Getting Started › Overview
How CloudM Continuity Works
CloudM Continuity follows a three-phase process — Sync, Failover, and Recover — that together form the Resilience Loop. This page walks through each phase, explaining what happens technically and what your users experience.
The three phases
Once you create a sync policy and connect both platforms, CloudM Continuity begins synchronising your Microsoft 365 mail and calendar data to Google Workspace.
Initial sync: The first time a user is synced, the last 30 days of mail is migrated from M365 to Google Workspace, along with calendar events from 18 months either side of the sync date where Calendar is enabled on the policy. This is a bulk operation that runs on dedicated infrastructure to handle large volumes of data efficiently.
Delta sync: After the initial sync completes, only new or changed items are synchronised on your chosen schedule. This keeps your Google Workspace environment up to date with minimal resource usage.
The sync preserves:
- Email messages and attachments
- Folder and label hierarchies
- Read/unread states
- Calendar events, recurring series, sharing permissions and attendees
When Microsoft 365 experiences an outage, your users simply log into Google Workspace and continue working. Because the sync has been running continuously, the Google Workspace environment contains a recent copy of each user's mail and calendar.
There is no "failover button" to press — the Google Workspace environment is always ready. Users can:
- Read their synced email
- See their synced calendars in Google Calendar
- Send and receive new email
- Continue working without interruption
How recent the data is depends on your sync frequency tier. With the Premium (Hourly) tier, the maximum data gap is one hour.
Once Microsoft 365 is available again, an administrator starts a Recovery Sync from the Recovery page. This process:
- Identifies mail created in Google Workspace during the outage period
- Syncs those items back to Microsoft 365
Recovery covers mail only. Calendar changes made in Google Calendar during the outage are not returned to Microsoft 365.
When the recovery finishes, you review the per-user outcome, retry the recovery if anything failed or completed with warnings, and finish the recovery once you are happy with the result.
How sync policies work
You control which users are synced and how frequently through sync policies. A policy defines:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| User query | How users are selected: either a user query (department, job title, employee type) or Entra ID security groups |
| Sync frequency | How often delta syncs run, set as a value and unit (e.g. 1 Hour, 6 Hours, 2 Days). The minimum interval is determined by your licence tier. |
| Data types | Which data to sync: Mail and Calendar. Each enabled data type has its own sync frequency. Drive and Contacts are planned for future releases. |
Multiple policies can be active at the same time, and they are listed in priority order on the Policies page. When a user is matched by more than one policy, the highest-priority active policy applies. See Using multiple sync policies. Each policy has its own sync frequency, set as a value and unit (e.g. 1 Hour, 6 Hours) within the limits of your licence tier.
The sync lifecycle for a user
Each user matched by a sync policy moves through three stages:
- Waiting — The user has been matched by a policy rule but sync has not yet started. The system is queued to begin.
- Initial Sync — The last 30 days of mail, and calendar events from 18 months either side where Calendar is enabled, are being migrated from M365 to Google Workspace.
- Synced — The initial migration is complete and incremental delta syncs are running on the configured schedule, keeping the Google Workspace mailbox up to date. Delta indicators show when the most recent sync ran.
The Continuity Dashboard shows aggregate counts at each pipeline stage, giving you an overview of how your sync is progressing. To see sync status on a per-user level, use the Sync Status page.
Monitoring your sync
The Continuity Dashboard provides visibility into your sync operations:
- Sync pipeline — See how many users are at each stage of the sync lifecycle
- Sync freshness — Check when the last successful sync ran and identify any users with stale data
- Success and failure metrics — Monitor total syncs, data volume, and any failures
- Audit logs — Review a full history of system and user actions
Automatic user provisioning
When a policy matches M365 users who don't yet have Google Workspace accounts, CloudM Continuity can automatically create those accounts. If user creation fails, the event is logged in your audit trail so you can investigate and resolve the issue.