Migrate Exchange Web Services (EWS) apps to Microsoft Graph
Exchange Web Services (EWS) is a legacy protocol that has been in usage since Exchange Server 2007. In August 2018, Microsoft announced that there won't be any active investment in EWS APIs for Exchange Online. It is recommended to migrate your EWS apps that access Exchange Online to Microsoft Graph.
Why use Microsoft Graph?
Microsoft Graph offers improvements over EWS in terms of security, simplicity, and efficiency. Switch to Microsoft Graph to take advantage of these improvements, all through one single endpoint.
Security
Microsoft Graph has stricter security and governance policies with OAuth and granular scoping to limit data access in a mailbox as opposed to the all or none access model in EWS.
Developer simplicity
Microsoft Graph offers Graph Explorer to discover and test APIs easily and quickly, SDKs in different programming languages​, and an active developer community.
REST efficiency
Microsoft Graph APIs are REST-based, where EWS APIs are SOAP-based. The advantages of using REST-based protocols include faster JSON serialization and lower network usage.
Next steps
- Learn about authentication differences in Microsoft Graph and EWS.
- Review API mappings to find Microsoft Graph equivalents for the EWS APIs you currently use.
- Explore Microsoft Graph concepts and practices.
- Use Graph Explorer to experiment with Microsoft Graph.
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