A few weeks after completing the migration from Gmail to Office 365, I’m pretty happy with the improvements. For now, I think the Office 365-based approach with a hosted Exchange Server is everything I need to efficiently manage e-mail on multiple devices and online. I like the ability to quickly and easily install and configure a full version of Microsoft Office on multiple computers without additional licensing charges, activation, and manual license tracking. With the addition of new features like the Microsoft Office App Store, I think the overall experience will continue to improve. Of course, if I do decide to make changes, I’ll plan to post the details on this blog.
Blog Post Index
Here’s a complete list of the posts related to my move from Gmail to Office 365 (in suggested reading order):
- 1) Reasons for Moving from Gmail/POP to Office 365
- 2) Office 365: Benefits and Features
- 3) Migrating from Gmail to Office 365
- 4) Office 365 Issues and Considerations
- 5) Summary: Moving to Office 365 (this post)
Resource for More Information
In my quest to migrate from Gmail to Office 365, I found a lot of useful information from places around the Web. I have tried to avoid re-writing information that’s better covered elsewhere, and I recommend the following links for more information:
- The Office 365 Blog: This is Microsoft’s official blog for the Office 365 program, and it’s a good place to find official announcements and related features and tips.
- The Microsoft Office 365 Technical Community: This site includes a wealth of expert-written posts related to Office 365, and the forums allow you to post your own issues and learn from others. The Wikis also provide for a good basic knowledge based of common solutions.
- What’s new in Outlook 2013 Preview (Microsoft TechNet)
- Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows: Paul’s articles provide both concise and in-depth technical information on new features and service offerings from Microsoft.
- Outlook Versus Gmail: A Feature Comparison (LifeHacker)
Questions? Comments?
I’d like to hear others’ questions and experiences with Gmail, Office 365, and other online services, so please feel free to add a comment here. If you have an in-depth technical question, though, it might be best to post to the Microsoft Office 365 Technical Community Forums.
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#1 by Sally Martin on March 14, 2013 - 9:50 am
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Anil,
Your posts were invaluable to me. I am definitely planning to make the switch. It was really helpful to read your personal perspective as a solo proprietor and also refreshing to hear from someone who doesn’t love Google and Gmail.
Thanks!
#2 by Gary on March 20, 2013 - 4:57 am
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Thanks from me too. Most informative and thought provoking. Thanks for taking the time to write such a full recollection of your migration experiences. It’s great to read how others that have successfully done what I’m about to do 🙂
All the best!
#3 by Tim C on March 24, 2013 - 5:57 am
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Hi Anil while searching form some issues I have found I found your site, It looks as though you had a similar setup to me before moving to Office-365 small business. Having just started a move myself I am coming to the conclusion that Office-365 is not suitable. I posted a question on the community forums but so far have not had any replies. I wonder if you have any thoughts on the following:
I thought it was simple – 3 Essential thing that I can’t make Office/Outlook365 do !
On Friday I had a play with Office 365 Home Premium and soon realised it was no good to me.
Yesterday I subscribed to Office 365 Small Business, I then spent 18 hours trying to get it to work but I have now come to the conclusion that it cannot.
At the moment my feeling is that Office 365 Small Business is simply not appropriate for my sort of small business, on investigation to even do simple things like some listed below involves ridiculous workarounds, MS needs to realise that things like having to use PowerShell to allow “Send-As” is not suitable for small businesses.
Before I cancel my subscription and return to Google Apps. Here are the 3 things essentials that we must be able to do. As far as I can see none of them are possible, hopefully I am wrong and there are simple, fully documented solutions, if so please let me know.
1) “Send as” I have to be able to send as other email account (Gmail Accounts), “On behalf of” is no use, connected accounts for Gmail are a terrible mess (do not support IMAP only POP !!!). We will not use POP to collect Gmail.
2) We must have a simple shared list of contacts available to all 2 of us that we can all use and edit, this has to be normal contacts we cannot use strange workflow like shared accounts.
3) We must have easy access to, and the ability to add and amend items in each others calendars (I have not spent much time on this yet)
#4 by Anil Desai on March 24, 2013 - 7:59 am
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Tim: While I don’t have the specific requirements you mentioned myself (nor have I tested them), I believe what you’re trying to do is possible. I think the main issue is that you’re using O365 Home Premium, which doesn’t include a full hosted Exchange Server account. Small Business Premium (P1) does include Exchange Server support, and that’s the reason I went with that plan (really the only the reason, as I don’t actually have a use for SharePoint or Lync at present).
It has been a while since I’ve administered an Exchange Server installation, but from what I can tell, all of the major functionality is available throught the Portal site. I have setup aliases, and I believe there are options for delegation, shared mailboxes, assistants, etc. Regarding the “on behalf of” issue, that was a major source of pain for me for many years. That behavior is built-in when reply-to addresses differ from the sending address, and Microsoft is aware of the need to change this. Why it hasn’t been done, I’m not sure, but there are community posts on the topic. I recommend you try the Small Business Premium trial (I used the 30-day free offer), and see if that works for your requirements. While I found the PowerShell interface to be helpful for a few configuration changes (Deleted Items retention and a couple of other very minor changes), you might not need to use it at all. I hope this helps! – Anil
#5 by Kizzy Snellgrove on April 7, 2013 - 2:04 am
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I have been using Gmail for 3 years and I think there is no need to change and move to the another mail services. Well, maybe I should try office 365 and see whether it works as good as Gmail.