Client overview
A leading energy company based in Texas, with over 800 employees and multiple field offices, had been using an on-premises Exchange environment for email and communication. As part of their digital transformation efforts, the company wanted to take advantage of Microsoft 365’s cloud-based services while maintaining control over certain critical data. Given their need for compliance with strict energy sector regulations and the presence of legacy applications, the company opted for a hybrid Exchange setup, gradually migrating some mailboxes to Microsoft 365 while keeping others on-premises.
Operating in the highly regulated energy sector, the company was required to keep certain data, including sensitive operational and legal communications, on-premises for compliance purposes. This limited their ability to fully transition to the cloud while ensuring they met the necessary regulatory guidelines.
Several of the company’s legacy applications were integrated with their on-premises Exchange server, and fully migrating these systems to the cloud would have required a complete overhaul, which was neither cost-effective nor practical in the short term. They needed a solution that allowed these critical applications to continue functioning while still leveraging the benefits of the cloud for other parts of the business.
The company was not prepared to move all their users and data to the cloud immediately. They wanted to take a gradual approach, ensuring minimal disruption to their daily operations. This meant maintaining a hybrid environment for the foreseeable future, with a focus on migrating users and workloads over time based on readiness and business needs.
The company was concerned about potential downtime and wanted to ensure continuous access to their email services, even in the event of a failure in either the on-premises or cloud environment. They needed a solution that provided redundancy and ensured business continuity.
Medha Cloud worked with the energy company to implement a hybrid Exchange environment, addressing their need for regulatory compliance, legacy application support, and gradual migration to Microsoft 365.
We helped the company establish a hybrid Exchange environment, allowing them to maintain an on-premises Exchange server while connecting to Microsoft 365. This setup enabled a seamless experience for end users, whether their mailboxes were hosted on-premises or in the cloud. We also configured the environment to allow for ongoing management of both Exchange servers from a single administrative console, simplifying IT management.
The energy company wanted to start by moving non-critical mailboxes to Microsoft 365, including those used by field offices and departments with lighter regulatory requirements. Medha Cloud developed a phased migration plan that allowed the company to migrate mailboxes over time, based on business priorities. This gradual approach minimized disruption and allowed the IT team to address any potential issues without impacting the entire organization.
To meet the company’s compliance requirements, we ensured that sensitive data remained on-premises while taking advantage of Microsoft 365’s cloud services for other users. We also helped the company configure Microsoft 365’s security and compliance features, such as data loss prevention (DLP) policies and multi-factor authentication, ensuring their cloud environment remained compliant with industry standards while protecting critical business data.
The hybrid environment allowed the company’s legacy applications to continue functioning alongside the on-premises Exchange server. This ensured that their essential business processes remained uninterrupted, while other areas of the business benefited from the advanced features of Microsoft 365, such as Teams and OneDrive.
By maintaining both on-premises and cloud environments, the company could ensure business continuity and redundancy. If one environment experienced an issue, the other could continue to function, minimizing the risk of downtime. We also helped configure the hybrid environment to allow users to seamlessly access email from either platform, ensuring that the transition between on-premises and cloud-based services was smooth.
As part of the transition, Medha Cloud provided training sessions to familiarize employees with Microsoft 365’s cloud features, such as Outlook, Teams, and OneDrive. We also provided ongoing support to ensure that users and the IT team could manage the hybrid environment effectively.
The company successfully implemented a hybrid Exchange environment, allowing them to maintain control over their sensitive data while moving non-critical users to the cloud. This hybrid approach enabled them to meet both regulatory and operational needs without compromising security or performance.
By taking a phased approach to migration, the company was able to avoid the disruption of a full-scale move to the cloud. This gradual process allowed them to address technical challenges as they arose and ensure that their legacy applications continued to function smoothly.
With Microsoft 365, users in the cloud benefited from advanced collaboration tools like Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive. This improved communication and productivity, particularly for employees in remote field offices who needed access to updated project data and real-time collaboration tools.
The hybrid setup allowed the company to remain compliant with energy sector regulations by keeping critical data on-premises while leveraging Microsoft 365’s advanced security features for the cloud-based users. Multi-factor authentication, data encryption, and data loss prevention policies were implemented to protect sensitive information in both environments.
The company now had a robust business continuity plan in place, thanks to the hybrid Exchange setup. In the event of a failure in either the on-premises or cloud environment, the other could take over, ensuring continuous email access and reducing the risk of costly downtime.
Migrating to a hybrid Exchange environment enabled the energy company in Texas to maintain control over its most sensitive data while benefiting from the advanced collaboration, security, and productivity features of Microsoft 365. By working with Medha Cloud, the company successfully executed a phased migration plan that minimized disruption and ensured business continuity.
If your organization is considering a hybrid Exchange setup to maintain compliance and control while migrating to Microsoft 365, contact Medha Cloud today. We can help you implement a seamless hybrid environment tailored to your specific needs.
