Moving a small business onto Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 migration services for small business, matched to where you start
Our Microsoft 365 migration services for small business cover the four moves we see most: Google Workspace, a GoDaddy-bought Microsoft 365 plan, an on-premises Exchange server, and a Windows file server. Each is scoped as one fixed fee, delivered by senior US-based engineers in a typical 2–4 weeks, with 30 days of hypercare after cutover.
Representative dashboard — sample data
Pick your starting point
Four starting points, four different projects
The destination is always a Microsoft 365 tenant your business owns. What changes from one source to the next is what can break on the way — and each service below is built around that.
Google Workspace to Microsoft 365
Gmail, calendars, Drive and shared drives move into Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint, with Teams replacing Chat and Meet.
GoDaddy to Microsoft 365
You already run Microsoft 365, but GoDaddy controls the tenant. The job is defederation, direct licensing and admin ownership.
Exchange Server to Exchange Online
An on-premises mail server in a closet or a colo: mailboxes, shared and resource mailboxes, public folders and autodiscover.
File server to SharePoint
Mapped drives and years of folders move into SharePoint libraries and OneDrive, with NTFS permissions redesigned as groups.
How it works
The same three phases, whatever the source
- 1
Inventory and scope
A free consultation covers headcount, mailboxes, domains, file volumes and anything tied to your current sign-in. You get a written scope, one fixed fee, and a cutover date before anything moves.
- 2
Pilot with a small group
A few volunteers move first, end to end. We check mail, files, permissions, phones and Teams against real work, then correct the plan while the stakes are still low.
- 3
Cutover and hypercare
The bulk move runs, mail routing switches at an agreed quiet hour, a final pass catches stragglers, and we stay on for 30 days of included hypercare while habits settle.
What each move involves, side by side
A small business migration to Microsoft 365 is really one of four projects, and sometimes two of them at once. The table shows what moves, what needs a human decision rather than a copy, and the typical delivery window. It shows no prices, because an honest number depends on your mailbox and file inventory.
| Starting point | What moves | What needs a decision or rebuild | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace | Gmail, calendars, contacts, My Drive, shared drives | Where each shared drive lands in SharePoint, Google Sites rebuilt as pages, apps that sign in with Google | 2–4 weeks; shared drive restructuring sets the pace |
| GoDaddy Microsoft 365 | Tenant ownership, licensing, admin access; mailboxes usually stay where they are | Defederating from GoDaddy, buying licenses directly or through a partner you choose, timing the license switch | 2–4 weeks; license timing and domain changes set the pace |
| Exchange Server | User, shared and resource mailboxes; public folders; mail flow | Cutover versus hybrid, identity sync, autodiscover, decommissioning the old server safely | 2–4 weeks; public folders and hybrid needs set the pace |
| Windows file server | Mapped drives and departmental shares, documents, scans, archive | Restructuring deep folder trees, NTFS permissions to SharePoint groups, what stays behind as archive | 2–4 weeks; archive volume and permission sprawl set the pace |
The timeline column looks similar across the board because the inventory and design are done before anything moves. Every fee is fixed and stated in writing before you commit — our fixed-fee pricing and process page explains how the scoping conversation turns into that number.
Mail moves: Google Workspace, GoDaddy and Exchange
Three of the four routes are mostly about email, but they are not the same job. If your team lives in Gmail, our Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration is a genuine platform change: mail and calendars move into Exchange Online, Drive content lands in OneDrive and SharePoint, and staff learn Outlook and Teams. Microsoft's own guidance on moving from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 (opens in new tab) outlines the tooling; the real work is the mapping decisions around it.
If you bought Microsoft 365 through GoDaddy, you are already on the platform — but GoDaddy holds the keys to the tenant. Our GoDaddy to Microsoft 365 migration services handle defederation, direct licensing and the admin handover so your business owns its own tenant. And if mail still sits on a server you run yourselves, our Exchange Server to Exchange Online migration moves user, shared and resource mailboxes using Microsoft's documented mailbox migration methods (opens in new tab), then retires the old server cleanly. That route has become more urgent: Exchange Server 2016 and 2019 are past end of support, so they no longer receive security updates.
