Migrating from Onprem to Azure AD as a Service

Question

I am looking to move our onprem AD environment to Azure AD as A Service and be 100% in the cloud. I know there are a number of factors to look at like file shares, printers, Apps etc.. but I have not finding any guides on the best way to move from onprem AD to AD as a Service. Do i need to setup AD Connect ?

Answer 1

Hi @rr-4098

You should start by doing an audit on the services installed hosted on-prem and see if it is possible to migrate them to Azure.

I will try to give you some ideas but for this kind of projects, it is recommended to ask for the expertise of a service company to support you during the project and all the migration phases.

For identities, you can work in hybrid mode during the migration by synchronizing AD accounts to Entra ID through 2 tools Cloud Sync and Entra Connect.

For workstations, you can intune to replace GPOs.

For Exchange on-prem , you should configuring hybrid environment in order to move on-prem mailbox to Exchange on-line.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/road-to-the-cloud-introduction?source=recommendations

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/architecture/road-to-the-cloud-migrate

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Answer 2

Since the transition for your users need to be slow and steady, you first step will probably have to be setting up Entra ID Connect (Azure AD Connect).

But if you want to be 100% on the cloud, you could also manually(using bulk create option or using scripting) create fresh cloud only-user accounts and gradually start the migration of other services, as applicable. It will be a long road to be 100% cloud, depending on the on-premises infrastructure.

I suggest looking out for a professional and experienced service provider who could suggest and assist you with an appropriate step by step process.