When a large financial organization needed help migrating their legacy Zimbra email system to Google Workspace, we saw a great opportunity to help them modernize. The task involved migrating emails, contacts, and calendars for over 660 users.
While complex, the project allowed us to showcase our technical skills and problem-solving abilities. Here’s a closer look at the challenges we faced and how we overcame them.
Taking care of security challenges first
Zimbra is an older, on-premise email system that often runs on servers located in office racks, rather than in data centers or cloud environments.
In terms of security, our client had taken strong steps to protect their Zimbra environment, with the admin console locked down and inaccessible to the public — necessary for any organization in the financial sector.
However, this security setup also created a challenge for Revolgy: we had to carefully “open the door” to their environment without compromising any security protocols. We had to set up server whitelisting to allow a secure connection between their Zimbra system and our migration servers, which had multiple IP addresses.
Another issue was the customer’s SSL certificates. They were using self-signed certificates, which are only valid for local devices and don’t meet the higher security standards needed for web-based communication. Although this caused some difficulties at first, we were able to collaborate with the customer to find an alternative solution that kept the migration secure.
Managing performance with a backup server
During the initial stages of the migration, the client’s local Zimbra server began to slow down as the system struggled to handle both the migration and regular email traffic usage for their users. This could have disrupted their employees’ daily work, but we quickly implemented a solution.
By deploying a backup server to distribute the load, we kept both the migration and the client’s operations running in parallel. Thanks to this approach, the organization continued their regular work without any noticeable impact on performance, making sure the migration didn’t affect business productivity.
Handling large data volumes
One of the unique aspects of this project was the large amount of email data some users had accumulated over time. A number of users had up to ten times more data than expected, which required us to take a phased approach to the migration. In this case, a full migration of more than 660 users at once simply wasn’t possible, especially with these data-heavy users in the mix. To manage this, we split the migration into several groups.
We pre-migrated most of the data in advance of the final migration weekend, and by the time the first workweek in Google Workspace began, over 95% of users were fully migrated with the remaining few users having all their recent data migrated as well. This phased approach was crucial for handling large data volumes without overloading the system. While this isn’t typical for migrations, it worked effectively for this project.
Keeping email running with dual delivery
We used a dual delivery approach (followed by a split delivery approach) to ensure there were no disruptions during the migration. This meant that emails were sent to both the old Zimbra system and the new Google Workspace at the same time, so no one missed any emails or experienced downtime.
We kept the existing email setup (called the MX record) in place while creating a shadow domain to help route emails between both systems without disruption. Thanks to this, the old system kept working as usual while Google Workspace gradually took over.
Dual delivery helped us towards:
- Zero downtime: Emails continued going to both systems during the transition.
- Smooth transition: Internal email routing avoided any issues.
- Easy migration: Users kept working without noticing the change happening in the background.
The importance of change management and end-user training
An important aspect of any migration is effective change management and user training. In this case, the client chose to manage internal communication and training themselves, which led to delays in transitioning some teams and key users at the higher management level.
While the technical migration was smooth, these delays highlighted the importance of having a comprehensive change management plan in place.
Clear communication and proper user training help organizations get the most out of a modern system like Google Workspace, making the transition smooth for everyone. With our extensive experience in change management and training, we typically guide companies through this process to ensure a successful migration.
A complex project with a successful outcome
“Transitioning from Zimbra to Google Workspace is a complete transformation. As a legacy system, Zimbra lacks both security and admin features, so upgrading the client to a modern, secure platform made a huge difference.
By comparison, migrating from Workspace to Workspace is typically just a straightforward logistical process. Moving from Microsoft to Workspace is more complex, but you’re still working with modern environments. With Zimbra, however, it’s a 180-degree switch. Helping the client make such a significant leap forward was very rewarding.”
— Jan Z., Google Workspace Technical Engineer at Revolgy
For this financial institution, the migration to Google Workspace has delivered exactly what they needed: a modern, secure, and scalable environment that supports their operations more efficiently. Their employees are now working within a robust cloud-based platform that offers improved collaboration tools and more flexibility.
From our perspective, the key to this successful outcome was careful planning, addressing security concerns early on, and ensuring business continuity throughout the process. By managing the technical challenges and user transitions with minimal disruption, we helped the client achieve their goal of moving to a modern infrastructure without impacting their daily work.
Are you planning to adopt a modern collaborative solution such as Google Workspace? We can help! Contact us to discuss the details and check out our page on upgrading from Zimbra to Google Workspace.
Read also: Your essential guide to Google Workspace security
