With challenging economic conditions, it’s understandable that some businesses are considering their spending until they have a more certain future. However, when it comes to spending on IT projects, such as migrating an email archive to the cloud, pausing may not be the best strategy.
In this blog we explore your options around an email archive migration and the potential cost implications of each of these options.
Businesses are facing increasing financial pressures across the globe, forcing many to review their priorities and drive the best value from any investment. With stories of challenging economic conditions, it’s understandable that some businesses are considering their spending until they have a more certain future. However, when it comes to spending on IT projects, such as migrating an email archive to the cloud, pausing may not be the best strategy. In this blog we explore your options around an email archive migration and the potential cost implications of each of these options.
The financial implications of each email archive option
Over our 17 years of helping businesses with their email archive migrations, we typically come across three options that businesses consider for their email archive:
- Migrate to the cloud now with a specialist migration partner
- Leave the archive in place
- Perform the email archive migration themselves.
A major factor in evaluating these options is the cost to the business of each. In our experience, it’s more cost-effective to migrate to a new cloud environment, but then we would say that. Before making the final decision, we wanted to outline the types of costs you should consider for each scenario.
- Costs of migrating to the cloud now with a specialist migration partner
In our experience, migrating email archives to a cloud platform such as Microsoft 365, is typically the most cost-effective route for many businesses. Email archive migration projects often involve moving terabytes of data and this will of course come with costs. So, for transparency, here is an overview of the common costs involved in an email archive migration:
Extraction from previous archive– If you currently use a third-party provider for your on-premises email archive, there is almost certainly a cost to extract that data in bulk. Potentially you can do this in smaller sections using free tools, but this is rarely viable for an entire email archive migration. Chances are, we’re talking tens or hundreds of millions of emails. We recommend you check your contracts for lock-in clauses and then come and talk to us before making your final decision.
Renewal cycles & penalty charges– You may have received a discount for signing up to your archiving software for longer than a 12-month period. If you want to move before the end of this period, you may be looking at a penalty charge. Sometimes you could be charged for an entire year.
Migration costs– There are costs involved in a secure migration of your archive data – this should cover access to market-leading migration software, a fully managed service and access to experienced professionals. Transvault focus on a premium outcome for your migration – Get a quote to find out more on our fees.
Onboarding costs– there are costs associated with onboarding to Microsoft 365 as well as ongoing training, productivity improvements and adoption to ensure you maximise your return on investment.
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