Optimizing network performance for Microsoft Office 365 · PDF fileOptimizing network performance for Microsoft Office 365 ... specific migration optimization planning, ... Optimizing

Published August 2015

As the earliest adopter of Microsoft products, Microsoft IT

began deploying Microsoft Office 365 in 2011. To optimize for

network capacity and performance, they implemented strategic

plans for network-related technologies. Microsoft IT has

continued to evolve industry-leading performance and

migration approaches, and they have adopted cloud

infrastructure services to promote a successful transition to

Office 365.

Situation

After many years of investment in the on-premises network, Microsoft IT and its

internal customers were accustomed to a highly reliable connectivity experience

with Microsoft Office products. When Microsoft IT began planning and testing the

move to cloud-based Office 365, they analyzed network infrastructure and

processes to find potential performance issues before beginning the migration.

This analysis was important to learn whether the existing infrastructure would

support the demands of moving a large enterprise service to the cloud. And it was

critical to maintaining the quality of service necessary for employee productivity in

Office 365.

Putting migration to the test

In 2011, to test the Office 365 migration, Microsoft IT identified about 2,000

datacenter-hosted mailboxes to migrate to the cloud starting on a Friday night. At

that time, Microsoft Exchange used caching to compensate for latency in mailboxes

that were geographically distant from their users, and regular email

synchronization to local mailboxes provided optimal performance. The initial

mailbox migration was completed successfully over the weekend. On Monday

morning, users logged in and their client machines began to synchronize through

the Internet to the cloud all at once. The sudden demand overloaded the gateway

to the Internet and caused an outage.

Valuable lessons were gained from this test, which have been applied to migration

planning processes since then. A key lesson was that collaboration and

communication between network and migration teams, working together on more

extensive modeling or smaller-scale tests, might have revealed that the

infrastructure could not support a 2,000-user migration. Having tightly integrated

teams that can identify issues on multiple levels is the best way to avoid migration

missteps.

Optimizing network performance

for Microsoft Office 365

IT Showcase Technical Case Study

Situation

When Microsoft IT began planning its

migration to cloud-based Office 365, they

needed to manage and address potential

network connectivity performance issues

and implement thorough migration and

performance planning for Office 365

services.

Solution

Microsoft IT engaged in large-scale,

strategic readiness efforts such as capacity

analysis and network provisioning, service-

specific migration optimization planning,

and adoption of new cloud infrastructure

services for optimized network performance

in the future.

Benefits

Optimized connectivity and network

performance

Long-term cost savings

Low-impact migrations

Faster, smoother user adoption

Key takeaway

Predictive modeling and small-scale

experiments can highlight issues that

need to be addressed. Communication

and collaboration between network

and migration staff is key.

Page 2 | Optimizing network performance for Microsoft Office 365


Fortunately, the technology used during the test was slated to be replaced by new

technology that could support the traffic and significantly increase bandwidth. This

test experience accelerated that replacement and eventually allowed for successful

continued mailbox migration.

Planning cloud service performance

The Exchange cloud migration experiment was the foundation for a broad, ongoing

cloud performance initiative. An essential first step was to closely engage the

network and infrastructure teams, who could identify the tools and strategies

necessary for a major migration from on-premises servers to the cloud and allow

Microsoft to take full advantage of the benefits of cloud services.

Traditional on-premises server systems, despite lacking the scalability of the cloud,

had one advantage: network connectivity had been optimized and provisioned

over many years, and any bottlenecks had been addressed. Before moving to Office

365, Microsoft used remote datacenters for many user locations. And, like most IT

organizations, Microsoft IT already had experience with explicit planning for

network capacity, beyond simply laying the largest available cable between users

and servers.

For Microsoft IT to maintain the performance that users expect while migrating

powerful applications such as SharePoint and Exchange to their cloud-based

versions, it needed to ensure availability and connectivity.

During the migration, Microsoft IT managed and addressed performance issues

that users may have experienced by:

Planning for testing for appropriate network connectivity to the cloud.

Implementing thorough migration and performance planning for services such

as SharePoint Online and Skype for Business Online.

Embracing new cloud infrastructure services such as ExpressRoute for Office

365.

