Server Migrations and Upgrades

Server migrations and upgrades are an important and sometimes complex aspect of network support. Ideally the upgrade is a planned process, and not in response to a crash. Our MCSE engineers have experience with both scenarios.

We maintain a current loaner server to get you back up quickly, if your server cannot be recovered. Often it is a matter of moving the data drives into the new server, and adding some applications, updates, and service packs. This gives some breathing space to get the older server repaired if it is under warranty, or plan an upgrade if it is not worth resusitating.

The best plan is to replace servers on a 4 year basis. Although it is tempting to try and get more use, invariably the breaking points, the drives and power supplies, are more suspect after 4 years. Of course, the other issue is replacement parts. It is not a bad idea to have a spare drive and power supply for your specific server on a shelf, especially if you are past the 4 year replacement deadline.

A planned upgrade is much less stressful than a crashed server. The pain of a forced upgrade increases as the number of staff are left without the ability to do their job, or the highly critical functions are restricted. An animator billing out at $250.00 per hour is going to cost your bottom line quite a bit more than an office worker. The higher the value of the individual staff productivity, the more important it is to keep the network functioning. This means insuring the servers have redundant systems, and fail-over features - especially on mechanical components.

In mission critical operations, the entire server can be duplicated and operate as a fail-over. This can be an expensive process, or a reasonable approach, depending upon the approach taken. We have many clients that have this built-in redundancy to keep the company fully operational, even in the case of a server failure. Sometimes this is an automated switch-over, and in other cases, some manual intervention is required. With some software solutions, one backup server can faciliate more than one server. This is the one to many scenairio. Call Coastway for a more detailed discussion on these server capabilities.