News

SkyKick Helps Large Enterprises Make the Cloud Leap to Office 365

Organizations from 250 to 10,000 users get an easier and less risky way to move to the cloud.

• By Christa Ayer
• 05/27/2014

Enterprises looking to move to the cloud face a tough choice. They can perform a cutover migration, which can be risky and difficult to manage because of the amount of data and number of users that need to be migrated in a very short time. Another option is a hybrid migration, which allows more time to make the switch, but requires significant expertise, upfront planning, and infrastructure upgrades.

SkyKick Enterprise Migration Suite hopes to give IT solution providers a better way to handle either approach for their enterprise clients. For cutover migrations, the suite provides tools that manage large-scale, seamless migrations with significantly less risk. And, for organizations that aren't comfortable making an immediate wholesale switch to the cloud, the suite makes possible a staged migration – which doesn't require infrastructure upgrades – as an alternative to a hybrid migration.

The Enterprise Migration Suite includes several components: Enterprise Planner, Migration Sync, Outlook and Exchange Assistants, and the Project Management Application. With the Enterprise Planner, IT solution providers can automatically discover the network and application environment, then configure a pre-deployment plan – even for advanced scenarios such as multi-domain or mixed-environment migrations – without having to go on-site, or perform Active Directory or ADFS work.

Migration Sync lets them choose either a seamless, zero-downtime enterprise-grade cutover migration from any email system, or a staged migration from Exchange or Google Apps. This eliminates the need to upgrade the enterprise's server or network environments. 

Outlook and Exchange Assistants provide pre-migration desktop and network assessments that automate much of the last mile client-side and server-side customizations that would otherwise require manual configuration.  Also included in the suite is the Project Management Application, which offers real-time visibility and control into the migration projects, simplifying the management of complex enterprise deployments.