Five Common Migration Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Quest Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: QSFT) - Migrating new versions of technologies such as Active Directory, Exchange, SharePoint, Office 365 and Windows enables organizations to reap important benefits, including enhanced reliability, usability, manageability and security. Yet the migration process to new application platforms and operating systems can be complex, time-consuming and arduous. Risk factors for compliance, governance, and productivity abound, especially when consolidating and moving critical applications and data across on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments.

Organizations can minimize risks and business disruptions by following migration best practices. Too often, however, they may fall victim to common mistakes that impact the project’s success. With more than a decade of experience migrating millions of mailboxes and users and data, Quest Software has identified five common migration mistakes and offers tips on how to avoid them. Moreover, Quest experts and experienced IT pros will be at The Experts Conference (TEC) 2012 (San Diego, April 29-May 2) to share further insight on preventing migration project pitfalls.

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Five Common Migration Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them

1. Poor Planning – Companies often plunge into major migrations without reviewing existing environments (e.g., users, DLs, groups, public folders, etc.) as well as what needs to be moved (e.g., data stores, users, mailboxes) and what doesn’t (e.g., unused accounts, stale data, empty mailboxes). Assessing application and browser compatibility and preparing for the move are crucial, especially when dealing with Office 365, Windows 7 and Active Directory migrations.
2. Underestimating User & Organizational Impact – Another common yet potentially critical mistake is underestimating the migration’s impact on users and operations and failing to analyze all access points. For example, any Active Directory migration should start with an analysis of all applications, processes and users requiring access to ensure that appropriate resources/applications will be available when the migration takes place and afterwards. It’s imperative to make the move by identifying workflows, mailboxes, programs and/or other pieces of infrastructure before they are impacted. It’s also advisable to schedule resource-intensive migration tasks for off-peak hours to lessen the impact on production systems, end-users and productivity.
3. Lack of Coexistence Strategy – Failing to provide seamless coexistence between existing and new systems is a frequent oversight, which can lead to service disruptions, lost productivity and increased business costs. Coexistence is essential, particularly with Exchange, Notes and GroupWise migrations that typically are deployed in phases.
4. Migration Insurance Policy – Performing regular backups is commonsense yet frequently companies falter when it comes to having an extra measure of protection to avoid data loss during a migration. Having a full backup and recovery plan in place is paramount, so data can be restored quickly and easily if something goes awry during the migration process.
5. Failure to Focus on "post-migration” Management – Concentrating on execution without paying attention to optimizing the new environment is a common pitfall. Executing a world-class migration necessitates robust project management, but ongoing reporting, auditing, recovery and monitoring are essential to ensure the new system is compliant, available, secure and efficient.

Quest Experts Share Advice on Best Practices and More at TEC 2012

• Quest experts and thought leaders will be facilitating and presenting sessions on a variety of topics at the 11^th annual technology conference sponsored by Quest and Microsoft, including the changing world of Exchange and Office 365, SharePoint governance, the future of virtualization and user workspace management, as well as Windows 7 migrations and application compatibility.
• Industry commentary will be provided by a full roster of Quest visionaries, including Gil Kirkpatrick, expert-in-residence and directory and identity conference facilitator; David Sengupta, chief architect, EMEA and Exchange conference facilitator; Chris McNulty, strategic product manager for SharePoint; Patrick Rouse, enterprise solutions architect and virtualization and workspace management co-facilitator; and Gregory Lambert, chief technical architect.

Supporting Quote:

• Steve Dickson, senior vice president and general manager, windows server management, Quest Software
  "Many organizations struggle to complete migration projects on time, on budget and with minimal business disruption because they go it alone when they should ask for help or fail to follow best practices. As trusted advisors for migrations, restructuring and consolidations of all kinds, Quest leverages proven methodologies, leading-edge solutions and world-class experts to ensure zero-impact migrations that deliver maximum business benefits while minimizing risks.”

Slide Share:

Five Common Migration Mistakes—and How to Avoid Them

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About Quest:

Quest Software (Nasdaq: QSFT) simplifies and reduces the cost of managing IT for more than 100,000 customers worldwide. Our innovative solutions make solving the toughest IT management problems easier, enabling customers to save time and money across physical, virtual and cloud environments. For more information about Quest solutions for, data protection, database management, user workspace management, Windows server management, identity and access management, and performance monitoring, go to www.quest.com.

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