Onboarding | Project Phases | Best Practices | Glossary of Key Terms

Cutover readiness

It’s important you understand what to expect at Cutover time, so all users and admins are prepared for the transition to the new target platform.

Key terms

  • DNS records: the internet data that determines where to deliver your email and calendar invites.

  • DNS registrar: the company with which your DNS records are registered. Common registrars include GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Network Solutions. There are thousands of DNS registrars.

  • DNS admin: the company or individual who manages the configuration of your DNS records registered at your DNS registrar. This can be somebody within your company or a third-party IT firm.

  • Cutover: the process of updating your DNS records to point from the old (source) platform to the new (target) platform. During cutover, the DNS admin or Transend will log into the DNS registrar’s website and configure your DNS records to direct new incoming email and calendar invites to the new platform. This process is commonly referred to as the Cutover, Update mail routing or “Go Live”.

What to expect at Cutover

Before Cutover

Prior to cutover, incoming email and calendar invites are delivered to mailboxes in the old (source) platform. Users continue interacting with their mailboxes as they always have.

During Cutover

The cutover process involves a window of time in which the changes made to your DNS records must be synchronized across the global internet. This propagation process typically takes between 30 to 60 minutes. During this time, you may see new email and calendar invites delivered to either the source platform or the target platform, depending where the message was sent from.

During cutover, either the DNS admin or Transend will log into your DNS registrar to update your DNS records. The responsible party is defined in your Project Plan.

After Cutover

Once your DNS records have been fully synchronized, all new email and calendar invites are delivered to the target platform. Users should begin interacting with their new mailboxes on all of their devices.

Tenant-to-Tenant Cutovers

Migrating between two tenants hosted by the same provider (i.e. Google Workspace to Google Workspace or Microsoft/GoDaddy 365 to Microsoft 365) includes tasks related to DNS namespaces that are not present in cross-platform migrations.

Please ensure you understand the tasks required to ensure minimal user disruption during a Tenant-to-Tenant Cutover.

Cutover into existing “Live” Tenant

When migrating into an existing Microsoft 365 tenant that users already are “live” in (i.e. they send/receive mail from an account in the target with a different domain than their source account uses), considerations must be taken to ensure proper mail delivery takes place before the cutover is performed.

Please ensure you understand the tasks required to ensure minimal user disruption when performing a Cutover into existing “Live” Tenant.