Making the switch? This quick guide covers the key differences between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, common challenges, and migration strategies to help you plan.
Migrating between entirely different platforms can bring a set of challenges— from different configurations and tools to managing end-user adoption. And when your migration project comes down the pipeline quickly, it’s easy for your team to feel the pressure to align stakeholders, resources, expectations, and meet tight deadlines. We don’t call it “migration madness” around here for nothing!
Let’s get you started, so you can navigate through the murky waters and turn a daunting migration into a masterpiece.
This guide provides a snapshot of the critical aspects to consider in Google Workspace migration to help you manage the shift to Microsoft 365 effectively. For a deeper dive, watch our on-demand webinar on Google-to-Microsoft migration best practices, hosted by Microsoft MVP Denis Molodtsov.
Table of contents
Navigating from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365
Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, and shared drives—the whole gang from Google Workspace (well, their data, really)—will pack up and move to Microsoft 365.
With everything integrated into the Microsoft ecosystem, including all the classic applications you know, and then some—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook—users and IT admins will have a unified platform that boosts productivity and security across your organization. These tools are available as desktop apps and in the cloud, making the transition ideal for organizations that work offline or need advanced features.
Migrating Google Workspace involves transferring data from Google tools to the Microsoft 365 counterparts, such as:
- Gmail to Outlook
- Google Drive to OneDrive
- shared drives to SharePoint
- Google Docs to Office docs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
TIP: Before migrating, make sure the total source storage fits in your destination tenant and that you have enough storage available to avoid surprises. If you see you’re running out of space in SharePoint, buy a storage add-on.
Plan for your Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration
A smooth Google Workspace migration starts with two things: a clear plan and a well-organized structure. Let’s look at the key elements to consider:
Planning
For medium and large migrations, it’s a good idea to create an inventory of your source environment, including the list of drives, storage, group memberships, and users.
If your migration is small, you might not need this level of detail, but for more complex migrations, it’s important to understand what needs to be moved, what can be archived, and what can be left behind.
Who owns the data you need to migrate? Get key stakeholders in your organization involved early to make sure everyone’s on the same page and that their needs are met. This is also a great opportunity to rethink how your organization collaborates and ensures your new Microsoft 365 setup is not just functional, but also future-ready.
Information architecture
In Microsoft 365, think about how you’ll organize your content and how people in your organization will interact with it. For example, a logical information architecture in SharePoint Online takes into account the nature of your content and how to best organize it within SharePoint. It should be built in a way that makes it easy for everyone to find what they need. Luckily, SharePoint gives you the building blocks to make it work.
Mapping
A smooth migration also depends on how well you map your data and identities between Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. Consider the following:
- Map personal drives to OneDrive
- Shared drives to SharePoint sites or Teams
- Decide which drives to migrate or archive
- How will you handle orphaned drives—leave them abandoned or move them to specific folders?
Identity mapping is also important. Without it, you risk losing file and folder permissions during the migration. Google Workspace groups that are used for permission management might need to be pre-created. Check if these groups already exist in the target environment.
When creating groups, make sure they’re not empty. They need to include members, and the membership from the source Google Workspace should match the membership in the corresponding M365 group or security group.
How do you ensure the correct membership? This is where your comprehensive inventory comes in handy, especially for complex migrations, so you can keep track of group memberships and data from platform to platform.
TIP for migrating to an existing Microsoft 365 tenant:
Let’s say you have a Google shared drive called “Contoso Project January”, check if a Microsoft group or team with the same name already exists. If it does, check if the members are the same. If the group is different, don’t migrate to it. Instead, create a new group or channel for the migration. Communicate with users to see if they’re comfortable with the new structure—maybe name the folder “Migrated Contoso Project January” to keep it separate from existing content.
Migrating
- Choose a migration strategy. For large migrations, consider migrating in waves (phased migration) where you move a set number of drives—such as fifty, a hundred, or three hundred—over a specific period, like a week. Alternatively, you can opt for a big bang migration, where everything is moved at once, either within a day or a week, in one single event.
