Rackspace to Gmail Migration – An Expert’s Advice

So you have heard or read great things about Google Workspace.

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You know that it is one of the most sought-after cloud platforms in the world and it is specially preferred by small businesses for its scalability, ease-of-use and portability across multiple devices.

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You know that migrating from Rackspace to Google Workspace can drastically bring down your overall online communications and services cost.

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Fortunately, or unfortunately, you are stuck with Rackspace.

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You have been using it for years now for all your email, contact management, document management, cloud drive, and web hosting needs.

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Gigabytes of data including years of email, contact details, and a slew of other digital properties reside on the Rackspace servers.

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All your employees, no matter how uncomfortable they feel right now, or how inadequate the system seems, are used to using the Rackspace interface.

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Naturally, the prospect of migrating from Rackspace to Google Workspace with thousands of email threads with your employees, business partners, customers and clients, and thousands of contacts, can seem like a herculean task, whether the task is performed by your in-house IT team or you outsource the job to an outside Google Workspace migration consulting service. We totally understand that this is an information wealth you would like to preserve at any cost.

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Add to that the impending downtime that you may face while your entire organization is being transferred to a new system, your email clients are being set up (if you have been using them and insist on using them), and the interface is being customized.

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In the absence of a viable alternative, Rackspace is undoubtedly a great cloud service. It’s been around for a while. But there are a ton of issues that may be holding your business back and consequently, you might be looking for a better alternative. For example, there are many collaboration and documentation management tools available with Google Workspace that are absent in Rackspace.

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Anyway, the objective of this write-up is not to convince you into migrating from Rackspace to Google Workspace – we believe you are a better judge of that – the objective of this write-up is to throw some light on what all can be done to make your transition from Rackspace to G suite as smooth as possible.

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Moving from Rackspace to Google Workspace, lock, stock, and barrel.

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Most probably you are using Rackspace as your email service. Although there are many enterprise-level cloud services available with Rackspace, most of the clients that we deal with use Rackspace for email, contacts management and calendar. They use email either directly through the Rackspace webmail interface (the same way you use Gmail or Yahoo mail) or through MS Outlook for their Microsoft Exchange email services hosted on Rackspace.  

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They would like to migrate to G suite (a Google service) because Google Workspace doesn’t just provide email service, it also provides a set of many business tools like video conferencing, document processing with real-time collaboration, calendar, and real-time syncing through Google Drive cloud storage.

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Most importantly, for many, it is the familiar interface of Gmail that attracts people to G suite: even with your official email with your domain name, you use your email just as your Gmail account. Although, you can also access your Gmail (Google Workspace email) via a desktop POP3 or IMAP client, we recommend that you use the default web interface because then you can leverage the other Google features like Google Hangouts, Google Drive and Google Docs.

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What worries you the most when you think of migrating from Rackspace to Google Workspace? Porting your data to an entirely new system? Facing downtime? Losing your data? Increased IT cost? Needless hassle? There is an air of ambiguity within your own staff?

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What all can you migrate from Rackspace to Google Workspace?

It is understood that when you finally take the plunge and migrate from Rackspace to Google Workspace, you wouldn’t like to start everything from scratch.

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As mentioned above, while using the Rackspace email service, you might either be using Rackspace’s own webmail service or you might be using Microsoft Exchange or Office 365 hosted on Rackspace. There are three scenarios:

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1. You are using the Rackspace email service through their direct webmail interface: We will be able to migrate email and contacts, but not your calendar entries.
   
2. You are using the Rackspace email service through MS Outlook and you are also using Calendar through MS Outlook: We will be able to migrate your email, contacts and calendar entries.
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3. You are using the Rackspace email service through hosted MS Exchange or Office 365: We will be able to migrate your emails, contacts and calendar entries.

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Once you decide to partner with us to migrate from Rackspace to Google Workspace, we will ensure a smooth migration and we will ensure that whatever information that can be migrated, will be migrated.

There is no downtime when your system is being moved from Rackspace to Google Workspace
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You can keep working on your present Rackspace system while you are being migrated to the new Google Workspace system. Besides, we carry out the migration process during the weekend.

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If you think your ongoing business operations shouldn’t become a casualty of your decision to migrate from Rackspace to Google Workspace, please rest assured, we are on the same plain. We have designed our migration methodology in such a manner that there will be zero impact on your day-to-day operations while your emails, contacts, and if possible, calendar entries, are transferred to Google Workspace.

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There is a proven data migration procedure that we follow when transferring your data from Rackspace to Google Workspace. Since the transfer process doesn’t happen immediately as propagation on the Internet takes some time, we transfer your data in stages. While transferring your data we have the following concerns to take care of
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1. No data is left behind
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2. Your ongoing business operations are not interrupted
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3. While your server is being switched and the incoming and outgoing communication is being switched to the new Google Workspace server, no new data is by mistake left on the old server

Are you going to spend more money compared to Rackspace when you start using Google Workspace?

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If it is just money that makes you choose one system over another, then sure, it is going to be a factor. Per user, Google Workspace costs slightly more than Rackspace.

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But the main reason you are considering migration is that you are not getting features and facilities in your current Rackspace system that Google Workspace can give you.

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For example, you won’t just be paying for your employees’ ability to use email using the default Gmail interface, you get a complete office suite. You will be able to use Google Docs and Sheets. You will be able to create slides for business presentations. You have video conferencing. Real-time file syncing facility is available through Google Drive. You can sync your contacts through multiple devices.

You can also integrate CRM systems like Salesforce with your Google Workspace subscription, and you can also claim our Google Workspace promotion code to still save 20% on your first year subscription.
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Is it going to be a hassle migrating from Rackspace to Google Workspace?

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It depends on what you call hassle. Deciding to migrate from Rackspace to Google Workspace is a major business decision and surely, you will have to take everybody on board.

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Deciding to use a different IT system to manage your emails, contacts, calendars and documents is a major decision, especially when it impacts scores of employees. It might not be as big a decision as deciding to physically shift your office to another city or another country, but yes, it is going to take some effort.

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But with our turnkey Rackspace to Google Workspace migration services we reduce the scale of the impending hassle almost to zero.

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As we have explained above, while understanding that transferring to a new system has many unavoidable difficulties, on our part, we try to make the transition as smooth as possible.

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Your data will be transferred in multiple stages. There will be no interruption in your ongoing work. You will be able to receive and send out new emails as usual. If some branding customization is needed, we can do it for you upon request.

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Again, whether you want to migrate your email, contacts, and calendar to Google Workspace is your own decision but in case the difficulties mentioned above are holding you back, we would like to assure you that most of these difficulties are not difficulties but just misconceptions in the absence of the right sort of guidance. We can provide you that professional guidance.

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Rackspace to Google Workspace Migration - Customer Success Story