Windows 10: Microsoft introduces Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools

Brink · Apr 19, 2019

Several weeks ago we added a new Microsoft 365 Roadmap item announcing our intent to add ability to migrate Google G Suite calendars and contacts to the ability to migrate mail to Office 365 using our native migration tools. We're excited to say that this functionality has started rolling out! You can expect to see the new features light up for your tenant in the coming weeks.

Since this is a new flavor of migration to Office 365, let's take a look at what is now becoming available and answer some frequently asked questions about it. Before diving into any migration project, it is important to answer some basic questions about it:

What is the size of the organization you are trying to migrate?

Based on your business requirements, would you like to migrate using a "cutover" (everyone at once) or "staged" (longer-term coexistence) approach?

What is the (approximate) average mailbox size that you'd be migrating?

What kind of data do you need to migrate - like mail, calendar and contacts?

Given the answers to the above questions, does this migration tool fit my needs?

Answering these questions will give you some idea of the scope of your project. Then you just need to find out how to get started. And you can read all about that here.

Before you actually start clicking though, let's cover some of the terms you'll need to understand and an overview of how the new G Suite migration flow will work:

Intro to Mailbox Replication Service (MRS)

Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Replication Service (MRS) is a component that handles mailbox import, export, migration and restoration for Exchange and Office 365.  Migrations are managed using individual requests. MRS is the principal mechanism used to move mailbox data from one place to another.  In context of moving data from G Suite to Office 365 MRS is used to move mailbox data, including messages, contacts, and calendar items. Each mailbox being migrated from G Suite to Office 365 has its own request that will be processed by MRS.

What is a migration batch?

For better usability and scheduling at scale, another component called the Migration Service provides the ability to submit migration requests for batches of users. Behind the scenes, the Migration Service uses the Mailbox Replication Service to manage the per-mailbox requests. Grouping a set of users into a batch is primarily for management purposes and does not impact the speed or throughput of your migrations based on batch size. For your migration, you could choose to have one batch of all users or split the users into multiple batches - the choice is yours.

Give me an overview; how do migration batches work?

How is mail data migrated?

Mail data is currently migrated using IMAP protocol. Authentication happens using domain-wide delegated access using a Service Account that is under your control.

How fast can I migrate my data?

For mail data there is a throughput limitation of 2 GB per mailbox per day. This limit is enforced by G Suite.

For contacts and calendar data, this completely depends on the quota restrictions for your tenant's service account on the Google G Suite side (because a different protocol is used to migrate calendars and contacts; please see documentation).

I reached my 2GB limit for the day (for mail) - will the migration continue the day after?

Yes - it will automatically continue once there is capacity to migrate more data, until the 2GB/day quota is reached.

What data will NOT be migrated over?

Mail: Vacation Settings or Automatic reply settings as well as Filters or Rules

Meeting Rooms: Room bookings

Calendar: Shared calendars, cloud attachments, Google Hangout links and event colors

Contacts: A maximum of three email addresses per contact are migrated over

Contacts: Gmail tags, contact URLs and custom tags are not migrated over

Will this also support migrating data from Google Vault to Office 365?

No.

What is the smallest batch size and is there an optimal batch size?

A migration batch can have a single user, with no current upper limit. There is no magic number for the best migration speed or efficiency. We recommend creating batches per-department or another logical grouping for your organization.

What is the size of the largest email I can migrate from G Suite to Office 365?

The limitation is based on the transport configuration for your organization. The default limit is 35MB. Please see this article on how this limit can be increased.

I tried migrating and saw mention of bad items; what are those?

Bad items are data conversion failures that may be encountered during the syncing phase. Should you encounter any bad items, you can see these in the migration report on the user and batch levels.

How do I track progress of migrations?

You can view the progress and reports via the Exchange Admin Center or use the Get-MigrationBatch PowerShell cmdlet.

Mail on Office 365 doesn't support labels. How is mail translated to folders?

