Microsoft 365 cross tenant migrations are common in today's dynamic business environment. Organizations need to move data from one tenant to another due to mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, or rebranding. This comprehensive guide covers everything you need to know.
Cloudiway allows you to merge or split your mailboxes, OneDrives, Teams, or SharePoint Sites from a single interface. The platform is ISO 27001 certified for enterprise security.
Why Cross Tenant Migrations Occur
Organizations undergo tenant migrations for various business reasons. Understanding these drivers helps plan the migration approach:
Mergers & Acquisitions
- Consolidate acquired company
- Unified collaboration
- Single tenant management
Divestitures & Spin-offs
- Separate business unit data
- Independent IT infrastructure
- Comply with deal requirements
Rebranding
- New company identity
- New domain requirements
- Fresh tenant configuration
Consolidation
- Reduce multiple tenants
- Simplified administration
- License optimization
Benefits of Cross Tenant Migration
Successful cross tenant migrations deliver significant business value:
Consolidate IT Infrastructure
Reduce complexity by managing a single Microsoft 365 tenant instead of multiple environments.
Improve Collaboration
Enable seamless collaboration with shared calendars, Teams, and document co-authoring across all users.
Reduce Costs
Optimize licensing, eliminate duplicate subscriptions, and reduce administrative overhead.
Ensure Compliance
Apply consistent security policies, retention rules, and compliance settings across the organization.
What to Migrate
A comprehensive Microsoft 365 migration includes all workloads. Cloudiway migrates everything from a single interface:
Mailboxes
- Emails, calendars, contacts
- Shared mailboxes & permissions
- Rooms, equipment, archives
OneDrive
- All files and folders
- Sharing permissions
- Version history
SharePoint
- Sites and libraries
- Pages, fields, termstore
- Permissions & metadata
Microsoft Teams
- Channels & conversations
- Files, tabs, Planner
- Private chats (unique!)
Cloudiway also migrates Intune settings, AD-joined laptop configurations, and offers a unique solution to migrate one-on-one private Teams messages and reinject them automatically into chats at the destination.
Domain Migration Challenges
Domain migration is the most challenging aspect of tenant-to-tenant migration. The process of detaching a domain from the source tenant and attaching it to the target tenant can result in downtime and risk of losing emails.
A domain can only belong to one Microsoft 365 tenant at a time. During migration, you must remove the domain from the source before adding it to the target, creating a gap where emails could be lost.
Cloudiway's Mail Routing Solution
Cloudiway provides a Mail Routing service that solves this challenge:
Configure Mail Routing
Set up Cloudiway's mail routing before detaching your domain from the source tenant.
Transparent Domain Transfer
Detach the domain from source and attach to target while mail routing handles all incoming mail.
Intelligent Routing
Emails are automatically routed to the correct mailbox regardless of which tenant the user has been migrated to.
Zero Downtime
No email is lost during the transition. Users never experience mail delivery issues.
Common Migration Challenges
Office 365 Cross Tenant migrations can present several challenges. However, with proper planning and specialized migration tools, these challenges can be mitigated:
Challenges
- Risk of data loss
- Potential downtime
- Impact on end-users
Cloudiway Solutions
- Delta sync prevents data loss
- Coexistence tools
- Transparent cutover
The Cloudiway Solution
Cloudiway has over a dozen years of experience in Microsoft 365 migrations and covers the full scope of tenant-to-tenant migration:
Complete Mailbox Migration
Permissions, secondary calendars, rooms & equipment, shared mailboxes, archives, distribution lists, and X500 aliases.
Smooth Mail Flow
Mail routing ensures smooth mail flow before, during, and after migration. Domain transfer is transparent without downtime.
Intune & Laptop Migration
Unique modules for migrating Intune settings, moving AD-joined laptops between tenants, and reconfiguring devices.
Teams Private Chat Migration
Unique solution to migrate one-on-one private messages and reinject them automatically into chats at destination.
Ready for Your Cross Tenant Migration?
Move your users and data with no downtime. Cloudiway offers an all-in-one solution with high performance, high speed, high security, and no data loss.
