Case study · SMB / Creative · Berlin, Germany
ITSECOPS moved a Berlin design studio from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace without losing a single email, file or calendar invite — zero hours of downtime, 100% data retained, and 2-Step Verification plus DLP configured on the new workspace at no extra cost.
The client
A 25-person design studio in Berlin whose teams lived in shared documents and real-time collaboration. Microsoft 365 worked, but the studio’s workflow, hiring pool and client base all pulled toward Google Workspace — and they wanted the switch made without disruption to client deadlines.
The challenge
Mid-project deadlines meant the studio could not afford a single day offline, and a decade of project correspondence, shared mailboxes and calendars had to arrive complete. GDPR obligations also required the new environment to be configured properly from day one, not “eventually”.
What we did
- Mapped every mailbox, shared mailbox, distribution group, calendar and OneDrive/SharePoint library to its Google Workspace equivalent before migrating.
- Pre-migrated mail, calendars, contacts and files with Google’s migration tooling, then ran delta syncs until the two platforms were identical.
- Cut over MX records overnight after the final delta pass — the studio closed on Microsoft 365 on Friday and opened on Google Workspace on Monday.
- Reconciled item counts per mailbox and per drive to confirm 100% retention — every email, calendar invite, contact and file accounted for.
- Hardened the new workspace as a complimentary add-on: 2-Step Verification enforced for all users, DLP rules for Gmail and Drive, sharing controls locked down to prevent accidental public links, and admin alerting enabled.
Results
- 0 hours of downtime — no working day was interrupted and mail flow never stopped.
- 100% data retained — all mailboxes, calendar invites, contacts and files verified intact on Google Workspace.
- Security controls the studio never had on the old platform — MFA enforcement and DLP — delivered free as part of the migration.
FAQ
Can you really migrate from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace with no downtime?
Yes. Data is copied while users keep working on the old platform; the cutover is an overnight MX change after a final delta sync. Users change where they sign in — nothing else stops.
Do calendar invites and recurring meetings survive the move?
Yes — including attendees, recurrence rules and room bookings. Calendars are one of the reconciliation checkpoints before the old tenant is retired.
What happens to our SharePoint and OneDrive files?
They are mapped to Shared Drives and My Drive respectively, with permissions translated rather than flattened, and verified against source counts.