Solution

When Microsoft IT began large-scale migration to Office 365, readiness efforts

included performing high-level capacity analyses, adding redundancy to ensure

Internet availability, and optimizing connectivity for all users. And each Office 365

service presented unique migration challenges that had to be considered and

planned for. SharePoint Online and Skype for Business are two examples of the

diversity of the performance optimization experiences, efforts made, and lessons

learned as part of the Office 365 migration. Microsoft IT continues to serve as the

company's first and best customer today, piloting new cloud solutions that will

offer even better network performance for Office services in the future.

Driving availability and connectivity through optimization

Teams within Microsoft IT make broad and continual performance optimization

efforts across the Office 365 suite of applications to enable a high level of

employee productivity during and after migrations. These efforts include

performing capacity planning calculations, providing redundancy and resiliency

where appropriate, and creating the shortest path possible between the client and

the cloud.

Key takeaway

When using Office 365 cloud services,

Internet infrastructure that supports

connectivity and bandwidth must be

designed to meet the demands of the

cloud service.

Key takeaway

To prepare for migration, IT teams

need to analyze capacity, add

redundancy, ensure Internet

availability, and optimize connectivity

for all users.



Calculating network capacity requirements

Enterprise employees place many demands on a network. Information workers,

salespeople, and engineers all have different network utilization patterns and

productivity needs. When Microsoft IT is preparing to bring a new site online or

relocate a team, a carrier services manager uses a generalized calculation to

determine how much service a given location will need.

For example, capacity guidelines within Microsoft IT were formerly 110 Kbps per

sales person and 300 Kbps per developer. As services have become data-hungry

and teams have become more widely dispersed, the typical user—regardless of job

function—is now estimated to use about 400 Kbps of bandwidth during normal

activity. Although this is a subjective guideline that may be affected by many

factors (concentration of users, size of campus, remote access, non-user access,

and so on), it is a practical starting point. Estimating initial capacity will ultimately

reduce the level of investment needed to provide an acceptable level of service and

satisfy business needs at that location.

Microsoft IT has a policy to deploy an Internet edge stamp that can sustain the

expected capacity demand for the next 18 months. The design can scale to double

the capacity during the useful life of the hardware, which is typically three to five

years. This relatively simple and affordable policy provides the advantage of being

able to size the circuit (which may be owned by an external provider) up or down

as needed when a team moves or its size changes.

Provisioning in this manner is much easier and less expensive than deploying more

equipment and increasing the size of the edge later. This practice provides a great

degree of agility as well as the ability to optimize connectivity for both cost and

performance, with minimal complexity and low risk of outages.

By investing in thorough migration preparation, Microsoft IT has seen a positive

effect on the speed of the migration, availability of the service, and quality of the

user experience. When planning for Office 365 migration, Microsoft IT recommends

investing the time to create profiles, calculate capacity needs, and build the

network out in anticipation of these needs. Office 365 has published capacity-

planning tools to help customers size their own bandwidth needs (see the

Resources section).

Providing Internet redundancy for performance and availability

In locations where Internet connectivity is critical, such as operations centers where

employees must work on site with no option for remote work, Microsoft IT

introduced circuit redundancy by providing more than one physical connection to

the site via different carriers. If one carrier service fails, a secondary carrier can

provide backup service. This redundancy is critical in business climates that rely

heavily on cloud productivity services like Office 365, and where Internet

connection failures result in reduced employee efficiency.

Microsoft IT also uses global network redundancies for alternative routing in case

of disaster. This strategy was tested in 2011, when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and

subsequent tsunami in Japan brought down power and severed network

connections with the west coast of the United States for several days. The existing

network redundancy allowed Microsoft IT to route around the severed connection

to reach other worldwide destinations through unaffected redundant regional

connections.

Key takeaways

Investing time to create user profiles

and associated usage estimates by role

can help with planning for network

capacity needs.

Deploying an Internet edge stamp that

can scale to double the expected

capacity during the life of the

hardware can provide flexibility,

optimized connectivity, and long-term

cost savings.

Key takeaways

Optimizing for worst-case scenarios by

planning circuit redundancy can

reduce the impact of unexpected

outages.

Prioritizing Internet performance as

highly as intranet performance is a

critical aspect of planning for cloud

migrations.



Most enterprise networks were not built to optimize the flow of traffic from local

intranets to services on the Internet. In many IT organizations, intranet performance

is still prioritized over Internet performance. For large organizations planning a

migration to Office 365 cloud services, a prioritized focus on Internet performance

and availability, with increased emphasis on Internet connectivity and redundancy,

is important to a successful transition.