In order to provide the best mail experience in Outlook as well as account for the Focused/Other view, we translate most labels to folders. Mail with the 'Starred' label will become flagged. Mail with the 'Important' label will influence its Focused/Other designation. Mail with other labels will be copied into a folder with the corresponding label name, and mail with no other labels will be moved to the Archive folder. This means that some items that had multiple flags in G Suite will appear in multiple folders in Office 365.

I started off a batch in EAC, why doesn't my migration make progress?

Please make sure that you went through all of the pre-requisite steps on the G Suite side and have provisioned users on the O365 side. Also check the per-user error messages if you see users with a status of 'Failed'.

My messages have completed copying but my migration is stuck at 95%. Help!

This could be expected. Check the status of migration batch; if it reached the 'Synced' status, you can choose to complete the migration batch.

What does completion do?

For G Suite migrations, there's an option to complete a batch. During completion, an additional incremental sync of data is performed, followed by a "switchover". During switchover, a forwarding address is applied to the source G Suite mailbox to forward emails to the configured Target Delivery Domain. Also, any forwarding address applied to the target O365 user is removed.

Do I really need to "Complete" my batch?

Depends - If you're taking the cutover migration route, you don't need to complete your batch(es). If you're taking the staged migration route (i.e., migrating a subset of users sequentially over a longer period of time), you'd want to complete certain batches if you'd like the automatic mail forwarding rules to reverse (Forward email from Gmail to Exchange Online instead of Exchange Online to Gmail).

How can I tell if this feature is available in my tenant?

As an Admin, you will see the G Suite (Gmail) migration option under the Migration tab in the Exchange Admin Center (EAC) or will have access to the -Gmail parameter for New-MigrationBatch CMDlet. If the feature is not available yet, please give it a few days and try again. It is still rolling out to all tenants.

We really hope you enjoy using this new set of tools and it makes your migration from G Suite to Office 365 even easier. We really want to hear your feedback, so please do leave us a comment, and feel free to ask any questions here too. We have plans to make this migration toolset even better over time, so keep an eye on the blog.
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Read more:

Introducing the new migration experience from Google G Suite

Perform a G Suite migration | Microsoft Docs

Microsoft starts rolling out Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools | ZDNet

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Brink · Apr 19, 2019

Microsoft working on Google G Suite to Office 365 migration toolset

Microsoft added to its Office 365 roadmap last week mention of a coming Google G Suite to Office 365 "migration experience." The offering is in development and will be ready by Q2 calendar 2019, according to the roadmap.

Here's the roadmap entry, in full:

"We've heard the feedback and we're excited to announce the new G Suite migration experience which will allow you to directly migrate email, calendar and contacts from Google G Suite to Office 365! Our highly secure solution ensures your data is directly migrated to Office 365, with no resting points along the way. We're also adding support for migrating mailbox in batches."
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Read more: Microsoft is working on a Google G Suite to Office 365 migration toolset | ZDNet

See also: Office 365 Weekly Digest | November 4 - 10, 2018 Office 365 Weekly

Brink · Apr 19, 2019

Spelling and grammar improvements in Google Docs for G Suite

Quick launch summary

Earlier this year we introduced a BETA for new grammar suggestions in Google Docs. Now we’re making this feature available for G Suite Basic, Business, and Enterprise users.

The new features enhance existing spell check functions and highlight possible grammatical errors in your text. We’re also introducing a revamped interface for reviewing spelling and grammar suggestions which makes it faster and easier to spot and correct errors in your text.

Some improvements you’ll see are:

Grammar

Possible grammar corrections will be underlined in blue. To see a suggested correction or dismiss the alert, simply right-click.

You will also see possible grammar errors when running a spelling and grammar check through the Tools menu.

New language review interface

You can easily review all language suggestions for your document with the updated spelling and grammar check tool. Access it through the “Tools” menu or right-click on a suggestion and select “Review more suggestions” — you’ll see each suggestion and actions to correct any errors.

To learn more about how we’re using machine learning to recognize errors and suggest corrections to improve your writing, see here.

Availability

Rollout details

Rapid Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 5, 2019.