File moves: the shared drive nobody wants to touch
The fourth route is files. A file server to SharePoint migration takes the mapped drives your team has used for a decade and turns them into SharePoint libraries and OneDrive folders, using the SharePoint Migration Tool (opens in new tab) included with your subscription. The copying is the easy part; deciding what is live work, what is archive, and who should see what is where the time goes. If your files live in Dropbox, Box, Egnyte or another cloud platform rather than a server, our SharePoint migration services page compares those routes in the same way.
Why small businesses usually combine routes
A ten- or forty-person company rarely has just one thing to move. A common pattern is mail on GoDaddy or an old Exchange server plus files on a server in the back office. Scoping both together means one plan, one set of user instructions, one cutover weekend and one fixed fee, rather than two projects that each disrupt the team. It is also the right moment to check the tenant itself: our Microsoft 365 tenant security assessment reviews sign-in, sharing and admin settings, and Microsoft 365 license optimization makes sure you are not paying for plans nobody uses once the move is done.
Everything lands in the tenant your business owns, and nothing in the source is deleted by the migration itself, so the old system can stay read-only until you are confident. The work is delivered by senior US-based Microsoft engineers from our Orange County, CA base, remotely across all US states. Microsoft Made Easy is a Lightray Solutions brand.
Related services
Planning around the move, and what comes after
SharePoint Migration Services
Compare routes from Dropbox, Box, Egnyte, ShareFile, Confluence, Laserfiche and SharePoint Server into SharePoint Online.
Microsoft 365 Tenant Security Assessment
A fixed-fee review of sign-in, sharing, admin roles and mail security, ideally before or right after cutover.
SharePoint Consulting
Turn migrated files into a structured intranet with navigation, metadata and permissions people can follow.
FAQ
Questions before you choose a route
It depends on where mail and files live today. Gmail and Drive mean a Google Workspace move; a GoDaddy-bought Microsoft 365 plan means a tenant ownership change; an on-premises Exchange server means a mailbox migration; mapped network drives mean a file server move. Many small businesses need two of these, scoped together as one project.
After a free consultation we inventory mailboxes, file volumes, domains, and anything that needs rebuilding rather than copying, then put one price and a delivery window in writing. The fee depends on scope, not an hourly meter, and it only changes if you change the scope. Microsoft 365 licenses themselves are not part of our fee.
Most projects are delivered in two to four weeks from kickoff. A single domain with a few dozen mailboxes sits at the short end; several domains, large file shares, or a combined mail and file move take longer. The actual cutover is measured in hours, scheduled for an evening or weekend you choose.
No. Historical mail, calendars, and contacts are copied while the old system is still receiving, then MX records change at an agreed quiet hour and a final delta pass collects anything that arrived mid-switch. Staff get written instructions beforehand, and most simply open Outlook the next morning and carry on working.
No. Plenty of small businesses have no internal IT team, or one person covering it alongside another job. That is fine. We need an owner who can approve decisions and grant admin access; senior US-based engineers handle the technical work, staff guidance, and 30 days of hypercare after cutover.
In a Microsoft 365 tenant your business owns and administers. Mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint sites, and Teams all live there, we work with the access you grant, and full admin control is handed back at close. We keep nothing in our own environment, so you can continue in-house or with another provider.
Book a free consultation
Get more from the Microsoft tools you already pay for
Tell us what you’re trying to fix — a report, an approval process, an intranet, a Copilot rollout. We scope it as a fixed-fee project, you approve, and a senior engineer delivers in 2–4 weeks.
- Fixed-fee scope agreed before any work starts
- Senior, US-based Microsoft engineers — no handoffs
- Typical 2–4 week delivery
- 30 days of post-delivery hypercare included
The fastest way to reach us is the form — tell us the task and we’ll reply within one business day.