fact that it's again called OneDrive, but without the 'for business' label).
Another important thing to understand is that in Exchange Online, there is no true backup and item/mailbox recovery is responsibility of the end user (the admins). If for example someone deletes an important mail, there is only a limited period in which it can be recovered, and Microsoft will not help you with any request of the 'please recover my message from Jan 1st' type. The more expensive plans include In-place hold, which can preserve mail indefinitely, though again some knowledge will be needed to recover the mail.
It's not really a rocket science, but they will still need someone with experience for this and few other things. They can always open a case with Microsoft, but even if they end up with a good agent, they will still need to know they way around the service. Microsoft agents are not allowed to perform any tasks on behalf of the customer, they can only give you instructions.
The good news is that there are tons of materials over the net, and most common issues have already been described in details.
Another important thing to understand is that in Exchange Online, there is no true backup and item/mailbox recovery is responsibility of the end user (the admins). If for example someone deletes an important mail, there is only a limited period in which it can be recovered, and Microsoft will not help you with any request of the 'please recover my message from Jan 1st' type. The more expensive plans include In-place hold, which can preserve mail indefinitely, though again some knowledge will be needed to recover the mail.
It's not really a rocket science, but they will still need someone with experience for this and few other things. They can always open a case with Microsoft, but even if they end up with a good agent, they will still need to know they way around the service. Microsoft agents are not allowed to perform any tasks on behalf of the customer, they can only give you instructions.
The good news is that there are tons of materials over the net, and most common issues have already been described in details.
ASKER
Thanks again Vasil:
I will probably still help them out, so we should be OK. I just didn't want something to happen during the day that needed immediate attention, ie, the server going down or exchange store being stopped or some other whacky issue that would stop them from doing their day to day business.
BTW: Do you know if there is a way to add alias to the email addresses?
jocasio123
I will probably still help them out, so we should be OK. I just didn't want something to happen during the day that needed immediate attention, ie, the server going down or exchange store being stopped or some other whacky issue that would stop them from doing their day to day business.
BTW: Do you know if there is a way to add alias to the email addresses?
jocasio123
ASKER
Never mind about the alias. I got it.
ASKER
Vasil: With respect to the login issue, I want this to be as seamless as possible, so that's why I am trying to figure out if the user can log into their computer and be automatically logged into the shared folders with Office 365. I know when I played with SkyDrive before, there was actually a way to create a mapped drive to it. Can this be done with Office 365 and One Drive? I'm not sure if they would really need SharePoint as they do not do a lot of collaboration, unless there is another really useful reason to implement it. I'm not too familiar with it.
Any other thoughts are most certainly welcomed. I will check out some of the links provided to see how I fare.
Many thanks!
jocasio123