Business needs are fast-changing, driven by the demand-change that fluctuates more often than thoughts. In a scenario like this, business changes like a merger, split, bifurcation, and acquisition have become unavoidable. It is not just the business that undergoes these changes; the data go through some changes, too. Server migration is thus inevitable.
No matter how well your new host touts about its “zero downtime & zero data loss” migration, some loss is bound to happen. And some downtime will always be there. Even though it is difficult to quantify these losses, you could be sure of having a difficult time ahead – if your server migration is steered the wrong way.
Data Outage
Whether you work on a cheap dedicated server, or a more sophisticated one, the risks that accompany migration is common for all servers.
Indeed, the most feared outcome of server migration, data outage, luckily, are lesser these days than they were a decade back. Data outage is the pit hole you cannot scale back. Data once lost is lost; some part or majority of it might be recovered with time, but the operations are sure to grind to a halt for some time, or longer.
Impact on other projects
The loss is not at all restricted to a single project pertaining to the server migration. Massive amount of resources are required to get the project back on track. Obtaining resources on such short notice is expensive. Very often, companies sort to redeployment (of resource) from other projects, and then from another and so on. This creates a domino effect that should be avoided at any cost. An efficient resource-diversion plan is one that eliminates the possibility of happening of any domino effect.
Financial backlogs
For companies, data means money, and data loss translates to financial loss. An erroneous migration brings enormous financial burdens on an organization. But for some companies, what matters more is reputation or brand-value – the loss of which cannot be quantified. A blundered migration can bring in huge liabilities to companies for a prolonged period, rendering them unviable for existence.
Personal Impacts
Employee-motivation is result-oriented. An organization flourishes as long as the employees are enthused. An outage can wipe all data off from an employee’s computer; bringing down work to a common zero-level. In today’s intensely competitive environment, where abled-workers are difficult to find and even difficult to retain, mishaps (like these) can cause the best ones to reconsider their employment options.
Business ramifications
It is not just the employees who reconsider their employment options; companies rethink, too, which employee to retain and whom to show the door. This results in a widespread change in business, both in terms of employees and policies. It takes time for the new staff to get versed with the company; the policies, too, take time to implement with full swing. These two changes combined, further slowing down the revival of business that is already crippling.
New host’s commitments
There isn’t any shortage of providers that commit something at the start and later cheat their clients with hidden conditions, or worse – charges.
What’s the assurance that your new provider will prove better than the current one? Maybe the services provided by your new host doesn’t cover what you are looking for. There’s no use risking a migration for improving on features that would not make any noticeable difference to your server.
Who should go with migration, and who shouldn’t?
If you are planning a move to a cheap cloud hosting due to increased traffic on your server, the notion is justified. However, if you are doing the same on account of increasing your uptime availability for a website that does not garner much traffic, you should reconsider your decision.
Migrating to a newer server for the sake of security for the data that will not pose any threat – even if it gets compromised – is also not reasonable. An example could be an educational website containing mathematical formulae. However, for sites that require visitors to fill the newsletter-subscription form will need to have a more secured server. For such companies, server-migration is logical; and necessary.
How to work out a plan?
A server migration plan has to be worked with caution and requires months of planning to execute smoothly. Though, there are some providers that claim a completely safe migration overnight, think twice because the loss could be too much to bear. Carefully work-out your migration schedule and cherry-pick a time according to your time-zone. Or, if you run a website that invites traffic all across the globe, choose a time during which you expect the least traffic. Pull out your website stats for past few months and work it out.
We have more such articles that cover A to Z of not just migration but cloud hosting, dedicated hosting, email hosting, and many more. Stroll around.
In case you need us to explain something, or you want to express your thoughts on a few topics, write in the comment box below.
We’d love to hear from you
Have a safe migration.