Optimizing remote connectivity to Office services

As the suite of Office related services expanded and were more heavily used for

productivity purposes by their employee base, Microsoft IT did a networking

“reality check,” comparing connectivity methods based on user location. This

process involved closely examining the data traffic patterns of Exchange and

SharePoint services. Although the traffic patterns varied significantly with each

service, the fundamental connectivity optimization made by Microsoft IT improved

network performance across each service and improved overall user productivity.

During this optimization effort, Microsoft employees in major campuses and large

office buildings were connected through the corporate intranet, which has reliable

and robust private networking. This worked well for on-site employees; however,

remote employees in home offices or mobile locations who needed to connect to

these productivity services had to follow a much less efficient path. These

employees connected from the Internet (via on-demand remote access for home

users or persistent site-to-site VPN for remote users) through an inbound

corporate edge. They would then route from their connectivity point through the

intranet to the datacenter.

Figure 1. Inefficient connections from remote locations to on-premises services



Around this same time, Microsoft IT began working with the Office product team to

enable broader access to their services to support new work styles and flexibility in

client devices. This involved publishing their services securely to the Internet in a

model that was a precursor to consuming these services from the public cloud.

As shown in Figure 2, home office and remote clients access the Internet and

connect to Internet-facing service endpoints to reach on-premises services. The

endpoints are presented by load balancers that scale out the web services, and a

DMZ network securely publishes the services and data to the Internet.

Figure 2. Moving the Office productivity services to the Internet and optimizing configuration for

off-site access

Similarly, smaller Microsoft branch offices (Internet-connected clients) previously

connected to the corporate intranet via a leased line or a persistent VPN, so their

local connectivity was an extension of the corporate intranet, with no on-site edge.

This was a suboptimal experience for users accessing Internet-based Office

services.

For example, the closest hub to a sales office in New York might be in North

Carolina; to reach the Internet, traffic would first have to travel from New York to

the corporate intranet in North Carolina. Microsoft IT improved connectivity in such

situations by creating an Internet edge at these branch sites, which gave them

direct Internet access.

To further increase the efficiency and improve the user experience, Microsoft IT

allowed users to use Internet path even if they were simultaneously connected to

the intranet via VPN or other remote access solutions. This was accomplished via a

“split tunneling” configuration. All of these measures set up a client connectivity

model that was ready for the move to the Internet-delivered public cloud service

that is Office 365.

Key takeaways

Analyzing and planning for user edge

traffic patterns and implementing

connectivity that shortens the path to

the Internet possible can improve

cloud-based network performance.

Security and compliance functions

delivered as part of the cloud service

can reduce or eliminate the need to

provide these functions on the network

path, reducing complexity and cost

without sacrificing quality and security

of the connectivity solution.



Additionally, such direct paths to the Internet typically required advanced data loss

prevention measures. This usually involved integrating advanced client security

protection, such as antivirus and antimalware safeguards, Windows Firewall, and a

firewall at the Internet edge. Before migrating to Office 365, Microsoft IT had to

examine all data as it left the internal network. With Office 365, however, the

destination cloud services scan and analyze files to determine whether they violate

any policies, and traffic can safely travel, for example, from a home office to the

Internet to the service without the added security measure of sending it through

the managed edge.

Optimizing SharePoint performance

Microsoft IT focused its performance optimization efforts for SharePoint Online on

two major areas: a gradual, staged migration plan that mitigated most impacts of

migration on performance, and a SharePoint portal performance analysis that led

to important configuration optimizations in caching, content rendering, and

navigation. Because of these efforts, Microsoft IT enjoyed an especially smooth

migration of SharePoint content and portals to Office 365.

Optimizing migration through categorization and gradual onboarding

When Microsoft IT began migrating to SharePoint Online, there were

approximately 70,000 site collections and over 100,000 My Site personal sites.

Through a combination of cleanup efforts and a “Start Fresh” approach, (see below

for a full description) to encourage net-new adoption, Microsoft IT was able to

reduce the actual number of site collections that had to be fully migrated to 22,063

Team Sites.

These sites consisted of 36 terabytes of data, and were approximately a 50 percent

reduction in sites to be migrated (this did not include self-migrations of Team Sites

or My Sites, which were primarily content-only moves). After the Start Fresh

adoption and cleanup efforts were completed, the team successfully migrated

more than 97 percent of its relevant SharePoint sites to the cloud in less than one

year.

