How many times have you gotten a notification from your IT department saying there was an issue with the server? As technology ages, it needs to be upgraded and even replaced sometimes. An increasing number of websites are housed on old, outdated servers that need replacement while at the same time, newer and better technology is becoming available. If your website has been having issues due to your hosting service or other tech issues, it might be time to look into server data migrations.

What is a Server?

Have you ever wondered how the internet works? Some people don’t give it much thought beyond it comes from your WiFi router or a feed from the wall, but all the stuff you access online has to be housed somewhere physically. That is where servers come into play. Servers are like little pieces of real estate for the virtual world. 

Say you wanted to open a business that operated in the real world. One of the first things you’d need to do is find a space to work in. You’d go to a realtor and find a commercially-zoned space to lease or purchase so you could begin running your business. That same process happens in the virtual space, but instead of renting or purchasing square-footage to operate in, you are buying a plot of land in the online world. 

Servers literally come in all shapes and sizes. You can purchase your own server to operate, but much like purchasing your own home or own plot of land, it comes with its unique challenges. That is why so many people choose to rent their space in the virtual world. 

Choosing a hosting provider to house your website means you don’t have to worry about things like upkeep or maintaining the finer aspects of your website. It’s sort of like how whenever something goes wrong in your apartment, you can call your landlord to take care of it. 

What is Data Migration?

To put it simply, data migration is whenever any data is transferred from one place to another. This can take the form of server to server, application to application, or from one format to another. Just like if you were packing up your entire home to move from one place to another, data migrations are a big deal that involves a lot of planning and careful execution if you want things to go smoothly. 

There are many things that can go wrong with your migration, and if it is done improperly you risk losing or corrupting your data. That’s why it is so important to get a professional service like InnoHosting to handle your server data migrations for you. You wouldn’t hire a bunch of random movers to come in and take care of all of your valuable or fragile property, so why would you let a random or unvetted individual into your server with all of your sensitive information?

Why Do Data Migrations Need to Happen?

Server data migrations aren’t something that often happens for websites. Typically, there are only a handful of reasons you would migrate your server data. These reasons generally are generally moving from physical servers to cloud-based servers. There are three types of data migrations: 

• Storage Migration
• Cloud Migration
• Application Migration

Storage migration is when you move data off existing arrays to more upgraded ones. It can also happen when you change server providers. Maybe your website was built by a marketing agency and housed on their server, but you are no longer doing business with them, or you aren’t happy with your current hosting provider and want to migrate to a better one. Regardless, anytime large amounts of data are moved from one server to another, it is called a storage migration.

Unlike storage migrations, cloud migration doesn’t involve putting migrated data onto a new physical server, but instead in the cloud. Cloud-based servers are becoming the standard operating procedure for many businesses due to how dynamic they can be. Depending on what you are trying to do and what sort of data you are handling, cloud storage might be right for your business.

Application migration happens more frequently than storage and cloud migrations – mostly because they can happen for a variety of reasons – where storage migrations only happen once in a while. This type of migration happens due to:

• Moving data from on-premise to the cloud
• Moving between clouds
• Moving underlying data from one application to another

How Do Server and Data Migrations Happen Without Breaches? 

Nothing has been more important online in the past few years than data security. Breaches happen all the time and in many different forms, but one of the most vulnerable times for a data breach is during a server migration. The fastest way for a breach to happen is by not taking the process seriously.

Doing server data migrations is not something to do lightly or without a plan. You need to know all the possible errors that might expose your data during the process. If there are several people involved in the process, the risk of a breach becomes even larger. It’s essential to have a trained team of professionals that knows what they are doing and can accomplish the task at hand relatively easily. Some things you need to take into consideration when planning server data migrations are:

• Having a secure data transfer
• Secure server access
• Secure data access
• Increasing the number of permissions required to transfer data
• Only using vetted software or software that you are familiar with already

Using a third party like InnoHosting to handle your server and data migrations lets you put your mind at ease. Our team of trained professionals knows the security risks that go along with this process and can help ensure all data migrations that happen on our servers are secure.

InnoHosting Handles Your Server Data Migrations Without the Risk of Breaches

When it comes to your server data migrations or any other server needs, think InnoHosting. We have been providing high-speed server access for business owners for years. Whether you are trying to find a host for your website or are opening a server reselling business, we are here for you. Contact us today for more information about the server solutions we can create for your business.