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MigrationGoogle Workspace

Google Workspace to Microsoft 365

Mail, Drive, shared drives and calendars — with the sharing model mapped deliberately rather than approximated, because that is the part that determines whether this project is boring or painful.

Typical timeline3–8 weeks
From£800 / €950 / $1,000
CoexistenceSupported
Invoiced inYour currency
01 — Overview

What this engagement is

Moving from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 is two projects wearing one name. The first is the data: mail, Drive, shared drives, calendars and contacts. That part is mechanical.

The second is the sharing model, and the two platforms do not agree. Google Drive is built around per-file permissions and links; SharePoint is built around sites and inheritance. A folder shared with “anyone with the link” has no clean Microsoft equivalent. A file owned by an individual in Drive may need to become a document in a site with a completely different owner.

Decide that mapping before the move and the migration is boring, which is the objective. Decide it afterwards and you have recreated Google’s model badly inside Microsoft 365, which is the outcome we are usually called in to unpick.

02 — Outcomes

What you get out of it

01Gmail, including labels mapped to folders, in Exchange Online
02Google Calendar events with attendees and recurrence intact, and free/busy working through the transition
03My Drive and shared drives in OneDrive and SharePoint, in a structure that was designed rather than inherited
04A sharing model that maps deliberately — every “anyone with the link” folder reviewed and given a decision
05Contacts, groups and delegation recreated
06Domain moved with mail flow cut over in a planned window
07Users told what changed about how they share, which is the part they will actually notice

“They created an environment for what I would call a left-seat, right-seat transition. We were still running on Google and still operating as a company while we moved across. Downtime was minimal — including moving our phone systems over, which our guests never noticed.”

“We made some mistakes as a company, because it was the first time we had done a migration like this. IT Partner helped us formulate a better system for how we store our data in SharePoint. There was no downtime at all, and it was seamless. They were on it — we were never delayed.”

03 — Deliverables

What you receive

Workspace inventory. Users, mailbox sizes, My Drive and shared drive volumes, group structure, and every external sharing relationship.
Sharing model mapping. How each Google sharing pattern becomes a Microsoft 365 one, decided per case rather than by a global rule.
Target architecture. Site and library structure, naming, and which shared drives become which SharePoint sites.
Migration plan with waves, coexistence during the transition and the cutover window.
Cutover runbook covering the domain, MX and autodiscover.
Validation report comparing message counts and file volumes.
User guidance on the differences that matter day to day: sharing, offline files, and where things now live.
04 — Plan

How the work unfolds

Week 1

Inventory

Read-only assessment of the Workspace tenant: users, volumes, groups, shared drives and every external sharing relationship.

Weeks 1–2

Sharing model mapping

The stage that decides whether this project is easy or painful. Each Google sharing pattern gets a Microsoft 365 equivalent, agreed with you.

Week 2

Target build

Microsoft 365 tenant prepared: users, licences, groups, sites and libraries built to the agreed structure.

Weeks 2–4

Mail and Drive migration

Content moves while people keep working in Workspace. Large Drives run in the background.

Cutover weekend

Domain and mail flow

Domain moved, MX and autodiscover repointed, Workspace made read-only.

Following week

Delta and support

Incremental pass for anything that arrived during the window, plus elevated support for the first working week.

Still on Workspace?

Tell us the user count and roughly how much sits in shared drives. You get back the sharing questions that need deciding, the realistic window, and a fixed price.

From £800 / €950 / $1,000 · 3–8 weeks

“We had been constantly battling with Google: running out of space, emails mysteriously disappearing, archiving that never freed up enough room. Every email we tracked was brought across, and we did not lose any of our archives. Since we converted, not a single person has had an issue with email — and we are saving money each month.”

“I have been in apparel for over thirty years and done seven or eight system conversions. There is always an issue. This was by far the easiest exercise I have ever gone through.”

05 — Before we start

What we need from you

Super Admin access to the Google Workspace tenant
A decision on which shared drives become sites and which are archived
A ruling on external sharing: which existing links are recreated and which are retired
Confirmation of the domain and the cutover window
Microsoft 365 licences in place, or quoted by us in your currency
06 — Working together

Who does what

IT Partner

  • Inventory the Workspace tenant and every sharing relationship
  • Map the sharing model to Microsoft 365 with you
  • Build and license the target tenant
  • Migrate mail, Drive, shared drives, calendars and contacts
  • Execute the domain cutover from the runbook
  • Run the delta pass and support the first week
  • Produce the validation report and user guidance

Your team

  • Provide Super Admin access
  • Decide the target structure and the sharing rules
  • Decide what is archived rather than migrated
  • Approve the cutover window
  • Tell users what changes about sharing, using our draft
  • Be reachable during cutover
07 — Scope

What is not included

×Google Sites, Looker Studio and Apps Script rework. Inventoried and pointed at; rebuilding them in the Microsoft stack is scoped separately.
×Third-party applications authenticating against Google. Listed during discovery; re-integration is a separate scope.
×Chrome device management. A different discipline; if you need Intune instead, see endpoint management.
×Google Vault export for legal reasons. We can advise, but a formal legal export should go through your counsel.
×Microsoft licence purchase. Quoted separately as your CSP, in your currency, if you want it.
08 — Fine print

Limitations and technical notes

!“Anyone with the link” has no clean equivalent. Microsoft 365 can approximate it, but the security posture is different. Every one of these gets a decision rather than an automatic translation.
!Google labels are not folders. A message can carry several labels; a message lives in one folder. The mapping loses information, and we agree the rule before the move.
!Ownership changes. Files owned by individuals in My Drive often belong in a site owned by a team. This is a decision, not a technical setting.
!Shared drive permissions do not translate one to one. Google’s manager, content manager and contributor roles map approximately, not exactly.
!Google Docs formats convert. Docs, Sheets and Slides become Office formats, and complex documents can shift in layout. We sample the complex ones during scoping.
!Calendar recurrence and external attendees are the most fragile part of the move and are validated explicitly rather than assumed.
09 — Questions

Asked on almost every first call

Do Google Docs become Word files?

Yes, Docs, Sheets and Slides convert to Office formats. Simple documents convert cleanly; complex ones can shift in layout. We sample the complicated ones during scoping so nobody is surprised.

What happens to files shared with "anyone with the link"?

They are listed and decided individually. Microsoft 365 can approximate the behaviour, but the security posture is different, so this is a conscious choice rather than an automatic translation. Most organisations use the move to retire links they did not know existed.

Do Gmail labels survive?

They map to folders, with a rule agreed beforehand. Because a message can carry several labels but live in only one folder, some information is lost by definition. The rule is decided rather than discovered.

How long does it take?

Three to four weeks for under 25 users. Four to eight weeks for 25 to 100. Two to three months for a few hundred. The sharing model review, not the data volume, is what varies most.

What does it cost?

From £800 / €950 / $1,000, scaling per user. Fixed price after the inventory, and scoping costs nothing.

Can we run both platforms for a while?

Yes, and most do. Coexistence during the transition covers mail routing and free/busy. It is transitional by design; the plan states what works across the boundary and what waits for cutover.

10 — Related

Worth reading next

Scoping costs nothing

Tell us the shape of it and we will tell you what it involves

Answer the form or write to us. You get back a written scope, a sequence and a fixed price — usually within one business day, and nobody rings you unless you ask.