We receive many requests to migrate customers from Domino to Office 365 (O365). If you are looking to migrate from Domino to Office 365 in 2025, then you will realize these benefits:
Not needing to hire the services of an Exchange expert to run your on-premise Exchange Servers is one reason, and there are no Exchange servers to build and manage, nor Exchange Admins to hire. Microsoft provide all these services within their Office 365 service offering.
Domino to Office 365 Migration Process
Microsoft recommend using native tools for small migrations. However, for migrations to Office 365 we recommend using the Office 365 migration tools from Quest (Dell) Software. We prefer to use these 3rd Party tools for Domino to Office 365 migrations, as they are more robust and offer more migration features.
Minimize Disruption During Migration off Domino to O365
When we consult on a Domino to Office 365 migration project, our overall aim is to minimize the disruption to your business, whilst at the same time ensuring the Office 365 migration project is completed as quickly as possible. The cost of paying for a 3rd Party tool is usually lesser than the business cost of an extended badly managed email migration project.
Transitioning your users off Lotus Notes to Outlook needs to go smoothly to get their support for the migration project.
Office 365 and Domino Migration Coexistence
Typically, larger Domino customers want to migrate to Office 365 over a longer period, and therefore will benefit from coexistence – the ability for users to be spread across Domino and Office 365 platforms. This allows for mail flow, address book sync, and free busy calendar look-ups.
If you are migrating to Office 365, then you can also consider hiring the email migration experts at office365migrate.com.
Providing coexistence for a Domino and Office 365 migration adds complexity, and cost, to a migration project, but often is a perceived business necessity. Our consultants have deep experience in setting up coexistence between these two platforms, and also hold various certifications in the 3rd Party migration tools available.
Follow a proven, robust, approach for Domino to Office 365 migrations which covers: Architecture, Design, Migration Planning, Testing, Coexistence, Pilot, Main Migration. The migration off Domino can be complex, so preparation and planning are key. Because Office 365 is being used, customers often overlook the complexity in actual migration process, thinking using the cloud is simple. They believe that the Microsoft Readiness Check (done by Microsoft is all that is required) – but in reality the Domino to Office 365 migration is a lot more complex.
Domino to Office 365 Migration Consulting
Contact Rob Walton @ emailmigrations.com to hear about our Office 365 migration success stories, and use our Office 365 Consulting Services consulting services for your email migration project off Domino. Global coverage and our team can do remote and onsite work – as required. The team are experienced in Domino, O365, and both the Quest Notes Migrator for Exchange, Quest (Dell), and Binary Tree – also holding certifications in these tools.
More importantly, we have extensive real-world experience in multiple email migration projects. Using our consulting services may save you money on your email migration project.
Domino to Office 365 Migration Examples – Technical Focus Areas
Domino workflow, with Doclinks, may need to be supported during and after the mailbox migration
Active Directory UPN values may need to be modified to comply with Microsoft recommendations for Office 365 - if you want Single Sign On (SSO)
Advice may be needed on what to do with Domino Applications during, and after the migration to Office 365
Setting up a shared SMTP namsepace routing model between Domino and Office 365
Running Lotus Notes Client alongside the Outlook Client during the coexistence period of the migration project
Lotus Notes Archive Files - when to migrate them, and how
Provision and test the Office 365 platform before migrating off Domino
Robust Domino and Office 365 coexistence allowing both mail platforms to run side by side for a long period
Smart migration options to accelerate the coexistence phase of the migration project
Avoiding network saturation during migration of Domino data to Office 365
Taking into account slow data upload limits from Domino to Office 365 imposed by MicrosoftThe key is to success is to minimize business impact, and risk, and at the same time achieve the mailbox migration as fast as possible.
Domino to Office 365 Migration Strategy
Microsoft provide plentiful information on Office 365 but not as much information on how to get there. If you are moving off Domino then this is regarded as a 3rd Party mail system. If you then want to be able to route mail between Domino and Office 365 then this is called a “Hybrid” scenario. Microsoft do not concern themselves with the fact that Domino is involved, as that is just one of many “3rd Party” mail systems that customers might be using. However, there are good, and bad, ways of setting up routing coexistence with Domino. And the choice of 3rd Party migration tool can also determine the final coexistence setup.
During the Domino to Office 365 migrations that we have worked on, we have built up our own knowledge of how to achieve the best results. The Microsoft guidelines (if you can find them) are helpful to a degree, but do not give you the complete picture.
You are advised to get a Domino to Office 365 Migration Strategy documented, which allows all stakeholders in your migration project to have a clear understanding of the migration challenge from the start.
Depending on your business, and its appetite for risk, there are a number of migration approaches that can be taken.
You could go for a big bang single cut-over whereby all Domino users start using Office 365 at the same time. For this, you may have pre-staged all the legacy mail data into Office 365, or users may start with a clean mailbox, or you may migrate legacy mail data afterwards. The timing of the internet mail cut-over needs to be decided also – our preference is to do this before any migrations.
If you want a pilot migration then you will provision a small number of Office 365 mailboxes for identified Domino users first. For this you may need to present the Domino Address Book within Office 365, and you may also want the ability for users to see each other’s free busy information.
Then, if you need to take a longer period to cut-over the remaining mailboxes from Domino to Office 365, then you will need to provide robust coexistence for that period, from a 3rd Party tool such as Quest (Dell) or Binary Tree.
Summary
Contact Rob Walton @ emailmigrations.com for consulting on your Domino to Office 365 migration project as there are many decisions that need to be taken, and you want to ensure that the correct decisions are taken. We are familiar with the decisions that will be presented to you, and we have the experience to advise you to make the correct ones for your migration project.
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