The cloud migration checklist for Australian SMBs.

Moving to the cloud, whether that's Microsoft 365, a hosted server, or cloud backup, is one of the highest-value moves a growing Australian business can make. It's also one of the easiest to get wrong if you skip the planning stage. Here's the checklist we work through with every client.

Before you migrate: discovery

• List every system, mailbox and file share currently in use, including anything staff have set up informally.
• Identify data that must stay in Australia for compliance or client contract reasons.
• Check current licensing, you may already own Microsoft 365 licences you're not fully using.
• Document integrations (accounting software, line-of-business apps) that depend on your current setup.

Planning the migration

• Choose a migration window, most Australian businesses prefer evenings or weekends for the cutover.
• Decide on a "pilot group" of a few users to migrate first and catch issues early.
• Set a data cutoff, a clear point after which no new data is created in the old system.
• Communicate the plan to staff in plain language: what's changing, when, and who to contact if something looks wrong.

During the migration

• Migrate mail, files and calendars in batches, verifying each batch before moving to the next.
• Keep the old system online and untouched as a fallback until the new environment is confirmed stable.
• Test every integration (accounting, CRM, line-of-business apps) against the new environment before go-live.
• Re-issue multi-factor authentication and update password managers as part of the cutover, not as an afterthought.

After the migration: verify, don't assume

• Spot-check a sample of mailboxes and folders for missing data before decommissioning the old system.
• Confirm backup jobs are running against the new environment, not the old one.
• Run a test restore, a backup you've never tested is a backup you can't rely on.
• Update your documentation and asset register so the next change is easier than this one.

"The migrations that go wrong are almost never a technology problem, they're a planning and communication problem."

A note on data sovereignty

Many Australian businesses, particularly those handling client or health information, need to know where their data physically sits. Microsoft 365 for Australian tenants is generally hosted in Australian data centres, but it's worth confirming region settings explicitly rather than assuming, especially for older tenants that may have been provisioned differently.

How Koala Infosys runs migrations

We treat every migration as a staged project with a named point of contact, not a weekend scramble. Most Australian SMB migrations we run complete with zero data loss and minimal disruption, because the heavy lifting happens in planning, not on cutover night.