Part of this success is attributable to the development of new SharePoint Online

migration APIs (currently in preview; see Resources) coupled with a third-party tool

developed by Metavis, which greatly improved throughput for migration

throughout the year. Microsoft IT also treated the migration as a large-scale

project, complete with project management assignments, a detailed

communication plan, a rollback plan, and buy-in from all stakeholders. Most

importantly, Microsoft IT planned and performed migrations in a staged manner

that greatly minimized impact on performance.

Categorizing migration

Before beginning site migrations, Microsoft IT created four migration categories

defined by site complexity (the level and breadth of existing customizations) and

the degree of business value associated with the content. The categories were:

Start Fresh. Individuals and teams were encouraged to create new sites in the

cloud and manually migrate their own content as needed, only moving the

most important files and discarding the rest.

Forklift. Microsoft IT performed a bulk migration of nearly 30,000 high-value

SharePoint sites, using third-party migration tools.

Partial Move. Select content was moved to the cloud, and more complex

content (such as content for highly customized portal components) remained

on-premises until it could be redesigned.

Key takeaway

Establishing a project plan and using a

third-party tool (Metavis) that takes

advantage of the migration APIs

developed by the SharePoint product

group can reduce the overall impact of

migration on performance.

Key takeaway

The most important step to prepare for

migrating to SharePoint Online is to

perform a detailed audit and to clearly

understand your environment.

Determine which sites have not been

edited for some time and reach out to

the site owners to find out if they are

still needed. Remove those that are not

needed any longer. This cleanup is

essential to make sure you are only

migrating the most relevant data.



Redesign. Some portals with highly customized applications and solutions

were slated for complete redesign, with custom workload migration and

completely rebuilt solutions to take advantage of newly available technology,

such as Azure media services, and to leverage the new app model.

Although all four approaches were instrumental in the successful Microsoft IT

SharePoint migration and can serve as a model for any IT department planning a

migration to SharePoint Online, the Start Fresh approach was perhaps the most

significant for mitigating potential migration-related performance issues. This

approach involved regular communication and a generous timeline, allowing users

to self-migrate at their convenience.

To simplify the transition and encourage users to move, Microsoft IT created a

process by which users could create a new SkyDrive Pro (now OneDrive for

Business) site on first visit by simply clicking a link. Additionally, end-users were

informed that their on-premises My Sites would eventually be eliminated. Within a

specified time (approximately one year), users could migrate critical content on

their own and discard anything no longer needed. Microsoft IT did not migrate any

content from My Sites on-premises to SkyDrive Pro. For more complex sites

requiring third-party migration tools, users could request migration assistance from

Microsoft IT in the form of forklift moves, partial moves, and redesigns.

Gradual onboarding and organic adoption

As users moved to their new sites and experienced the benefits of cloud document

storage and accessibility firsthand, SkyDrive Pro experienced viral adoption. Growth

in use of SharePoint Online in Microsoft IT was organic and gradual, but also highly

efficient and effective. A year after the start of the SharePoint migration in

Microsoft IT, more than half of its SharePoint footprint was in the cloud.

This gradual onboarding and adoption approach is ideal for organizations that can

increase network bandwidth as needed over time. Although a large migration to

Office 365 ultimately requires some increase in network capacity, very little upfront

network load planning is necessary in a long-term migration model. This approach

minimizes the effect of migration and any associated performance issues because it

greatly reduces the possibility of sudden changes in throughput or network

capacity.

Optimizing portals with performance tuning

For on-premises SharePoint portals whose size and complexity require a complete

redesign for optimal migration to Office 365, portal performance in the cloud may

be affected by conditions that did not exist in on-premises environments. The

recent migration and major redesign of the Microsoft internal employee portal,

MSW, offers a real-world illustration of these challenges.

For example, when the new MSW portal first went into testing on Office 365 with

the same web parts from on-premises, pages took about 20 seconds to load—too

long. Microsoft IT discovered that half of this delay was caused by navigation

issues, and the other half was caused by content query work. (There were over

seven content query web parts on the portal’s home page when initial testing

began.)

Key takeaway

A gradual approach to SharePoint site

migration that provides a generous

timeline for more user control can

minimize the effect of migration on

network performance.

Key takeaway

Performing migrations according to

site categories is essential to efficient

SharePoint migration.



