Seamless Migration from Microsoft 365 Commercial Tenant to GCC Tenant: Ensuring Compliance and Continuity for a Leading Casual Dining Enterprise
Client Overview:
Our client company is a publicly traded company with two casual dining concepts, one a polished casual American restaurant serving fresh, top-quality menu items prepared from made-from-scratch recipes, and one an all-American bar and grill with traditional fare in a fun, energetic environment. They run about 36 restaurants in 10 states and a centralized beer brewing facility in the United States.
Challenge:
Our client, a leading name in casual dining, needed to make a switch from Microsoft 365 Commercial to a tenant in the Government Community Cloud because of really strict governmental data security and compliance. The change did bring into perspective a set of challenges:
Exchange Hybrid Coexistence Environment: Since email communications were so important, all continuity had to be seamless. In other words, on-premise migration of Exchange Hybrid to its cloud variant was to follow a path in which changes may not appear to break business processes.
Identity Management with the Use of Microsoft Entra ID: The new GCC tenant implemented identity management using Microsoft Entra ID to enable the process of secure sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and other user identity functions.
User and Device Migration: The strategies that had to be implemented for the user and device migration included laptops, tablets, and smartphones, totaling 900 users, in order to minimize downtime or reduce user impact.
Domain Transfer: The already set domain needed to be moved from the Commercial tenant to the GCC tenant by performing its deletion in the current environment, adding in the new tenant, and verification. It had to be pretty delicate in nature, as any minute disturbance in coordination could disrupt email flows and jeopardize the integrity of the domain.
Compliance and Security: The migration needed to be performed in such a manner that it met government standards, including FedRAMP High, with the protection of sensitive data and maintaining contractual requirements.
Data Integrity and Application Compatibility: The integrity of emails, files, and application data had to remain intact and accessible post-migration. Additionally, all business-critical applications required thorough testing to ensure seamless functionality in the new GCC environment without any operational disruptions.
Solution:
We designed a really detailed migration strategy for the customer to migrate from Microsoft 365 Commercial to GCC while making sure that all standards in government data security were followed.
Planning and Assessment: Performed deep analysis of the present user identity, mailboxes, devices, and predefined compliance parameters. A detailed migration plan will be prepared in accordance with GCC policies for the effective fulfillment of operational requirements for our client.
GCC Tenant Setup: Established a new GCC tenant while ensuring it met all required government compliance standards. Configured Microsoft Azure Active Directory to manage user identities and access within the GCC environment.
Domain Preparation and Migration: Coordinated the removal of the client’s domain from the Commercial tenant and transitioned it to the GCC tenant, ensuring proper DNS configurations. Verified Domain Ownership of the domain was confirmed, and DNS records were updated to point to the new GCC tenant.
Exchange Hybrid Configuration: A minimal hybrid configuration was implemented between the On-premises Exchange server and the GCC tenant to facilitate seamless mailbox migrations. This setup ensured coexistence without disruptions during or after the migration, maintaining uninterrupted mail flow throughout the process.
User and Device Migration: User mailboxes, OneDrive data, and SharePoint sites were migrated to the GCC tenant using BitTitan’s Migration and Wiz cross-tenant migration tool. Device reconfiguration scripts were carefully designed to enable a smooth onboarding process for user devices into the new GCC environment.
Testing and Validation: Wide testing was done to validate whether email services, user access, and compliance had been set up correctly for the GCC tenant. All the deficiencies noted were addressed without wasting any time, so that disruption for the users post-migration would not happen.
User Training and Support: Training sessions were conducted to acquaint users with changes in the new environment. Similarly, a very well-dedicated support channel for the end-users was created regarding their problems and troubleshooting long after the migration was complete.
Result:
Migration from Microsoft 365 tenant to Government Community Cloud tenant was done with the following results:
Compliance Achieved: The shift to the GCC environment meant that the client was able to meet all the required government data security and compliance standards, including FedRAMP High.
Minimal Disruption: The eventual migration was done with minute planning and execution to experience minimum operational downtime, with users hardly experiencing any fall in their work.
Improved Security: Having Microsoft Entra ID in place, in the new GCC, allowed for better identity management, hence access control, for better security posture.
Improved Collaboration: The GCC environment integrated improvements in collaboration and communication tools specifically designed for government contractors.
This successful migration not only helped the client to meet some stringent government standards but also increased operational efficiency and security.
Tools Used
Microsoft 365, Microsoft Entra ID, Exchange Hybrid, BitTitan MigrationWiz