We're Moving From Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 and Need It Done in the Right Order

Google Workspace is the hip choice and Microsoft 365 is old faithful, and both are good products. Businesses usually move for practical reasons: an accounting or line-of-business application that expects desktop Excel and Outlook, customers and vendors who send macro-heavy workbooks, bank and insurer portals built around Microsoft sign-in, or a company already paying for Microsoft licenses on some desks and tired of running two platforms. The goal is one set of tools, not a verdict on Google.

Microsoft's own Google Workspace migration, run from the Exchange admin center, copies Gmail into Exchange Online mailboxes in batches. It needs setup on the Google side (a project and service account with delegated access) and a routing address on each side so mail can flow while users move. We run a pilot batch first, then the rest, with incremental passes so the final sync before cutover is small.

Gmail uses labels; Outlook uses folders. During migration each label becomes a folder, and a message carrying three labels can show up in three folders. Nothing is wrong, but it surprises people, so we tell staff before it happens. Gmail filters, signatures and mailbox delegation are not something we count on carrying across. We document them per user and rebuild them as Outlook rules, signatures and delegate permissions.

Calendars and contacts move with the mailbox migration, including recurring meetings. What needs extra attention: meeting rooms and equipment booked through Google resource calendars, which are rebuilt as room mailboxes; shared team calendars; and Google Groups, which become distribution lists or Microsoft 365 Groups depending on how they are used. We test recurring series with outside attendees in the pilot, because those are the ones that misbehave.

Each person's My Drive goes to their OneDrive. Shared drives go to SharePoint document libraries, ideally with the structure tidied first rather than copied mess for mess. Microsoft's Migration Manager handles the transfer and converts Docs, Sheets and Slides to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Permissions are mapped from Google accounts to Microsoft accounts, and we check the files most likely to need hands: complex spreadsheets, comment threads and anything shared with outside parties.

Google Sites, Google Forms and Apps Script automations have no one-click path into Microsoft 365. We inventory every one during the assessment, ask who still uses it, and retire what is dead. The rest is rebuilt: Sites as SharePoint pages, Forms as Microsoft Forms, scripts as Power Automate flows or something simpler. This list is often where a Google move turns out bigger or smaller than expected, so it gets counted before anyone quotes.

Over time staff click "Sign in with Google" on dozens of SaaS tools: the CRM, the e-signature app, the project board, the payroll portal. When the Google accounts go away, those logins go with them. We pull the list of connected apps from the Google admin console, re-point each one to Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on or a managed login, and make sure ownership of each account sits with the business rather than a departing employee.

Google Workspace keeps running, licensed, until every mailbox and library has been checked in Microsoft 365. Cancelling early is the one mistake that can put data out of reach. We reconcile mailboxes and file counts, export anything that has to be retained (including Google Vault holds), confirm the MX records have settled, and only then hand you a written all-clear to cancel the Google subscription.