Exchange with Office 365 Hybrid Implementation - What editing/manipulation options do I lose when removing Exchange?

We completed our Exchange migration to Office 365 in May. Our project will be final if we can successfully remove exchange for a few reasons. 

1) Server is old and needs to be removed.

2) Don't want to maintain an internal Exchange Server

3) Don't want to pay for Exchange just to be able to edit users

Looking at Support Forum articles, it appears that removing Exchange after a migration in a Hybrid deployment isn't recommended.

It seems that you lose some functionality with the administrations of users, not because of the Hybrid deployment but because of DirSync and an Authoritative state still resides onsite. 

My question is, what are the exact options I will lose?
So far I can see the following:

1) Can't add, remove, or edit users from Distribution Groups.

2) Can't add, remove, or edit email addresses of a user (Email Alias's)

What other options will I

July 6th, 2015 8:46am

This should provide more details for you

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn931280(v=exchg.150).aspx 

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July 6th, 2015 9:35am

Based on the article I would use Scenario 2. I am assuming by following those guidelines, I could then manage all users via the 365 web admin portal without any issue?
July 6th, 2015 10:08am

Yes, but remember If you need to manage your AD users / group policy, password policy, Then you require Dirsync, ADFS else you can create users in 0365 directly

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July 6th, 2015 11:26am

Dang, I meant Scenario 1. 

But yes, if I completely remove exchange and dirsync I would have to manage passwords directly via office 365 instead of when they change in AD.

Is that the only drawback?

July 6th, 2015 1:08pm

Hi strader,

Thank you for your question.

Most of the time the reason for most organizations that have configured a hybrid deployment, removing the last Exchange server from the on-premises environment will have adverse effects. In most cases, we recommend that you leave at least one Exchange 2013 Server on-premises for mailbox management unless you are getting rid of the on-premises messaging and identity management dependencies all together.

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know.

Best Regard,

Jim

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July 7th, 2015 1:37am

Say I went with Scenario 2 in technet article https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn931280(v=exchg.150).aspx

I then realize this isn't a workable solutions, can I add exchange back into the fold and go back to how it used to be managing users?

July 8th, 2015 10:53am

Say I went with Scenario 2 in technet article https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn931280(v=exchg.150).aspx

I then realize this isn't a workable solutions, can I add exchange back into the fold and go back to how it used to be managing users?

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July 9th, 2015 1:29pm

Hi jonathan,

What did you mean that can I add exchange back into the fold and go back to how it used to be managing users??

If there are any questions regarding this issue, please be free to let me know.

Best Regard,

Jim

July 14th, 2015 5:42am

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