E-Mail System Conversions

Email Migration is a process used to migrate mailbox content from one account to another. An equivalent term is Mailbox Migration, in which case records such as appointments, contacts or tasks may also be migrated.

Migration Scenarios

Mailboxes may be migrated for different reasons:

• Mailboxes may need to be migrated because a company wants to use a new email service provider. Or
• Mailboxes may need to be migrated following a company acquisition or merger. In most cases, a simple one-time migration approach may be employed. However, more advanced scenarios exist, including:

Consolidation - email migration is performed to consolidate multiple accounts into one, for example following an employee's departure.
Backup - email migration is performed to back up or preserve data, for example to ensure legal compliance.
Coexistence - email migration is performed for evaluation purposes, for example during a migration pilot.
Upgrade - email migration is performed to facilitate an upgrade, for example when deploying a new version of an email system.

The Migration Procedure

Various technical procedures are normally used to achieve email migration.  The more common procedures are:

• Email forwarding - this allows a mailbox to forward received content to a designated email address.
• MX record modification - this allows a mail server to process emails on behalf of a designated SMTP domain.
• Content conversion - this allows content to be converted, for example from TNEF to MIME format.
• Property mapping - this allows properties to be mapped, for example from Gmail to Exchange contacts.
• Copy Email -  Make a copy of email from a source mailbox to a destination mailbox

The tool of choice for all mail systems migrations is the Transend Migrator. Transcend allows for the management of the entire migration project from within the application.  The technical team or even end users can schedule a migration for a later time, pause and restart a migration, and monitor the real-time status of the migration (mailbox by mailbox) via the Migration Monitor.  The Transend Migrator has the ability to act as an end-user client-based migration utility, or a centralized migration management system that facilitates the entire migration process from a central location.