The page loading issue was quickly determined to be caused by expensive server-

side rendering that did not benefit from the same cache profiles on Office 365 that

existed on-premises. It was resolved by switching to metadata-managed navigation

and using the new Content Search Web Part.

Figure 3. The new MSW portal running in SharePoint Online

Any large portal redesign in SharePoint Online requires performance tuning. A few

of the performance considerations for the MSW portal redesign are highlighted in

the following paragraphs. Many more considerations for page-loading

optimization can be found in the article Tune SharePoint Online performance (see

the Resources section).

Caching. Moving portals to Office 365 involves transitioning from an on-premises

model with a few dedicated machines hosting an entire service to a shared, multi-

tenant model with many machines hosting many workloads. When MSW was

hosted on-premises, four front-end servers were dedicated to handling user

requests.

Generally, those servers all had MSW in cache, so users experienced good

performance. SharePoint Online, however, uses orders of magnitude more front-

end servers shared across all workloads and sites within the customer’s tenancy.

The cache is also shared across many customers with different data to cache, so

any cache is short-lived on any particular front-end server and is less likely to

contain the specific desired portal pages.

Relying on object caching was, therefore, not an effective way to ensure an

optimized user experience for MSW in SharePoint Online. Microsoft recommends

avoiding dependency on SharePoint Online front-end server caches by using other

approaches to performance optimization that do not rely on object caching,

including use of the Content Search Web Part and metadata-managed navigation.

Content Search Web Part. In the on-premises implementation, MSW used the

Content Query Web Part (CQWP) to write dynamically rendered content. However,

with the reduced dependency on caching in Office 365 came reduced performance

with use of the CQWP. Any server-side work that was necessary to generate a page

would not be cached, causing a performance decrease in Office 365. To restore

performance, MSW replaced the CQWP with the Content Search Web Part (CSWP),

to quickly deliver results to the user by retrieving and rendering data



independently of the server. Using the CSWP resulted in significantly better page

loading performance in SharePoint Online and was a major factor in making the

portal responsive in the cloud.

Navigation. Because caching should not be used in a shared front-end server

model, structural navigation can be problematic for complex site structures in

Office 365. When MSW was migrated to the cloud, it initially retained the structural

navigation of its on-premises implementation. It quickly became apparent that this

was affecting performance due to reliance on front-end server caching.

Because MSW did not require navigation security trimming (the ability to hide

navigational links to restricted files), Microsoft IT decided to switch to managed

navigation, which provided a substantial performance benefit in SharePoint Online.

Office 365 offers three navigation choices: structural, managed, and search-driven.

If security trimming is required and the site has a simple structure, structural

navigation is still a viable option.

For sites that require security trimming and have a more complex structure, search-

driven navigation (which requires customization of the master page but provides a

fast load time and locally cached navigation structure) may be considered. Simply

put, choosing the appropriate navigation option for the needs of the site can

greatly improve site performance.

Optimizing Skype for Business performance

When Microsoft IT began its transition to Office 365, the team responsible for Lync

and Skype for Business services was already involved with a major performance

improvement effort as part of the transition from Lync to Skype for Business. This

work included categorizing service challenges and large-scale, long-term planning

for improved performance and availability both on-premises and in the cloud. This

improvement project expanded to include an intense evaluation of the cloud

management service and strategic work to prepare the network environment and

optimize for the cloud, as well as a cloud migration plan that took advantage of

flexible hybrid opportunities.

Preparing the network environment

Knowing that a Skype for Business cloud migration would require changes to the

network environment for optimal performance, Microsoft IT took advantage of the

Microsoft Click-to-Run technology to reduce complexity and IT overhead, allowing

Office 365 to manage Office and Skype for Business client updates.

By moving to the cloud, Microsoft IT was able to manage updates and ensure the

most current versions of the client at all times, guaranteeing availability of the

newest features and the greatest reliability.

Because real-time communication is extremely sensitive to network conditions,

Microsoft IT also prioritized a deep understanding of three key elements of

capacity and traffic planning before they began cloud migrations. To understand

capacity and traffic planning:

They analyzed federated traffic with external organizations in a hybrid

environment to prevent potential bottlenecks at the network edge.

They developed a deep understanding of the traffic flows within the network

to optimize routes for voice traffic.

Key takeaways

Search-driven design user interfaces

and navigation tuning efforts can

mitigate performance implications of

the change in caching behavior with

shared servers.

Search performance can be optimized

by using the Content Search Web Part.

