Resilient organizations are constantly evolving and adapting to the changing market environment and increasing their business exposure. A natural consequence of these processes is all kinds of acquisitions or mergers of entities. In terms of IT services, this involves the growing demand for tenant-to-tenant (tenant to tenant) migrations of Microsoft 365 cloud solutions. The English word tenant (freely translated as tenant) in the case of Microsoft service means a complete and uniquely identified environment that integrates the vendor’s cloud services.
Tenant to tenant
On October 1, 2021, SAP’s largest partner in Central Europe, All for One Group SE took a 51% stake in SNP Poland. To an outside observer, the most visible sign of the merger of the two entities was the change of the Polish company’s name to All for One Poland.
Internally, adjustments had to be made at many levels of company management. In terms of IT services, the largest project was the merger of two previously independent services, entitlements, access and authorization within Microsoft 365 cloud solutions. As in tens of thousands of companies around the world, Microsoft tools are the most basic workbench of every employee, on which internal and external communication is based and without which daily – nomen omen – office activities cannot be imagined.
Tenant to tenant migration is the process of moving data, accounts and services between two logically separated leases of two different organizations. Depending on the needs and arrangements, migration can be performed according to different scenarios:
- Migration between source and target tenants,
- Migration of two source tenants to one new target tenant.
In our case, it was a migration from the source tenant to the target tenant of All for One Group, involving the separation of some data from the source tenant.
The mere transfer of separated data from one tenant took three days, while the most important part of the process was the preparation and setup of specific data, services and domains, which we dealt with for four months. Before performing the data transfer, we tested a number of solutions and products provided by Microsoft, and decided to cooperate with a third party that provided an intermediary tool and facilitated the migration process itself.
The first meetings between representatives of the two companies were aimed at determining the tasks to be performed before the migration and the schedule.
Data, accounts, services
In the migration project, we used Microsoft Teams as the project environment. Dividing each issue into separate channels in Teams allowed us to focus on individual topics, keep our documentation organized, and improved communication between task managers.
In separate channels, we discussed and documented the issues that we carried out as two business units (separate companies) during the work carried out before the migration occurred:
- Applications – the most important services, applications, websites for us;
- AD Azure – a list of employees, fixed as well as variable subcontractors, licenses, subscriptions, and workflows and interfaces – what is supported by Azure;
- Client – listed applications used for daily work on our notebooks;
- Network Topics – the entire network infrastructure of all the company’s offices in several locations, the data center and on the devices used, as well as the remote VPN connection;
- Domain – all external mail domains used by the company whose services you are migrating;
- Enabling – a sub-project to create a home page for Polish users in Sharepoint Online;
- Endpoint Management – unification of the workstation management system;
- HSE, Exchange – all distribution groups and mail flow;
- MDM Mobile Device and Intune – unifying the organization’s mobile device management system;
- MasterData – source data, such as a list of employees and subcontractors;
- Microsoft Partnership – a combination of partnerships between the two organizations;
- PAM_PAW Workstations – workstations with privileged access, listing how many are needed in the organization, and performing applied tests;
- Sharepoint – separation of site list and migration to new tenant;
- Everphone – implementing software that allows the management, purchase and delivery of phones to organizations.
Step by step
After recognizing the scale and allocating the topics, the first step was to determine the number of users and the size of the data that we had to extract from one tenant and transfer to the target tenant. In our case, it was more than 500 users with close to 12 TB of data that was replicated on the All for One Group side. All data from mailboxes were separated and migrated to the new tenant, New mail accounts were created for employees with mapped and transferred data.
We also focused on Microsoft’s Sharepoint Online service, which we use for business every day. We listed more than 1,100 sites to be partitioned with more than 250 GB of space occupied.
We also identified a total of more than 4,500 email, distribution and permission (security) groups to be mapped into the target tenant. The goal was to maintain 100% business continuity, which is crucial for users in their daily work. This involved another key element, namely the analysis of the domain name service (DNS) and mail flow (mailflow).
At network services issues, several skilled and experienced IT specialists worked on the basis of a database (CMDB) maintained on an ongoing basis, identifying devices, connections, networks and subnets, including DNS domains, and configuring a new secure VPN remote connection. For end-user tasks (laptops, phones, permissions, mailboxes, email groups, permission groups and email traffic), IT administrators from the Support Team (Help Desk) demonstrated their knowledge.
Important communication
One of the key elements in the migration was also to keep in touch with employees, keeping them informed early and answering questions. To this end, when preparations for the migration began, an email was sent out to the entire organization, which described the project along with key information about the essentials of Microsoft 365 cloud services, such as new email accounts with transferred data, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, OneNote and Sharepoint Online.
After informing employees of the plans and what would be accomplished in each step, we scheduled a series of meetings (teleconferences) in question and answer (Q&A) mode for the entire organization. In addition, after each meeting, a channel was created in the Microsoft Teams application for employees, which IT administrators monitored in real time and answered any questions.
For the next information campaign, we reminded employees of the upcoming change and provided information on how the one-time passwords for the new email accounts would be communicated to each user. For security reasons, we created a list of employees with their phone numbers available in the BeeOffice portal, of which we are the manufacturer, and which supports office, HR and service processes. More than 500 passwords were then generated and we made them available to employees via a secure SMS gateway. We asked them to log in to their new email accounts according to precise instructions, so that IT administrators could resolve any problems with logins, accounts or pre-shared data even before the migration.
On the day of the migration, with this amount of data and users, we focused on continuity of tasks and on helping employees with any problems as quickly as possible. We divided this into three eight-hour on-call periods throughout the two days of the migration, and provided as many IT administrators as possible after the migration process itself.
Unnoticed by employees
We discuss the challenges of migrating Microsoft 365 services for more than 500 employees with Michal Strzyzewski, Cloud Services Area Manager at All for One Poland, who acted as the manager of this project.
Michał Strzyżewski, Cloud Services Area Manager, All for One Poland
What do you think was the biggest challenge in the migration carried out?
Michal Strzyzewski: Carry out the migration process in a way that is minimally noticeable to employees.
What problems could users expect?
From the beginning, we assumed that we would conduct a series of meetings and follow up communications to employees, informing them of the scope of the migration and what they can expect once it is completed.
What happens to SAP systems when you migrate Microsoft 365 services?
From the perspective of migrating Microsoft 365 resources, an organization’s SAP systems are virtually outside the process. Only in environments that are integrated with a Microsoft Active Directory (SSO) environment may there be additional steps during the migration. Also, if integrated with a migrated email system, the SAP environment will need to be reconfigured.
How do you assess the end result and what are the benefits of migration?
From the organization’s perspective, the migration was completed successfully. There were three entities involved and the provider of the service supporting the migration, yet the process and communication went very well. Dozens of meetings and item-by-item planning resulted in a smooth migration weekend with no major problems. From the perspective of our company’s transition from the SNP group to All for One, the migration meant that we are now in one common environment where resources such as calendars and files can be shared without hindrance.
What could be improved for the next migrations?
Future migration projects should take into account the higher concurrent number of migration threads of individual mailboxes and carry out a larger-scale process to minimize large OneDrive accounts that unnecessarily delay migration.
What is the greatest benefit of such a migration?
Above all, the ability to standardize collaboration tools within an organization and consistency of management. Having data, users, groups and unified email traffic in a single tenant allows faster troubleshooting, management and service improvement. Day-to-day collaboration between employees takes place in an unambiguous, end-user-friendly manner.
What, then, is the key to migration?
Above all, ensuring proper planning, communication within the migration team, as well as with employees, use of available and new tools, and skilled and experienced specialists at every stage of the work.