When the server in the cupboard is past its best.
Servers are bought with a working life of a few years in mind. Many are still running long after that, because they still work and replacing them is expensive. The trouble is that old hardware rarely fails at a convenient moment, and once the warranty and the manufacturer’s updates have ended, every month is a slightly bigger gamble.
Replacing like for like is one option. Moving the workload to hosted infrastructure is the other, and for many organisations it is the better one. You stop owning hardware, you stop paying to power and cool it, and capacity becomes something you adjust when you need to. You no longer buy it up front and hope you guessed right.
The move itself is where people get nervous, with good reason. A rushed migration means lost files, broken logins and a bad Monday. A planned one is mostly uneventful, which is the aim.
Each step is simple. Skipping one is what causes the problems.
What a well planned move looks like.
We start by listing everything the old server does, including the jobs everyone has forgotten about: the scheduled report, the scanner that saves to a shared folder, the database behind the accounts package. Each one is given a new home and an owner before the move is booked.
The cutover is scheduled for a time that suits you, usually an evening or a weekend. The old system stays untouched until the new one has been checked by the people who use it, so there is always a way back. When staff arrive on the next working day, their files, email and applications are where they expect them to be.
Migration is part of our hosting service. We plan and carry out the move from your current hardware or provider with minimal disruption, and then look after the new environment day to day. Tell us what you are running and we will set out the options.
The best migrations are the ones your staff barely notice.
