How the Migration to the Delos Cloud Works

Part of the BSI's requirements is ensuring that only authorized users can use the Delos Cloud. The following groups are authorized to use the Delos Cloud:

• Direct administration: Authorities of the direct federal, state, and local administration, e.g. Federal Chancellery, customs office
• Indirect administration: Institutions of indirect federal, state, and local administration that are organized under public law, are predominantly financed from public funds, are subject to the legal and at least partial technical supervision of the federal, state, or local authorities, and are not in competition with private companies, such as state universities, BaFin
• Grant recipients: Grant recipients that are regularly financed predominantly from public funds and that are not entrepreneurial or, if they are entrepreneurial, have a separate account, such as the German Aerospace Center, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
• Companies with equity participation: Companies in which the federal government, federal states, and local authorities each or jointly hold 50% of the capital, which are not entrepreneurial or, if they are entrepreneurial, have a separate account, such as Autobahn GmbH, Bundesdruckerei

Migration to the Delos Cloud is reserved exclusively for these customer groups.

• Evaluate complexity: Determine the complexity of the migration by analyzing the dependencies between the different systems and applications.

Focus the inventory specifically on:

• Files and storage locations: Analyze the information in the current storage locations of files and their size and quantity to efficiently plan the migration to SharePoint Online.
• Meeting and messaging systems: To make the transition smooth, examine the meeting and messaging systems that Teams will replace to make the transition smooth.
• Customized applications and integrations: Review all custom applications and integrations that could be affected by the migration to the Delos Cloud and plan their migration or integration.
• Check add-ins: Ensure that all add-ins are compatible with the new MS Office version. Plan and carry out necessary adjustments together with the manufacturers to ensure a smooth transition.
• Sites: Evaluate sites that may need to be migrated to SharePoint Online or integrated with Azure AD for identity management.

• Analyze existing content: Thoroughly analyze existing content to determine which data should be migrated, archived, or cleansed.
• Determine migration approach: Based on its relevance and current usefulness, decide which content should be migrated to Microsoft 365.

• How to use Excel Markos: For security reasons, we recommend signing existing Excel macros to keep the executable code in Excel to a necessary minimum.
• MS Access-based specialist processes: This area is particularly focused on. If necessary, migrating the specialist process from Access to a modern architecture or directly to a low-code alternative, such as the Microsoft Power platform, should be an alternative to migration to O365.

• Check network capacity: Evaluate the existing network capacity and bandwidth to ensure that it can handle the increased traffic during and after the migration.
• Perform network upgrades: Perform network hardware and software upgrades as needed to meet post-migration requirements.

• Compare identity models: Based on business requirements and the perspectives of IT and security teams, choose between different identity models (cloud-only, hybrid, or on-premises).
• Plan implementation: Plan the implementation of the chosen identity model, including integration with existing systems and user training.

• Mixed target landscapes: Depending on the requirements, it may be necessary, particularly for public IT service providers such as municipal companies, to migrate their customers to the Delos Cloud and migrate those who do not fall into the groups mentioned above to the public M365 Cloud. Microsoft provides extensive cross-cloud functionalities for this. This particular requirement must be highlighted and considered in the overall architecture.
• Migration scenarios from M365 to the Delos Cloud: The same applies to companies that have already migrated to M365 and now want to migrate parts or the entire landscape to the Delos Cloud after availability.

• Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and encryption policies: Consider how MFA and encryption policies can protect access to Microsoft 365.
• Data loss prevention strategy (DLP): Evaluate options for a DLP strategy to protect sensitive information.
• Disaster recovery and backup solutions: Plan disaster recovery measures and ensure backup solutions for your cloud data are considered.
• Data protection and compliance guidelines: Analyze your industry's specific data protection and compliance requirements of your industry and evaluate how Microsoft 365 meets these requirements.
• Endpoint protection: The migration to Microsoft 365 does not replace endpoint protection, so this step must be carefully considered before, during, and after the migration. As Threat Protection and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint are not included in the Delos Cloud, planning antivirus and antimalware measures ensures that all endpoints are protected against threats during and after the migration.

• Changes in working methods and processes: The migration to Microsoft 365 entails far-reaching changes to a company's working methods, processes, and IT infrastructure.
• Successful change management: To ensure that this transformation runs smoothly and is well received by employees, successful change management is crucial.
• Careful planning and management: This requires careful planning and management of several areas to consider both the technical changeover and the human and organizational side equally.

• Collect information: Gather information on the various stakeholders' requirements, priorities, and success criteria and create a communication plan to keep them informed.