Workplace
Moving from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365: how it goes
Short answer
A move from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 follows a fixed order: prepare the domain and users in Microsoft 365, move mail, calendar and contacts with the migration in Exchange Online, move Google Drive to OneDrive and SharePoint, and switch the MX records last. Google Docs, Sheets and Slides become Word, Excel and PowerPoint files along the way. Shared calendars and vacation settings do not come along by themselves.
In which order does a move go?
The order is half the work. This is how we do it:
- Prepare Microsoft 365. Add and verify the domain, create users and licences.
- Arrange routing. Temporary subdomains for the mail flow, so Google and Microsoft can both deliver mail during the transition.
- Move mail, calendar and contacts. With the Google Workspace migration in Exchange Online, in groups of users.
- Move Google Drive. With Migration Manager to OneDrive and SharePoint.
- Switch the MX records. Only when the copy is nearly complete. From that moment new mail arrives at Microsoft 365.
- Laptops and phones. Set up Outlook, OneDrive and Teams, ideally with Intune and Autopilot.
- Tidy up. Cancel Google Workspace only when everyone is working and it has been checked that everything is there.
What comes across well with the mail?
The migration in Exchange Online moves mail, rules, calendar and contacts. Rules arrive switched off; you only turn them on once you have checked them in Outlook.
What does not come along:
| Part | What does not come across |
|---|---|
| Vacation settings and automatic replies | |
| Calendar | Shared calendars and event colours |
| Meeting rooms | Room bookings |
| Contacts | Labels, URLs and more than three email addresses per contact |
A practical point: switch off retention and archive policies during the migration. Otherwise messages that were only archived seem to be missing, and that makes checking hard.
How does Google Drive move?
With Migration Manager, Microsoft’s tool for this step. You connect it to Google Workspace, scan the drives, and pick a destination in OneDrive or SharePoint for each drive.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides become Word, Excel and PowerPoint files along the way. The originals stay in Google. Drawings become images. Google Sites and Google Maps do not come along, and shortcuts are skipped.
Permissions can come along, but only if you map users and groups and deliberately switch on the migration of permissions. That is exactly where a move without a plan gets messy: the files are there, but nobody can open them, or everybody can.
When do the MX records switch?
Last. The MX records decide where mail for your domain is delivered. As long as they point to Google, everything works as it did. When the copy of the mail is nearly complete, we point them to Microsoft 365. When the migration is completed, mail that still arrived at Google in the meantime is copied over too.
Your people notice little of this. On the agreed day they get a new place to sign in, and their mail is already there.
What do employees notice?
On the day of the move they sign in to Microsoft 365 instead of Google. Their mail, calendar and files are already there. What they do notice:
- The mail app on their phone has to be set up again, or replaced by Outlook
- Links to Google files in old emails and documents still point to Google, not to the new place in OneDrive or SharePoint
- A converted Google document opens in Word or Excel, and sometimes looks slightly different
- Meetings planned in Google Meet get a Teams link once they are sent out again
Explain this briefly up front, per department or group, so nobody is caught out on the day.
Is Microsoft 365 the only way out?
No. Many organisations leave Google because they want to know where their data lives. Then Microsoft 365 is not necessarily the answer: Microsoft keeps European data in the EU, but remains an American company.
An alternative is JevanaHub, our managed version of Nextcloud Hub on hardware in the Netherlands. The trade-off is set out in Nextcloud or Microsoft 365.
How do we approach it?
We plan the move, do a trial with a few users, and then move the rest. More under workplace and collaboration and on switching.