- Use a Google-to-Microsoft migration solution. Lean on a reliable migration solution to do the heavy lifting and to ensure a smooth transfer of permissions, configurations, and workflows.
- Test migration. Before migration, run tests to make sure everything works as expected and catch potential issues early.
- Turn off file creation or migrate incrementally. To avoid new files being added during migration, consider disabling file creation at the source. Alternatively, you can do an incremental migration, which saves you time by only migrating what has changed since your last migration.
- Review migration logs. Check the migration logs for any errors or issues, such as long file paths or blocked files.
TIP: Before migrating shared drives, make sure the target container (e.g., SharePoint site, Teams, or OneDrive) is provisioned. OneDrive is automatically provisioned when a user first accesses it. Pre-provision their OneDrives if users haven’t accessed it yet either via the Microsoft Admin Center or PowerShell. For Teams or SharePoint sites, check if they exist; if not, provision them and assign necessary permissions (admins, owners, members).
Post-migration
Once your migration is complete, check to make sure everyone has the right access to their files and folders. If you shared anything with external partners, you might need to re-share those links, as they may not have carried over automatically.
Confirm that files were migrated and converted properly by opening important files like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Sometimes, Google Docs and Sheets may need a little tweaking after being moved to Microsoft formats, like fixing formulas or formatting.
TIP: If something seems to be missing after the migration, try searching for it in Microsoft’s search or check the “Shared with Me” section in OneDrive. Once that’s done, it’s time to decommission your drives by either reducing licenses or cancelling your subscription.
Then, you’ll want to put your governance plan in place to keep your new environment secure and organized. If you plan to use AI tools like Copilot for Microsoft 365, make sure people in your organization have access to the right files so they don’t fall into the wrong hands.
Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration challenges and their solutions
Security and data integrity
Migrating data without losing files or breaking permissions is tough, especially when dealing with sensitive information. According to Microsoft MVP Denis Molodtsov, your mapping is never going to be 100% accurate. Meaning that after migration, do a final check to see what changed at the source. Are there any new drives or shared drives that didn’t migrate? That’s why using a reliable migration tool like ShareGate, which ensures everything is migrated intact—including metadata, versioning, and permissions—and lets you move things incrementally can help you overcome this.
Throttling
Throttling is a security mechanism Microsoft leverages to prevent your system from overloading during migration. In some cases, it could be an API issue while trying to migrate a large number of files and there’s a networking issue on Microsoft’s side. When this happens, the API may temporarily stop working. This could be due to throttling, or just a network issue. Monitoring your migration logs can help you identify and resolve those issues or errors. ShareGate Migrate uses multi-activation licenses to run multiple migrations at once, accelerating data transfers and reducing throttling by following Microsoft’s best practices.
End-user adoption and change management
After migration, it’s common for end users to find the new environment challenging if they haven’t been trained on the changes. Going from a Google environment to Microsoft 365 can feel like a big change, particularly for your end users. It can be an exciting opportunity to boost collaboration and communication across your organization—but in reality, it’s the people who make or break the migration.
Users might also have trouble figuring out migrated files like when a shared drive becomes a SharePoint team. That’s why having an adoption strategy is key—one where everyone feels supported, trained, and ready to use Microsoft 365 effectively. Clear guidance on where to find data—and end-user training on tools like Microsoft Teams and Exchange Online can make all the difference. Assigning champions in each department and offering support helps everyone feels confident and ready to embrace Microsoft 365.
Migration tools
We know there’s a lot on your plate already and choosing a migration tool to do the job efficiently and effectively is an important decision. We did a ton of research while developing ShareGate’s Google Workspace to Microsoft 365 migration functionality. Here’s what we’ve learned from evaluating the tools on the market.
From planning to governance and end-user adoption, you can see what all the above steps look like in real-time! Book a live ShareGate demo to get a walkthrough or simply ask your burning questions about Google Workspace migration. We’re here to help!
