How to Migrate Enterprise Vault to Microsoft 365

Maintaining a legacy archiving system like Enterprise Vault (now owned by Arctera) is becoming increasingly expensive and complex. Meanwhile, organizations migrating to the cloud are discovering that modern platforms such as Microsoft 365 provide stronger compliance, enhanced security, and greater long-term cost savings.

If your organization has already moved from Exchange on-premises to Exchange Online, continuing to run Enterprise Vault may create unnecessary risks and expenses.

Key Takeaways

• Enterprise Vault costs are rising year after year due to licensing, hardware, storage, and legal inefficiencies.
• Arctera has revised its licensing model and may now require licenses for all searchable users, even former employees (contrary to decades of prior licensing agreements), creating unexpected expenses.
• Migrating Enterprise Vault to Microsoft 365 consolidates archives, reduces costs, and simplifies eDiscovery for legal teams.
• Manual migration methods (PST export/import) are slow, error-prone, and not scalable for enterprise environments.
• Full-featured Enterprise Vault migration tools, like Cloudficient’s EVComplete, automate the process and deliver faster, more secure results.

Why Enterprise Vault Costs Keep Rising 

Many IT leaders underestimate how much it costs to keep Enterprise Vault running. These costs often include:

• IT staff time to manage, patch, and troubleshoot Enterprise Vault servers. Internal attrition has forced many organizations to assign management of EV to staff with no experience.
• Industry-wide cloud infrastructure directives have decreased the pool of EV installations and the availability of third-party resources capable of providing support.
• Enterprise Vault licensing: Arctera has revised its licensing model and may now require licenses for all searchable users, even former employees (contrary to decades of prior licensing agreements), creating unexpected expenses.
• SQL Server and licensing costs to support Enterprise Vault’s backend databases.
• Server hardware and energy costs for on-premises infrastructure.
• Growing storage Expenses for archives and indexes. Many existing Enterprise Vault installations were built to leverage legacy storage solutions that are either inefficient or may have reached end-of-life, requiring costly, complicated storage migrations that invite risk.
• Legal team inefficiencies, as staff must search across multiple repositories for eDiscovery and compliance tasks.

Key Takeaway: Maintaining Enterprise Vault is not only costly, but it also slows down legal, compliance, and IT operations.

Benefits of Enterprise Vault Migration to Microsoft 365 

Migrating archived data from Enterprise Vault into Microsoft 365 delivers immediate advantages:

• Reduce costs by eliminating duplicative systems and hardware.
• Simplify eDiscovery with a single pane of glass for searching and legal holds.
• Enhance security and compliance with Microsoft 365’s native tools.
• Modernize operations with a cloud-based architecture designed for scale.

At Cloudficient, our Expireon and EVComplete solutions make Enterprise Vault migrations seamless, allowing organizations to consolidate legacy archives, improve searchability, and reduce storage costs. 

How to Migrate Enterprise Vault Data to Microsoft 365 

When planning an Enterprise Vault migration, there are three common approaches: 

Manual Extraction and PST Import

• Use the Enterprise Vault Export Archive Wizard to extract data into PST files.
• Import PST files into Microsoft 365 using:
  • Network upload to Azure storage.
  • Drive shipping, where encrypted drives are physically sent to Microsoft.

Challenges:

• Highly manual and time-consuming.
• Prone to errors, corruption and data loss.
• Microsoft charges around $2,000 per terabyte for drive shipping.
• PST import has size and upload limits.

Hybrid Tools with Manual Oversight 

Some organizations attempt to use scripts or basic utilities for Enterprise Vault migrations. While they can help small-scale projects, these methods often lack automation, reporting, and scalability for enterprise environments.  

Legacy Migration Solutions - Heavy Footprints, Slow Migrations

As you research Enterprise Vault migration options, you may encounter other, older platforms originally designed around archive-to-archive transfers. While some now support cloud targets, their architecture often still relies significantly on on-premise infrastructure and manual processes.

Common challenges include limited support for Exchange Online onboarding, minimal API integration, poor scalability, and the need for dedicated hardware and hands-on oversight—factors that can slow projects, increase complexity, and drive-up costs.

Full-Featured Enterprise Vault Migration Solution 

Next-generation migration platforms like Cloudficient’s EVComplete leverage the power of the cloud to deliver: 

• Real-time progress reporting and auditing
• User communication workflows to keep stakeholders informed
• Seamless migration of archives
• Unparalleled, industry-leading migration velocities
• Post-migration cleanup to remove legacy Enterprise Vault shortcuts and retire servers

Why this is better: It eliminates manual tasks, accelerates project timelines, ensures data integrity, and drastically reduces project risk and timelines. For a detailed comparison of legacy tools, hybrid approaches, and next-generation solutions, read our Enterprise Vault Preparation Guide, which highlights why cloud-native platforms like EVComplete deliver superior results.

Why Choose Cloudficient for Enterprise Vault Migration? 

Cloudficient is the leading provider of Enterprise Vault migration solutions, helping organizations modernize their data archiving strategies:

• EVComplete leverages our ReMAD platform to orchestrate complex workflows with over 100 customizable steps.
• Our 100% cloud-based architecture ensures scalability and security.
• We deliver proof-of-concept pilots to validate success in your environment with your data.

With unmatched technology and expertise, we help organizations retire legacy systems and seamlessly embrace the cloud.

Ready to Simplify Your Enterprise Vault Migration? 

Don’t let rising costs and outdated systems hold you back. Let Cloudficient help you move to Microsoft 365 efficiently and with confidence.