Key takeaway

Migrating Skype for Business Server to

Skype for Business Online in Office 365

may allow IT departments to shift

resources from internal IT

infrastructure and applications to

adoption efforts and a more managed

user experience.



They ensured that their private connectivity, which reduced complexity in the

network integration for Skype for Business in Office 365, had the appropriate

markings for quality of service and guaranteed prioritization to the Office 365

network.

Historically, major IT investments have included tools, systems, and personnel for

managing infrastructure and applications; moving to the cloud shifted some of

those burdens to Office 365 and enabled Microsoft IT to focus more resources on

adoption and improving control over the Skype for Business user experience.

Microsoft IT has seen fewer incidents caused by network changes, because

dedicated network links now connect users directly to server farms in the cloud. In

Office 365, the risk of user or service impact caused by internal network changes or

configuration drift is greatly reduced.

Optimization for transition to the cloud

Because of the real-time nature of the Skype for Business service, optimizing

performance is even more critical than with other Office 365 services; even a few

seconds of lost voice, video, or data affect user productivity. Therefore, before

Microsoft IT could migrate Skype for Business to the cloud, it was crucial to

evaluate change and develop new strategies for availability, reliability, and

performance.

When Microsoft IT began to transition Skype for Business to the cloud, the existing

wireless networks were optimized for data, but not for real-time communications

such as voice. With the increase in the number and variety of mobile devices in the

workplace, use of wireless connections more than doubled during meetings in less

than a year. Additionally, transitioning to open floor plans to reduce physical

footprints and accommodate new working models resulted in increased user

density and additional meeting spaces.

To accommodate channel overlap and improve signal optimization in this changing

wireless environment, Microsoft IT re-tuned their wireless access point placements

and deployment configurations based on analysis of changing user behaviors,

varied user density, and new floor plan trends.

At the same time, Microsoft IT was seeing widespread increase in Windows 8

machines that were optimized for Wireless N network hardware rather than wired

connections. Microsoft IT standardized the environment for wireless N, ensuring

clear communications by proactively making sure that its wireless network drivers

were as current as possible and continuing to actively push driver updates.

Using hybrid deployments for flexibility

The Microsoft IT Skype for Business migration to the cloud is occurring in phases.

Even more complex than the SharePoint migration, the Skype for Business

migration to Office 365 is part of a much larger deployment that also includes the

launch of Skype for Business Server 2015 and the new Skype for Business client

software.

The Microsoft IT ecosystem for Skype for Business involves 218,000 users in both

on-premises and Office 365 environments; of these, 30,000 are currently in the

cloud, producing 3.5 million streams per month. This hybrid environment allows

Microsoft IT to provide global public switched telephone network (PSTN)

connectivity for both Skype for Business Server and Skype for Business Online while

optimizing performance and the user experience. Processes and applications are

moved into the public cloud environment as quickly as possible.

Key takeaway

The increasing popularity of mobile

devices and open floorplans in the

workplace requires analysis and

potential redesign of network

configurations, as well as increased

focus on driver updates.



Microsoft IT currently provides global enterprise voice in the cloud and will remain

in a hybrid configuration until global services are available online. There is high

user satisfaction with the current hybrid environment; a cloud user and an on-

premises user can have a seamless conference in a shared environment without any

awareness of its hybrid nature.

Office 365 implementations will vary greatly by organization, with some small

organizations moving easily to a total cloud environment and larger organizations

using longer-term hybrid scenarios. Like Microsoft IT, other large IT departments

may experience challenges that will influence performance planning for Skype for

Business migration, such as application requirements, telecommunications

investments, carrier limitations, partner dependencies, and number of users.

Fortunately, the flexibility of gradual hybrid deployments can mitigate many of

these challenges.

Deploying private, managed connections with Azure ExpressRoute

Until now, Microsoft IT has used Internet-based connectivity to Office 365 public

services, working with network transport providers and carefully selecting the

regional locations of the tenancy to improve the network experience. The current

phase in Office 365 connectivity involves shifting connectivity from a standard

public Internet connection to private peering using Microsoft ExpressRoute for

Office 365, the same technology used for Microsoft Azure. ExpressRoute provides

Microsoft IT with private network connectivity that offers performance that is more

predictable and guaranteed service availability.

