Migrating multiple Public Folder Hierarchies into Office 365 can be a difficult task. Your options are to merge them yourself, pick one to remove, or do nothing. The process is slow, messy, and wrought with tension in trying to come to an agreement with the business or businesses involved.
Public Folders often exist to fulfill business processes, so a change will not come easy. It can be expensive, time-consuming, and risky keeping public folders separate if you choose to do nothing.
Companies that have an Office 365 tenant will try to bring everything under control of that one tenant. It can keep costs down, make it easier for your team to manage, and reduce risk. Merging mailboxes is not a big problem, but the same cannot be said for Public Folders with traditional Microsoft approaches.
Common Business Cases for Merging Public Folder Hierarchies
Many reasons exist for needing to migrate multiple public folder hierarchies into Office 365. The following are the most common:
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- Acquisition
- Merger
- Consolidation
See how the Public Folder Connector helps simplify the transition to SharePoint Online, Shared Mailboxes, Microsoft Teams, and OneDrive for Business while preserving your folder hierarchy during consolidation.
How to Consolidate Multiple Public Folder Hierarchies into Microsoft 365
The standard Microsoft approach to Public Folder Migrations will not make it easy to do this. It’s one public folder hierarchy into one Office 365 tenant with that method. You need flexibility when it comes to tackling this problem. The Public Folder Connector helps simplify this process by allowing organizations to consolidate Public Folder content into modern Microsoft 365 destinations while preserving folder hierarchy. Since you can merge the Public Folder hierarchies, everyone can continue to use their Public Folders without making compromises.
It works by allowing you to have the ability to:
- Create multiple migration instances
- Define the root for your specific migration
- Stay within Office 365 Public Folder limits for your tenant
CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED WITH THE EXCHANGESAVVY PUBLIC FOLDER MIGRATOR
The process for each transition follows the same planning approach used for a single Public Folder hierarchy, with additional configuration for multiple source environments.
- Create a new Instance to define the Public Folder Hierarchy you would like to migrate
Create new migration instance
- Set the Destination Root Path for this migration, such as \Company2. In Office 365, this migration instance will migrate all content underneath that root folder specifically
Set the destination root path for your migration instance
- Define the Public Folder Mailbox Prefix naming scheme, which should be different from other migration instances
Set the Public Folder Mailbox Prefix naming scheme for your migration instance.
- Add the same destination accounts since they are already configured correctly for your Office 365 tenant
- Start your migration!
End Result
Once you’ve finished moving the next Public Folder hierarchy, you can validate the content, permissions, and folder structure before users begin working in the new Microsoft 365 environment.
