To ensure the success of your Office 365 migration project, you need to make sure you achieve the following objectives:

• No data is lost during the transition process;
• No system downtime – your business still needs to operate; and
• It’s done quickly and cost-effectively.

In other words, an Office 365 migration that is stress-free! These objectives can be achieved by following these 7 steps:

1. Review your current email system

If you’re like most people, the primary reason for migrating to Office 365 is because you want to move your email to the cloud. Accordingly, it’s important to start by collating the technical details on your current email server and run an audit report that identifies all the active users and groups as well as the size of their email boxes.

2. Review your current Microsoft licensing status

Office 365 has number of technical prerequisites that you need to be aware of before you migrate. The main one that catches people out is that Windows XP and Office 2003 are not supported. As well as making sure your operating system and browser will work with Office 365, it’s also important to take stock of the versions and licenses of the Microsoft Office software you already have. Like most organisations, you are probably using a mixture of Microsoft Office versions, which is just fine – but it’s important to understand what you have currently so that you can make the right decision on which mix of Office 365 plans are best suited for your organization.

3. Review your current data storage locations and size

Office 365 offers two main locations for the storing of your data – Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint. In order to make an informed decision on how best to store your data once you migrate to Office 365, it’s essential to review and record the locations and size of your data.

4. Decide on the best mix of Office 365 plans

You’re now at the point where you have information on your email system, you’ve got a detailed report on your current Microsoft licensing and you know how much data you have to migrate. Congratulations – you’re now at the point where you can review the different Office 365 business and enterprise plans and decide which ones are best for your organization. Note that Microsoft now allow Office 365 plans to be mixed and matched which is great news for all businesses large and small. It means you can maximise your existing investment in recent versions of Microsoft Office as well as cater for the different requirements your staff may have, depending on their roles.

5. Technical preparation for your Office 365 migration

It’s now time to get all your ducks in a row and that means collating all the technical details you will require to conduct a smooth migration. For example, the last thing you want to do is start your Office 365 migration and then find out you don’t have the right username and password to update your domain name record. An important part of this step is to update all computer software to the minimum specification and also consider whether you want to change the design of your email groups and the way you structure your data.

6. Perform your Office 365 migration

The big day has arrived and it’s time to start your Office 365 migration. This is the critical step, but with the lead-up work all done, you should feel confident that the process will go smoothly. Typically the email system and data is migrated over a weekend to minimize the impact on internet performance and to reduce the impact on normal business operations.

7. Perform a post-migration cleanup

With the actual migration complete, there are still a number of clean-up tasks to perform before the project can be deemed a success. The number and types of tasks will differ for each migration but a common example is the decommissioning of the existing Exchange software from your server. This not only reclaims disk space, but it will also increase the performance of your server and ensure that your server runs reliably going forward.

Is a DIY Office 365 Migration a Good Idea?

As you can see these seven steps collectively require considerable knowledge of your existing systems as well as a good understanding of the Office 365 platform. There are a number of third-party software tools that can be used to assist in this process – the tricky part is to know which ones are of value. In addition you need to carefully consider whether it is worth using internal staff to learn and perform a one-off multi-step project.

It may well be that the best way to assure your organization of a successful Office 365 migration is to use the services of a Microsoft Partner that has Office 365 certifications and real-world experience in performing Office 365 migrations.

If you are still running Exchange Server 2003, then you need to fast track your Office 365 migration, because Exchange 2003 stopped being supported by Microsoft in 2014. What’s more, most Exchange Server 2003 systems are running on Windows Server 2003 and this will also no longer be supported by Microsoft after June 2015. These two events mean your system will be increasingly open to external hacker attacks as security breaches are no longer being fixed by Windows updates.

In addition, unless you have moved your server to a virtual environment sometime over the last few years, it is very likely that your physical file server is also out of warranty, running slowly, nearing its disk capacity and beginning to suffer reliability issues.

Migration from Exchange 2003 to Office 365 can still be safely done, however there is often an extra problem to be overcome concerning Microsoft Outlook. Many organizations that are running Exchange 2003 are also running Office 2003. The good news is that moving to Office 365 presents a great opportunity to also replace Office 2003 by choosing an Office 365 plan that includes Office 2013 – for example the Office 365 Business Premium plan.

The bad news is you have a chicken and egg situation because Office 2003 in general – and Outlook 2003 in particular – does not work with Office 365. This means that during the migration process you have to decide between upgrading your email system first, and then not being able to access it until you’ve updated all the computers to a later version of Office (at least office 2007). Or, you upgrade all the computers to a newer version of Office first, and then do the migration of Exchange Server to Office 365.

