Cloud migration
Introduction
A 150 user client, as part of their new IT strategy, decided to migrate away from ageing Chambers’ owned hardware to the Microsoft cloud. This included their emails, documents and Lex diary server.
Prior to this Exact had helped them move their onsite servers to two data centres to accommodate their restructuring plans. This included working with the Chambers ISP to provide dedicated connections between Chambers and the data centres and between the data centres themselves.
Chambers were already using Office 365 to provide licencing for Office programs but had not developed their usage of the platform any further. The emphasis from Chambers was for a smooth transition with as little disruption to the end users as possible, whilst at the same time rolling out Microsoft Intune to audit all devices and ensure compliance with Chambers IT policies.
Process
Exact had detailed discussions with the relevant Chambers staff and barristers to plan the migration and insure that it met Chambers requirements. It was agreed with Chambers as to what device policies would be enforced on what devices and templates built on Intune for all device types.
The migration process then followed the following steps:
The enrolment of devices on Intune (users were provided with instructions and assisted by Exact).
Pre-defined device polices templates pushed out the install of the apps appropriate to the device including, Office apps, Microsoft Authenticator app, Anti-Virus and vulnerability scanning tools. All devices were checked for compliance before being allowed to progress to the next stage.
Data was migrated from another cloud system and individuals’ Windows network drives to OneDrive and then access to the old systems removed. Guides on OneDrive were provided to all users.
Shared drives were re-organised by Exact and Chambers staff to accommodate the different permissions structure of Sharepoint vs. Windows severs (i.e. NTFS) and then migrated. Guides on SharePoint were provided to all users.
Emails accounts were migrated in batches, which were scheduled with the users and instructions provided for switching over to the new system. This was done to manage the workload for the Exact Helpdesk in assisting users with removing and re-adding the email profile and migrating to the Outlook app on mobile devices.
Enforce device compliance and MFA across all systems.