Expecto Transferrum –
The Hybrid Configuration Wizard (HCW) tool has been around since 2011, used to link on-premises Exchange servers to Exchange Online. Now too it’s gaining the capability to transfer policy settings to Online.
Exchange Servers 2010, 2013, and 2016 are all supported and, intriguingly, HCW will also be able to perform the transfer if an organization already has a hybrid setup. However, it’s a one-time transfer, so if any policies are changed in the future admins will need to manually change on-premises and online Exchange settings to match.
In addition, the types of policies transferrable is currently limited to the following:
- Retention Policy
- Retention Policy Tags
- OWA Mailbox Policy
- Mobile Device Mailbox Policy
- Active Sync Mailbox Policy
The second phase of the HCW update will add more policies, but the time frame for that release is currently unknown.
The additionally utility provided to the HCW is welcome, but the timing of the change has raised a few eyebrows. As Tony Redmond (@12Knocksinna) puts it, the addition might well be too little, too late. Back in the early 2010’s, when the great push for hybrid was kicking off, was when the larger mass of enterprises could have best used the update. Indeed, today some Exchange policies are have decreased in importance.
Still, though, policy transfer is a useful addition to the Hybrid Configuration Wizard, especially for those organizations who have yet to take that step into a hybrid setup.
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