Office 365 Migration Mistakes

Stuff happens to everyone everywhere all the time. Mistakes, even when it comes to Office 365 migrations, may never be completely avoided by everyone. However, those who arm themselves with knowledge and learn from mistakes already made by others are best equipped to avoid the costly issues that can break a company’s best intentions of migration to the cloud. Read on the understand these four common errors and how you can avoid them.

1. Using End-User Credentials for Migration

When you migrate to Office 365, you have to ensure that every profile makes it from Microsoft Exchange (or wherever you’re coming from) to your Office 365 platform. You can do a batch migration by inputting every user’s password, but there are few significant hiccups with this process:

• If you change all the user passwords to one, easy to remember password, even temporarily, you are putting your system at a high risk
• If you opt for security and don’t change the passwords, you will spend a lot of time playing data entry

The better option is to use administrator credentials and save yourself time and risk.

2. Failing to Harden Your System

Office 365 is a so-called “security-hardened service,” but like any cloud-based service, it has its vulnerabilities. In this article from security expert David Page, he lays out the importance of keeping up your internal system security, even when employing proven secure cloud-based services.

Starting points to secure your environment:

• Delete unused programs: Excess programs create more portals for malware to access your network, so keep your computers clean and tidy
• Install the latest versions of your apps
• Use security templates
• Change passwords regularly
• Physically secure access to computers, on-premise servers, and other access points
• Secure your cloud platforms

3. Assuming Office 365 Data is Forever

If you (or your higher-ups) operate under the assumption that Office 365 data security and backup means access to the data for all time no matter what, allow us to (gently) burst that bubble. Cloud data is not as secure as some cloud vendors would have your organization believe.

Your company’s last quarter fiscal report can disappear at any moment for a myriad of reasons from professional exits to ransomware to natural disasters; you need to be proactive in protecting and ensuring access to mission-critical data. Large-scale Office 365 security vulnerabilities have been documented, and though they are few and far between, no company should rely on the probability of safety over business.

4. Ignoring the GDPR Regulations

Article 32 of the EU’s GDPR demands explicitly that organizations maintain the “ability to restore the availability and access to personal data in a timely manner in the event of a physical or technical incident.” In this global business atmosphere it is difficult to avoid interfacing with EU clients, customers, and otherwise engage with data that puts your organization under the jurisdiction of EU GDPR data regulations.

Your organization should have answers to these vital data questions:

• Do we have an Office 365 backup solution that accounts for an Office 365 “technical incident”?
• How quickly can we restore our Office 365 data?
• If a file is accidentally deleted, how do we ensure restoration of the correct version?

If you don’t have a feeling of peace and calm when you read those questions, you may need additional data backup. Most organizations should be using a cloud-to-cloud data security service to provide a sufficient level of data protection and accessibility, no matter what.