Microsoft Exchange 2007: Life Support Coming to an End

The Lifecycle Policy of Microsoft has given a consistent and predictable guideline to provide the support throughout the life cycle of a product. According to the news in the world of technology, Exchange 2007 support reaches end of life on 11th April 2017. However, with upgrading technicalities, users have to migrate from Microsoft Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2016 or Office 365 client. But still, if users are currently using Exchange 2007, now, is the time to plan and act to move further. In the following segment, we will discuss the overall procedure to upgrade from Microsoft Exchange 2007 to Office 365.

What does 'End of Life' Really mean?

Almost each Microsoft products including Exchange Server has a life cycle during which we offer multiple advanced features like bug fixes, security fixes, etc. Simply, End of life means that

 Microsoft will not provide some of the existing features for Exchange 2007 in future. Some of the points are:

• Technical assisted support for problems that may happen.
• Bug fixing for errors that are discovered and may affect the stability and usability of the Exchange as well.
• Security fixing policies for the vulnerability that are recognized and that makes the server vulnerable to secure and safe.
• Updating the Time zone.

After this date, most of the users begin to download the Exchange 2007 for accessing. However, due to above points, we strongly suggested that users have to migrate Exchange from version 2007 as soon as possible. Now, we to find that what when Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 support comes to an end.

Alternatives when Exchange 2007 Support Reaches End of Life

With Exchange 2007 passing its End of Life, a great time to explore more options and planning for the migration. Such as:

• Users allow moving data to Office 365 using cutover, hybrid or staged migration methods.
• Also, users able to migrate Exchange 2007 to a newer version of Exchange server on their on-premises environment.

Now, we will discuss these alternatives in brief.

Migrate to Microsoft Office 365 account: Specific Reasons to Move

Migrating the emails to MS Office 365 is one of the best and simplest option to retire Exchange 2007 deployment. Moving to O365 will make a single hop from 10-year-old technology to state some features, like:

• Compliance capabilities like Retention Policies, in-place eDiscovery, in-Place Hold, and Litigation etc.
• Microsoft Office 365 Groups.
• Focused Inbox available.
• Delve Analytics.
• REST APIs for accessing the emails, calendars, contacts, and so on.

By performing the migration, Office 365 contains new upgraded features those are stated in below section:

• Purchasing and maintaining the computer hardware problems.
• Paying for cooling and heating of Exchange servers.
• Keeping up-to-date with product, time zone, and security fixes.
• Maintaining storage and product to support the compliance needs.
• Upgrading to the latest version of Exchange in Office 365.

Office 365 to Exchange 2007: Methods to Migrate Easily

When Microsoft Exchange 2007 Support Reaches End of Life, the user has to follow some new things such to move to any cloud account, to wait for the new support, etc. Depending on the organization, we got to know that there are three types of migration process a user can opt for:

1. Cutover Migration

A cutover migration is one where to select the date and time, users will easily migrate all the mailboxes, contacts, distribution groups, etc to Office 365. After finishing, a user can shut-down their on-premises Exchange and start using only Office 365 client.

Here, there are few things to consider:

• Office 365 will connect to Exchange 2007 servers by using Outlook at anywhere over TCP port 443.
• All on-premises mailbox data will be moved to MS Office 365.
• Users will require an on-premises administrator account, which can access to read the data of their mailboxes.
• The Exchange 2007 servers have accepted all domains that users want to use in Office 365.
• Users will require an Office 365 license that contains Exchange Online for each individual mailbox to migrate.

2. Staged Migration

A staged migration is that where hundred and thousands of mailboxes get migrated to Office 365. Even users able to transfer each mailbox in a batch that enables to control how many, and which mailbox becomes migrated at a time. It takes more than a week to complete the migration process, and there isn't any need any of the advanced hybrid migration features like shared Busy calendar information. Moreover, with cutover migrations, users have to recreate their Outlook accounts.

If the user is performing a staged migration, there are few things to consider:

• The Exchange 2007 server accepts the domain that users want to use in Office 365 and also needed to add as the verified domains within the service.
• In between the time users start the migration in bulk and Office 365 will synchronize multiple Office 365 and on-premises mailboxes periodically. This will help to complete the migration without any worries.
• Users will collect a new temporary password for their Office 365 profile that needs to change when they sign into their mailbox.

3. Full Hybrid Workaround

A fully hybrid migration is a single where an Organization contains large mailboxes and want to transfer some of them to Office 365. Because these migrations are a bit long process, so the hybrid migration makes it possible to:

• Display the on-premises users, containing free/ busy calendar information in Office 365 and vice-versa.
• A global address list is visible that consists a recipient of both Office 365 and on-premises.
• Appear full Outlook recipient cards for all users, regardless of either they are on-premises or Office 365.
• Safe & secure email communication between both on-premises Exchange and Office 365 with TLS and certificates.

Full hybrid migration is best for organizations that stay in a hybrid configuration in the previous months. Office 365 becomes an extension of the on-premises organization. Full hybrid migration needs the following things to consider:

• Office 365 have to connect to the hybrid server by sung Outlook at anywhere over the TP port number 443.
• Users have to configure directory synchronization with azure active Directory Connect in between their on-premises active Directory and MS Office 365.
• Users have a licensed Office 365, which includes Exchange online for each mailbox that they can migrate.
• On multiple devices, users no need to set up a new Outlook account and no need to download their emails again.

Trasfer to a Latest or Newer Version of Exchange Server

Exchange 2007 will come to an End of Life, there is one more way to overcome i.e. move to the latest version of Exchange Server. While moving an email to Office 365, we also need to understand that some Organizations keeping their emails on-premises. Regulatory requirements are the reason for this, to guarantee the data isn’t stored in the datacenter located in an another country, and so on. If users choose to keep all mail on-premises, then, they can move their Exchange 2007 to Exchange 2010 environment.

We also recommend that users can migrate to Exchange 2016 server if they are unable to move to Office 365 account. Exchange 2016 or latest version includes all the advanced features with previous releases of Exchange environment. Therefore, it is necessary to migrate all emails to the latest version of Exchange.

Conclusion

The above section discussed various options that can help to migrate Exchange 2007 to Office 365 in detail. We have explored that Microsoft will no longer provide the Exchange 2007 server due to the end of life. Therefore, users have to migrate all emails to the latest version named as Exchange 2016 or Office 365. However, Office 365 is a cloud-based application where to store each data file. It will be easy for user to migrate to the Microsoft Office 365 account as this is the best and an easy way to overcome from the problem that Exchange 2007 Support Reaches End of Life.