Whichever method you choose, there will be a period of time when users are stuck in no man’s land – they won’t be able to access their email server from their version of Outlook. So a decision need to be made – is it best to upgrade Office first, or is it best to upgrade the email server first? Real world experience shows that it is best in every situation to upgrade to Office 365 first and then upgrade Office 2003 users to Office 2013. Here’s two hypothetical examples to prove this point:

Company A has 20 staff with 19 users running Outlook 2010 on their computers and with only one user running Outlook 2003. It would be best to migrate the email server to Office 365 first, because only the one user won’t be able to access the new email server until their version of Office gets upgraded. And it should take only an hour or so to get that user’s computer upgraded to Office 2013.

Company B also has 20 staff, but in their case 19 users are on Office 2003 and only one is on say Office 2010. At first glance this seems like a problem – if the Exchange 2003 Server is migrated to Office 365 first then the 19 staff won’t be able to access their emails until the computers have Office 2013 installed. And conversely, if the 19 computers are updated to Office 2013 first, they won’t be able to access their emails until the Office 365 migration process has been completed. Fortunately, in this case there is a very good interim solution – users can make use of OWA (Outlook Web Access) to access their emails via the browser until their computers are updated to Office 2013. Indeed, it will also be possible for them to now have access to Office 365 email on a range of smartphones and tablets they may already have like iPhones, iPads, Windows mobile devices and Android devices.

Performing migrations to Office 365 from later versions of Exchange are a lot easier to action, but with a well-designed scoping plan that considers the implications of old versions of Office, the Exchange 2003 migration process can still be performed in a timely and cost-effective fashion.

It may well be that the best way to assure your organization of a successful Office 365 migration from Exchange 2003 is to use the services of a Microsoft Partner that has Office 365 certifications and real-world experience in performing Office 365 migrations.

There’s quite a buzz about Hosted Desktop Services (HDS) these days and for many businesses it makes a lot of sense. Maybe it doesn’t initially look so great for some IT support companies and departments but if embraced in the right way it can be a benefit for them as well.

HDS, sometimes referred to as cloud services or software as a service, is not really such a new idea. Before people started using PC’s as the mainstay device most computer systems had servers and intelligent workstations which we now call thin clients. Unix users will be very familiar with this concept.

Intelligent workstations like the thin clients of today had some memory and processor capacity but they mostly accessed software off of a server. Now that good broadband supplies are available the same type of system can be accessed over the internet. It has always been a good system!

In a nut shell a Hosted Desktop Service is “your PC” managed remotely and that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, from any device without all the headaches of maintaining it or the loss of performance that you often get with Windows based PC’s.

Here are 10 reasons why it’s a good idea for many businesses!

1 – A Uniform Experience Everywhere On Everything

Putting software on a central server means everyone can access the same software from anywhere. No more worries about which versions, which licenses, upgrading versions etc. Many HDS services will give access to software using apps that will work on nearly any device such as Citrix which works on Windows, Android, Apple OS, Linux, Unix, phones, tablets and other popular platforms that I may have missed out. It will work on different versions of different operating systems too!

2 – Backups & Security All Looked After For You

Backup and security are a necessary pain. It can be a worry when considering HDS; after all, how good is the supplier’s backup and security system? The answer is that it has to be good! Some companies will undoubtedly be storing sensitive and valuable data so HDS suppliers need to make sure everything is backed up in real time or close to it, often across different server locations in different countries.

Security has to be really good because if anyone hacked into the HDS systems it would be trouble for customer and supplier alike. That goes for up-time too which needs to be 99.99% of the time!

Because the software and data is stored on the HDS servers if a device is stolen or lost it’s no problem especially with HDS sessions timing out.

Similarly antivirus and anti-malware services are all taken care of.

Backup, security and availability will be better than that which most companies have on their own systems.

3 – Speed

If you have used Windows based machines you will be familiar with the way that they can slow down over time. Maybe because there is too much software on a PC, because of a virus, perhaps the hard disc has faults, not enough memory or maybe the computer is just generally underpowered. This is not a problem with HDS where the servers are high quality, fast and maintained for you. The servers are doing all the work for you, all your device has to do is run the software that allows you to access the servers which doesn’t tax a device or use much internet bandwidth.

It’s like having a new PC every day. People can work faster, be more productive and won’t have the frustration associated with slow computers.

Just as an example I tested loading up Microsoft Word and a few other Microsoft products and the load up times were between half a second and 2 seconds.

4 – Proactive Support

Another headache with maintaining software and hardware is keeping everything up to date, often across many devices. Most of that won’t apply with HDS as support staff are keeping everything up to date for their customers and monitoring systems for faults.

HDS users will still have queries and sometimes things may go wrong so it’s important that support is available during working hours and maybe even 24/7support. This is a level of support available with HDS as many companies are using it and some at all hours.

