Exchange Online: A migration story. Wim Verbeeck - ICT Manager

Transcription

1 Exchange Online: A migration story Wim Verbeeck - ICT Manager Business Meets IT Seminar May 10, 2012

2 Exchange Online: A migration story Presentation of Generali Group and GEB Challenges & Solution Migration Strategy & Approach Next Steps & Lessons Learned Conclusions 2

3 Generali Group A leading player in the global insurance and financial markets. +60 countries worldwide. 60 million clients. Over 69 billion Euro of premiums. Over 85,000 employees. Over 856 million Euro of net profit. It all began in 1831 in Trieste where Assicurazioni Generali was founded. Today Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A. is 1st insurer in Italy, 3rd insurer worldwide in the 2011 "Fortune Global 500" ranking. 3

4 Generali Employee Benefits GEB is a strongly internationally-oriented company with Around 100 employees present in the Head office and a few regional offices spread over the world. Partnered local carriers in more than 100 countries. Over 1500 International customers. More than 400 international coordinated programs. Total volume of international business is over 1.6B per year. 4

5 Our Strengths PROVEN FLEXIBILITY FINANCIAL SOLIDITY Strategic unit of the Generali Group: S&P Rating A Specialists in sophisticated EB solutions Local Protection Global Connection STRONG COMMITMENT Over 45 years of experience Global network of more than 120 local insurers in more than 90 countries WORLDWIDE COVERAGE Team of over 100 EB experts focused on Corporate customers TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW 5

6 GEB ICT Challenge 1. Looking for an answer to the ever growing need of disk space & backup solutions. 2. Strategy to build a global common platform with centralized management. Looking for simplified operational management of the ICT infrastructure. 3. Need for global contact management solution. 4. Minimizing the impact for the end user is a major requirement. 6

7 Solution Migration to Microsoft Exchange Online Project split up in different phases, linked to region. Project in close cooperation with an external service partner. 8 weeks project lifecycle. 7

8 Advantages Predictable and flexible monthly cost. SLA based highly available infrastructure supported by Microsoft on a 24x7 basis. Decreased operational management, ICT team can focus on other tasks. Decreased infrastructure management: no more onpremise Exchange Server, no more BES server. 2nd line support of BlackBerry devices now delivered directly by RIM. 8

9 Data Privacy Microsoft very transparent about data privacy: - Customer is controller of the data, Microsoft is only processor. - Microsoft Trust Center. Bottom line: for cloud services the level of available data privacy should be evaluated in the initial decision. 9

10 Migration Strategy ICT team decided to migrate to the cloud to simplify maintenance and support and maximize availability, while minimizing the user impact. Different possible scenarios: Cut-over Coexistence Hybrid GEB s approach: Hybrid setup during migration to prevent upgrade of Exchange 2007 and no remaining hardware post go-live. Allows for phased migration. DirSync for automatic user provisioning and contact management. 10

11 Migration Approach 1/2 Inventory Workshop Pilot Migration Project Closure Inventory of existing clients Windows, Office and.net framework versions Inventory with Microsoft Assessment & Planning toolkit and Office 365 Readiness Toolkit Workshop with services partner and ICT team Assess current exchange setup, including SMTP environment Discuss and agree on design of Exchange Online environment Define high level planning Pilot Setup hybrid solution including SMTP services and firewall modifications Migration of 10 users Evaluate Office 365 setup and migration plan 11

12 Migration Approach 2/2 Inventory Workshop Pilot Migration Project Closure Migration Upfront upload of user data to speed up actual migration User disruption for actual migration limited to a few minutes Project closure Decommission on-premise Exchange environment Modify backup setup Project closure and acceptation 12

13 Next Steps Migrate regional GEB offices to Exchange Online. Upload personal archives to Exchange Online / Office 2010 Migration. Lessons Learned! Early adopters face more risk at an early stage: BlackBerry Business Cloud room for improvement. Documentation and knowledge base not fully available sometimes leads to temporary issues (firewall DNS). Basic requirements client infrastructure not clear at that stage: differences between Office 2010 and Office2007 to access full Exchange Online functionality. 13

14 Conclusions Cost optimization is tangible: Less effort for operational support. Total Cost of Ownership messaging platform decreased. Migration to the cloud is not complex: Provisioning is easy. Plan and design phase as important as actual migration. Phased approach for risk mitigation. Clear inventory of the on premise environment is essential. Early-adopter risks are present: Blackberry Business Cloud maturing. Attention for non-standard usage. 14

15 Thank you! 15