Google-Workspace

Two weeks into a Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 pilot migration for a mid-size org. Thirteen mailboxes in the pilot batch. What should have been a straightforward cutover turned into a deep education in Exchange migration edge cases, MRS throttling behavior, and the gap between what Microsoft documents and what actually happens in production. The Setup The architecture: phased cutover with Mimecast coexistence routing, GAM-managed forwarding during the transition window, and batch migration via Exchange Online migration endpoints backed by a GCP service account. A verified alias subdomain (o365.[domain]) serves as the target delivery domain, with workspace.[domain] as the coexistence routing domain pointing back to Google. ...

Most migration guides describe the happy path. This isn’t that. This is what you actually find when you inherit a migration in progress and start pulling on threads. The Setup Mid-flight GWS to M365 migration. Test batches already running. Domain setup incomplete. Multiple migration endpoints in Exchange Online pointing at a GCP service account that nobody can confirm ownership of. This is a fairly normal state for an org-scale migration that started before all the architecture decisions were locked in. ...