G Suite and Office 365 are two popular SaaS (software-as-a-service) platforms providing email, productivity tools, storage, and other services. Which is better G suite or Office 365? Each of them has advantages and disadvantages. You can find a G Suite vs Office 365 comparison focusing on the storage apps offered by the two in the blog post about Google Drive vs OneDrive. Sometimes companies want to migrate from Microsoft Office 365 to G Suite or they want to migrate from G Suite to Office 365. This blog post explains how to migrate from G Suite to Office 365.
Before we begin, let me address some frequently asked questions about G Suite to O365 Migration.
Should I use G Suite or Office 365?
It all depends on what you’re looking for. If you need to use Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, which most users are familiar with, consider using Microsoft Office 365. G Suite provides analogs of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that can be used online for collaboration and editing shared files. Note that some users will not be familiar with the G Suite as it differs from Office 365 interface. Google Docs versus Microsoft Office is a hot topic.
Is Google Drive better than Microsoft Office?
There is no universal answer. You can’t compare them. Google Drive is a cloud storage service while Microsoft Office is a suite of productivity applications (including the online apps of Microsoft Office 365). Google Drive can be compared to OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service. You should compare multiple factors such as convenience of the user interface, the price per month (year), provided cloud storage capacity, versioning, built-in recovery options, and so on. Only then can you choose the solution that is most suitable for you.
Is G Suite cheaper than Office 365?
In most cases the price for G Suite is lower than the price for Microsoft Office 365. You should compare pricing on the official websites of Google and Microsoft or send a request to sales for more detailed information about the price. Be aware that pricing can change and make sure that you have information that is up to date.
What is the difference between G Suite and Office 365?
Cloud storage limits are different, such as the maximum file size supported in cloud storage, versioning, file sharing options, the maximum number of items on shared resources, and so on. The design of the web interface is different. Microsoft provides better integration of Office 365 with other Microsoft solutions. Google provides integration with Google services and has a better search engine. Read a complete comparison to understand the G Suite vs Office 365 difference.
How do I transfer my Google Docs to Office 365?
You should manually download all files from Google Drive and then upload these files to OneDrive. Convert Google documents to the Office format. By default, the Google Docs application saves text documents to the gdoc format while the native format of Microsoft Word 365 is docx. Select the needed gdoc files in the web interface of Google Drive, click Download and save the archive with selected document files. Once downloading is finished, extract docx files from the archive. Click File > Download as in the web interface of Google Docs to save a single file manually to the needed Microsoft Word format.
Configuring your Domain
First of all, you should verify your domain settings when you are starting to migrate from G Suite to Office 365. A domain registrar can be Google or another domain registrar. Microsoft allows you to use a domain name of the your-company-name.onmicrosoft.com format for Office 365 subscriptions to simplify configuration. Having a domain name is required to use Office 365 for organizations.
Adding Users to Office 365
The next step is adding users to your Office 365 organization account in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Each user requires a license, that’s why you have to pay for a selected Office 365 subscription plan for your organization before you can activate added users. Each user must have a mailbox in Office 365 before you can migrate G Suite to Office 365, including email and other data.
Creating a List of Email Addresses
Create a list of email addresses to migrate from G Suite to Office 365. You can use Microsoft Office Excel to create a file with a table that contains a list of email addresses of user accounts.
Click File > Save as and save the edited file to the CSV format.
Open the Exchange admin center.
Go to Recipients > Migration, click the three dots (…) and click Migration endpoints.
Configuring-migration-endpoints
In the window that opens, click New (+).
Creating-a-new-migration-endpoint
Configure the needed settings for the new migration endpoint.
Creating a Migration Batch
A batch is used to migrate a group of mailboxes from G Suite to Office 365. Create a batch that contains a small number of mailboxes and check how the migration configuration works. This approach helps you estimate time spent on the migration of email accounts. If everything works correctly, create a larger batch and continue the Microsoft 365 Migration.
Go to recipients > migration.
Click New (+) and select Migrate to Exchange Online.
Set new migration batch options.
Select IMAP migration (Supported by Exchange and other email systems).
Hit Next at each step to continue.
Set IMAP migration configuration.
IMAP server: gmail
Authentication: Basic
Encryption: SSL
Click new to start the migration and migrate G Suite to Office 365.
If you see the syncing status, it means that migration is running. You can monitor the status of mailboxes and detect mailboxes that have been migrated.
Limits for using a web interface
Download with web client: 750 MB per hour or 1250 MB per day
Upload with web client (emails sent via Gmail SMTP are included): 300 MB per hour or 1500 MB per day
If these limits are a disadvantage for you, try using alternative G Suite migration methods, such as migration by using PST files, migration by using API, using third-party solutions, among others.
Checking MX Records
When the data migration stage is finished, check MX records for your domain.
Importing Google Contacts and Calendar to Office 365
When email migration is finished, users should import contacts and calendar from their old Google accounts to new Office 365 accounts. Let’s explain how to import a calendar and contacts from Google to Office 365 manually in the web interface.
Importing a calendar
Open google, sign into your Google account, open the options menu, and click Calendar.
In the left pane, click Import & export, then hit Export.
Check items to export and click the Export button.
Select Calendar on the Office 365 web apps page.
In the left pane of the Calendar page, click Add calendar.
In the drop-down menu, select the needed calendar name and click Import.
Now your contacts have been imported to Microsoft Office 365 successfully.
To learn about Migrate On Prem Exchange to O365 visit, O365CloudExperts.