5 – Improved Cash Flow

HDS is a scalable subscription service where different people can use different software at different times. This gives flexibility that can be controlled. The cost can be fixed to be the same each month or it can be capped to how much a customer is willing to spend each month allowing flexibility without loss of control. There are few unexpected expenses to accommodate. HDS is an easy service to build into a company’s monthly and yearly budget.

6 – Mobility

Because it works anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection and on almost any device it can be used in London, Sydney, and Delhi or perhaps even in space (one day). No special connections are needed. If a company moves office it doesn’t matter, if someone has to work at home it doesn’t matter. Use a PC, tablet, laptop or even a phone!

People can use their own hardware or simple thin clients* with any suitable screen.

*A thin client is a small box used to connect everything together such as a screen, a keyboard and a mouse. It can be simply configured to access an HDS service. Thin clients often have a built in card reader, sockets for USB devices, headphones etc. They rarely have any discs in them and don’t need heavy duty processing power. Typically they are around 8 inches square and 2 inches deep. They use much less power than a PC too so cost less to run.

7 – Less Hardware And Software Worries

A company running its own system might have a list of IT concerns that go something like this:

• Hardware to maintain and replace
• Software to maintain, upgrade, fix, replace
• Provisioning of new hardware and software
• Security
• Backups
• Software version control
• Licensing
• Operating system support; possibly across different versions or even different OS types.
• System availability
• IT support, in house or contracted out
• And more…

At the time of writing Windows XP has recently been phased out of Microsoft’s support regime but lots of companies still have it and have the headache of what to do next as they can’t stay with XP forever. This is not an issue with hosted desktop services as it’s all kept up to date on an ongoing basis.

Most of the hardware and software that had to be looked after before is no longer a concern with HDS.

With HDS there is often a core set of software that everyone gets such as Microsoft office, Chrome, Adobe Reader etc. Other optional paid for or free standard software can be chosen from. Other off the shelf or bespoke software can be requested and put onto the system for selection or as part of a customer’s standard HDS setup.

The purchase and use of software by people or groups of people can be controlled by an approval system so that a company has control over what they are paying for.

The data for software used can be retained even if not used or paid for all of the time.

With HDS people can’t just download software as they like. Miscellaneous software can come with viruses or malware or compromise the working environment. This is another built in method of controlling the integrity of company IT systems.

8 – More Time For Your Business

Depending on how much IT infrastructure a company has and how it uses it, a significant amount of time might be spent planning and implementing IT strategies. In turn a company may have to spend time communicating with their IT support department or provider. Some of this time will be concerned with day to day IT matters such as security, backup, housekeeping etc. If much of this is offloaded onto HDS either the IT support function can be reduced or diverted to other important company IT projects.

9 – Integrate With Your Own Special Systems

A company might have some software and data that they want moved to the HDS servers and for most software this can be done. It’s sometimes referred to as on-boarding. There may be one-time costs for this but once it’s done that company won’t have to worry about looking after it again.

A company might have some systems that just aren’t suitable for HDS for example; a film company might have editing suites with specialized hardware and software that maybe 25% of the company use. Systems like these can be kept as they are and HDS still used in conjunction with those systems where required. Where needed data can be shared, synchronised and local data can be accessed directly from HDS!

10 – A Low Carbon Footprint

Last and not least you and your company will be doing your bit for the environment. The servers used with HDS are usually high quality enterprise servers that use less energy than others and a reduced carbon footprint all round.

If you and your company are using thin clients you will be using less energy at the office end which reduces your own carbon footprint.

Each user takes 100k to 200k of internet bandwidth per session which could be less than what is used normally. Less internet capacity may be needed and may be reduced or utilised elsewhere.

Nowadays you find Wi-Fi networks you can access easily everywhere… in coffee shops, restaurants and hotels, shopping malls, even out in the open street in major city centres.

This is great. It means that you can go online from your mobile phone, smartphone, tablet or laptop, indeed any portable device, in most places at any time at all.

The problem, as ever with the internet, is security.

What is Wi-Fi?

Wi-Fi (or WiFi) is a local area wireless technology that allows electronic devices to connect to each other. The term is not an abbreviation. It was invented as a play on the word Hi-Fi and is just a fancy name for a wireless local area network (WLAN).

Many devices, such as personal computers, video-game consoles, smartphones, digital cameras, tablets and digital audio players, can be connected using Wi-Fi. They link to a network (such as the internet) via a wireless network access point known as a hotspot.

Walls block the radio waves used by this technology. So indoors, the range is limited to about 20 meters (66 feet). Outdoors, however multiple overlapping access points enable many square kilometres to be covered by a single public Wi-Fi network.