Scheduled Release domains: Extended rollout (potentially longer than 15 days for feature visibility) starting on March 5, 2019.

G Suite editions

Available to G Suite Basic, G Suite Business, G Suite Enterprise, and G Suite for Education.

Not Available to G Suite Enterprise for Education, and G Suite for Nonprofits.

On/off by default?

This feature will be ON by default.
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Source: G Suite Updates Blog: Spelling and grammar improvements in Docs for Enterprise

Cristian_25H · Apr 19, 2019

Microsoft Releases Office 365 Home Premium

Microsoft Corp. today announced worldwide availability of Office 365 Home Premium, a reinvention of the company's flagship Office product line for consumers. Office 365 Home Premium is a cloud service designed for busy households and people juggling ever-increasing work and family responsibilities.

The new offering includes the latest and most complete set of Office applications; works across up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs and Macs; and comes with extra SkyDrive storage and Skype calling -- all for US$99.99 for an annual subscription, the equivalent of US$8.34 per month.

"Today's launch of Office 365 Home Premium marks the next big step in Microsoft's transformation to a devices and services business," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. "This is so much more than just another release of Office. This is Office reinvented as a consumer cloud service with all the full-featured Office applications people know and love, together with impressive new cloud and social benefits."

Microsoft also announced it will now deliver many new features and services to the cloud first, transforming the company's traditional three-year release cycle. Now, new features and services stream to subscribers as soon as they are ready, keeping subscribers always up to date while eliminating the hassles of upgrading.

"This is a major leap forward," said Kurt DelBene , president of the Microsoft Office Division. "People's needs change rapidly, and Office 365 Home Premium will change with them."

Simultaneously, Microsoft today released Office 365 University for college or university students, faculty and staff at a price of just US$79.99 for a four-year subscription -- the equivalent of US$1.67 per month. Globally, the company also released updated versions of the traditional Office suite: Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013 and Office Professional 2013. Office 365 for businesses will be released globally with new capabilities on Feb. 27.

Time to Do the Things You Want
In a recent global survey, nearly 60 percent of people said they don't have the time to do the things they want to do, and more than 80 percent said they could save one or more hours a day if they were better organized. Office 365 Home Premium is designed to help people be more productive from virtually anywhere and find the flexibility to do the things they want.

"Between kids and career, I'm never completely at home or completely at work -- and thanks to technology, that suits me just fine," said Jen Singer , an author, blogger and mom of two teen boys. "With Office 365 Home Premium, I can work around my kids' schedules, so I can drive the soccer carpool, coordinate errands while at a doctor's office and still hit my deadlines at work. And, with one subscription for everyone in my family, it's an absolute steal."

To help people find more time to do the things they want, Microsoft is introducing Time to 365 (http://www.office.com/timeto365), a new crowd-sourced website where people can find and share tips, tricks, ideas and inspiration from around the world. Contributors include experts such as "techorating" pro Janna Robinson (Janna Robinson The Techorator) and everyday working parents who have found ways to simplify their lives. Tips on the site include, for example, an idea for organizing your grocery list with OneNote on your phone, a pointer on how to pick the right-sized TV for your living room, and ways to use Office applications to help plan a child's birthday party.

About Office 365 Home Premium
Office 365 Home Premium is available in 162 markets in 21 languages and includes the following:

● The latest and most complete set of Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access
● One license for the entire household to use Office on up to five devices, including Windows tablets, PCs or Macs, and Office on Demand available from any Internet-connected PC
● An additional 20 GB of SkyDrive cloud storage, nearly three times the amount available with a free SkyDrive account
● 60 free Skype world calling minutes per month to call mobile phones, landlines or PCs around the world
● Future upgrades, so you always use the latest time-saving technology

People can learn more about Office 365 Home Premium or try it free for 30 days at http://www.office.com.

Windows 10: Microsoft introduces Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools

Microsoft introduces Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools

Microsoft introduces Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools

Microsoft introduces Google G Suite to Office 365 migration tools

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