DNS Is Your Gateway To The World

Part of prepping for an Office 365 migration is adding your domain in to the Office 365 system. We’ve provided a step-by-step guide on how you can do that, but in a nutshell, you simply have to follow three steps: verifying your domain, adding your users, and setting up your domain.
 
Verifying your domain involves registering it to the Office 365 system to prove that you are the legitimate owner of that domain. After you have it verified, you can then start adding your users or updating their addresses. This will allow them to log in to Office 365 and start familiarizing with the platform. This also ensures that all emails will be redirected to Office 365 and wont bounce or get lost.
The last step is setting up your domain, which involves updating your records at the domain name server. However, we highly recommend that you do NOT do this immediately.
 
Don’t change all your DNS records
There are two specific entries that you wouldn’t want to change unless you are ready to go live with Office 365. These are the MX records or the Mail Exchange records, and the SPF records or the Sender Policy Framework.
MX records is responsible for telling the internet where to send your emails to. It points the emails to their correct destination or email server/s. If you change this without finishing the other bits and pieces that makes up the Office 365 migration process, then your email will just start going into Office 365 immediately, resulting to bouncing emails or errors from senders.
Meanwhile, SPF records is the one that identifies which mail servers are allowed to send an email on behalf of your domain. It also handles the spam management and control of your emails. If you change this immediately, there will be the possibility that the emails you’re sending out of your current system will get denied or marked as spam by the recipient’s email service because it has the wrong settings.
 
When to change your records
Changing your DNS records is the on-switch to going live with Office 365. You should only change these when everything is already completed with your set up – you have the mailboxes set up, everyone has access to their emails, the software is installed on all units and well supported by your system, and your emails are already exported and migrated to office 265 from your old email platform.
Once you have that all sorted out, you can now change the records. This will tell the internet where it is supposed to send the email and where your emails will flow to. Afterwards, you will be able to receive your mails directly into Office 365 instead of your old email platform.