Security problems with Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi can be less secure than wired connections. This is simply because an intruder does not need a physical connection.

Most of us are pretty good at protecting our PCs at home, using firewalls to prevent cyber-criminals from accessing our information and anti-virus software to reduce our chances of becoming infected with a computer virus or other malware.

The same threats are present when you access the internet using a public Wi-Fi network. The added problem is that you can never be sure whether a particular network or hotspot is secure.

Most public Wi-Fi networks do not use encryption, a form of security in which the information you send is encoded so it cannot be read by a third party.

In addition, you don’t even need a password to get connected to most public networks, which means that they are open to anyone in the area including you friendly local cyber-thief.

Logging into your bank account or other personal account over an unsecured network can be particularly dangerous as your log-in details could easily be read by a hacker, who will then be in a position to clean out your bank account or impersonate you using your personal details.

Protection on a public Wi-Fi network

As you can see, using public Wi-Fi networks can be quite risky. However, you can make yourself relatively secure if you follow these seven tips:

[1] Whatever device you use to access the internet, check that your anti-virus and anti-malware software is up to date and turned on.

[2] To make it more difficult for an attacker to gain access, make sure your firewall is turned on.

[3] Turn off sharing when you are on a public network. This will keep others from accessing your computer and files. You can turn it off in the Control Panel (Windows) or System preferences (Mac OS X).

[4] Avoid logging on to banking and shopping sites where, to do so, you have to enter personal and financial information. You should only do online banking or shopping over a trusted connection, such as a home network you know is protected.

[5] Go to sites with URLs that begin with “https” instead of “http”, as “https” sites use encryption to protect the information you send.

[6] Avoid automatically connecting to hotspots. Doing so will reduce your chances of being connected to a malicious hotspot set up to steal information. As before, you can do this from the Control Panel (Windows) or System preferences (Mac OS X).

[7] If you use public Wi-Fi a lot, a good idea would be to use a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN is like a private network which you can access from anywhere. However you need to subscribe to a VPN service for which there is a monthly fee. However a VPN is a smart choice for businesses, large and small.

There have recently been a significant number of articles in the media relating to what are called “Spear Phishing Attacks”.

Although directed, for the moment, mainly at larger organisations, they are causing a degree of concern throughout all business sectors and technical computer support personnel.

What are they and are you vulnerable?

Phishing – a recap

To begin with, there is nothing new in this approach which is used by various forms of hackers and crooks to gain access to your confidential information.

It basically involves putting something on a screen in front of you, perhaps an e-mail or a website screen, that appears to be one thing when it is actually something else. You trust the screen in front of you and therefore obligingly enter things like your ID and password or follow the links it contains.

In fact, you are not communicating with anything legitimate and the people you have provided your password and ID to will make use of them for their own various nefarious purposes.

Although this has been around for a long time, there has recently been a variation developed which has earned the title Spear Phishing.

Spear Phishing

What happens here is that you will receive an e-mail from a friend or organisation that appears to be extremely credible in terms of its origin.

It will seem to be so because the crooks of the world have realised just how much public domain information is now freely available online relating to individuals and their business connections. For example, in facilities such as FACEBOOK and LINKEDIN, it may be comparatively easy to look at public information pages that give at least some details relating to you but also numbers of your business and personal contacts.

So, it is comparatively easy to craft an e-mail to you that appears to be coming from someone you know and trust. As a general rule, that e-mail will also invite you to send a note or look at something online, courtesy of a provided link. When you follow the link, you’ll be asked to enter your Microsoft Outlook ID and password.

From that point onwards, the tale will follow a gloomy pathway of allowing outside people access to some of your most personal and private communications.

Can you stop it?

The bad news about this type of attack is that it cannot be stopped through technical means.

It can be difficult or impossible for software, anti-virus systems or even online helpdesk support services to spot that an e-mail is not from the originator it claims to be from.

So, the ultimate weapon against it is common sense and public awareness. If you receive an e-mail from someone you know, you should really look at it and ask yourself a few questions:

1. Is the person’s phraseology exactly as you would normally expect to see it?

2. Does it contain minor grammatical errors and glitches in the English language?

3. Is that e-mail out of context? For example, are they asking you to send something or look at something which you have already previously discussed with them?

4. Is it referring to a subject matter that isn’t one you would normally expect them to be raising in an e-mail?

Two final stages:

1. Is the link it contains showing up with an “HTTPS” prefix? If it isn’t, that can be a warning sign.

2. Don’t hesitate to send a separate e-mail to the originator (NOT simply hitting the ‘REPLY’ button to the e-mail you are in doubt about), asking them if they sent it.

The bottom line is simple – vigilance is required.