For Sydney businesses with 5–100 staff whose server is ageing, out of warranty or holding the business back. We move your email, files, logins and line-of-business apps onto Microsoft 365 and, where it's needed, Azure. You get a written plan and a fixed-price quote before anything moves, and the cutover happens after hours so your team starts the next working day in the new setup.
Written by Dale Harper, founder of Internacious.
Most of the businesses we talk to aren't asking “should we go to the cloud?”. They're asking “the server's five-plus years old and the warranty's up, so what now?”. Your options:
| Factor | Refresh the server | Move to Microsoft 365 and Azure |
|---|---|---|
| Up-front cost | Capital costs of $15k–$40k, possibly higher for larger sites or extra hardware. | A fixed-price quote after the assessment |
| Ongoing costs | Warranty, backup, power, and patching labour | Monthly licences and any Azure resources |
| When you face this decision again | When the new hardware ages out | No hardware cycle; licences and settings get reviewed instead |
| Remote access | VPN or remote desktop into the office | Sign in from anywhere with multi-factor authentication and device checks |
| Best fit | A line-of-business app that has to run on a local server and can't move, or a site with poor internet | Everything else, which for most small offices is email, documents and a handful of apps |
When we'd tell you to keep a server: If you've got a specific business app, a security mandate, a large CAD/media workload, or a site with poor connectivity, then a local server might make sense.
| Today | After the migration |
|---|---|
| Email on Exchange, Gmail or an IMAP host | Exchange Online (Microsoft 365) |
| File server, Google Drive | SharePoint for shared files, OneDrive for personal files |
| Windows Server Active Directory logins | Microsoft Entra ID, with hybrid join only where something still needs it |
| Office PCs and laptops nobody manages | Devices enrolled in Intune: encrypted, patched and checked before they get access |
| A line-of-business app on the server | The vendor's cloud version, an Azure virtual machine, or Azure Virtual Desktop. See below |
| VPN or remote desktop | Conditional Access sign-in rules, with Azure Virtual Desktop only where an app needs it |
Core Microsoft 365 data and your Azure resources stay in Microsoft's Australian regions (Australia East and Australia Southeast).
Moving email and files is routine. The apps are the hard part. Each one has its own rules about where it can run and how it's licensed. Before we quote, we'll pick one of three approaches based on your situation:
These are the things that turn a weekend cutover into a messy Monday. We check for all of them during the assessment.
S:\Accounts\…. SharePoint doesn't use drive letters, so links inside spreadsheets, templates and macros need finding and fixing before cutover.Cloud Readiness Snapshot. We review your Microsoft 365 tenant if you have one, the server, file shares, apps, devices, backups and licences.
Clean-up and preparation. Turn on multi-factor authentication, tidy the file structure, archive stale data, set up SharePoint sites to match how your teams work, enrol devices in Intune, and confirm a full backup of the old server.
Cutover. Email, files, logins and apps move after hours or over a weekend, in stages by team if that's safer. We test sign-in, mail flow and the key apps before staff start.
Support after cutover. We're on hand for an agreed period, and run short sessions to help staff find their way around the new setup.
We plan the cutover so email and files are working when your team logs in after the cutover/migration; the remaining questions are usually about where things are.
A migration is the best time to fix sign-in and device security, because everyone is changing how they log in anyway. As part of the move we set up:
This covers several of the Australian Cyber Security Centre's Essential Eight controls. It doesn't complete all eight, remember, but it's an important number of steps towards a successful Essential Eight outcome. We're very happy to show you which security controls still need work. If you need a formal Essential Eight uplift, see Cybersecurity Services Sydney.
If the server's already gone and the job is moving mailboxes from Gmail or another host, merging two Microsoft 365 tenants after an acquisition, or cleaning up licensing, that's primarily Microsoft 365 work rather than a server migration. See our Microsoft 365 email and tenant migration services.
Book a Cloud Readiness Snapshot: first a call, then a fixed-price quote with no obligation.
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