Migration Options to Migrate On-Premises Exchange to Office 365
Microsoft provides three options to migrate emails and mailboxes from an on-premises Exchange Server to Office 365.
Cutover or express migration allows you to migrate your mailboxes from Exchange Server 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019 to Office 365. You can use this migration option when you need to move up to 2000 mailboxes from your on-premises Exchange Server to Office 365.
In staged migration, you can move mailboxes and mail items from an on-premises Exchange Server to Office 365 in two or more stages or batches. Although it allows you to move more than 2000 mailboxes, it only works for Exchange 2003 and 2007 versions. This option does not work if you need to migrate mailboxes and contents from Exchange 2010 or later versions to Office 365.
Hybrid migration allows you to gradually move mailboxes from on-premises Exchange Server to Exchange Online using the integrated option available in the Exchange Admin Center. In this, mailboxes on both on-premises and online are maintained unless all mailboxes are moved successfully. This migration option can be used to migrate 150-2000 mailboxes from Exchange 2010, 2013, 2016 or 2019 to Office 365.
Based on the Exchange Server version, you can choose a migration option to <a href="https://www.o365cloudexperts.com/blog/migrate-exchange-to-office-365-using-cutover-migration">Migrate Mailbox to Exchange Online</a>. However, moving mailboxes and data is a part of the migration and you need to perform additional steps. For instance, use Azure AD Connect to synchronize your local Active Directory to Office 365, which creates a copy of local accounts on the Azure Active Directory, updates DNS and TXT records and install or update Outlook clients to support Office 365.