BPOS Standard Migration Clock Starts Ticking

Customers of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) Standard, the predecessor to Office 365, must begin considering their plans to migrate to Office 365 if they want to continue to use Microsoft’s online offerings. Microsoft has allocated less than two years, beginning with the June 2011 launch of Office 365, to complete migrations for existing BPOS multitenant subscribers. Existing customers of Microsoft’s BPOS Dedicated or Federal offerings may have a more flexible timeframe.

Specifically, migrations for existing BPOS customers can begin three to four months after Office 365 launch, and migrations must be completed within 12 months of the date migrations initially become available. Microsoft will be contacting customers closer to the date when migrations become available to schedule a transition date to migrate to Office 365. The actual migration process is completed by Microsoft, takes 48 hours or less, and will occur over a single weekend (nonweekend transitions can also be scheduled as necessary).