A standard public Internet connection is an uncertain and unpredictable network

path in which service quality depends on carriers, traffic, intermediaries, and

proximity to cloud datacenters. With ExpressRoute, organizations contract with a

Microsoft partner who is a network service provider or an Exchange provider. These

companies provide connectivity into the Microsoft network, which connects all

Microsoft datacenters, offering predictable performance, data privacy, and

guaranteed service availability.

Although ExpressRoute is being used by Microsoft IT, ExpressRoute is not required

or recommended for Office 365 customers except in a small number of situations.

These situations include a) regulatory requirements that would mandate a direct

network connection or b) following a required customer network assessment for

Skype for Business voice and video when network deficiencies are discovered that

ExpressRoute can address. In the situations where ExpressRoute for Office 365 is

implemented, Microsoft should be directly involved to ensure a successful

implementation.

Key takeaway

Using private network connections

with Azure ExpressRoute for Office

365 is a practical solution that may

help enterprises address any

performance uncertainties of an

Internet-connected network path.

Key takeaway

A gradual hybrid transition to Office

365 allows companies to migrate to

the cloud while continuing to maximize

their investment in their existing on-

premises telephony equipment.



Figure 4 illustrates using ExpressRoute with Office 365 and the corporate intranet.

Figure 4. Using private network connections with Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365

Best practices Plan for Internet capacity requirements before migration.

Migrate one Office 365 service at a time.

Treat your Internet network connection as critically as you would treat your

network connection to on-premises datacenters.

Deploy an Internet edge stamp that can scale to double the expected capacity

during the life of the hardware.

Plan for pilot testing, troubleshooting, and optimization.

Use migration as an opportunity to carefully evaluate and prioritize what

should be migrated. Mitigate risks by not migrating lower priority data.

Assess on-premises SharePoint page navigation models that rely on caching

for performance and evaluate the appropriate navigation model for

optimization.

Use hybrid environments where appropriate to manage migration.

Use private network connections with Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365 to

address the performance uncertainties of an Internet-connected network path.

Conclusion Microsoft IT has been planning and carrying out Office 365 migrations since 2011,

and the stories shared here are just a few examples of the achievements made and

lessons learned along the way. Together, these experiences support a single,

essential message: investing the time and effort necessary to implement thorough

and strategic planning for network connectivity results in fewer migration

complications and better overall performance. Of course, IT organizations will

inevitably need to perform some degree of additional optimization and

troubleshooting work before, during, or after migration. Guidance is available for

performance optimization and troubleshooting for all phases of Office 365

migration (see the Resources section).



Resources

Network Planning and performance tuning for Office 365 including network

capacity planning tools

http://aka.ms/tune

Office 365 Network Topology and Performance Planning

http://channel9.msdn.com/events/TechEd/Europe/2014/OFC-B335

Migration to SharePoint Online Best Practices and New API Investments

(Ignite 2015 breakout session)

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK3153

SharePoint Online Migration User Guide

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt203923.aspx

Migration for SharePoint Online APIs (registration required)

http://aka.ms/spomigrationpreview

Configure a Content Search Web Part in SharePoint

https://support.office.com/en-US/article/Configure-a-Content-Search-Web-Part-in-

SharePoint-0DC16DE1-DBE4-462B-BABB-BF8338C36C9A

Making email archive migration easier with the Office 365 Import Service

https://blogs.office.com/2015/05/07/making-email-archive-migration-easier-with-

the-office-365-import-service/

ExpressRoute Technical Overview

http://aka.ms/expressrouteoffice365

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http://aka.ms/tune

http://channel9.msdn.com/events/TechEd/Europe/2014/OFC-B335

https://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Ignite/2015/BRK3153

http://aka.ms/spomigrationpreview

https://support.office.com/en-US/article/Configure-a-Content-Search-Web-Part-in-SharePoint-0DC16DE1-DBE4-462B-BABB-BF8338C36C9A

https://support.office.com/en-US/article/Configure-a-Content-Search-Web-Part-in-SharePoint-0DC16DE1-DBE4-462B-BABB-BF8338C36C9A

https://blogs.office.com/2015/05/07/making-email-archive-migration-easier-with-the-office-365-import-service/

https://blogs.office.com/2015/05/07/making-email-archive-migration-easier-with-the-office-365-import-service/

http://aka.ms/expressrouteoffice365



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Documents

Optimizing network performance for Microsoft Office 365 · PDF fileOptimizing network performance for Microsoft Office 365 ... specific migration optimization planning, ... Optimizing