Setting Server Migration and Cost Expectations

Often we are asked to provide information on what to expect for pricing and service when migrating an old to a newer server. Before listing the cost, we want to great down the basic categories of a server migration:

Server Migration Categories

• Audit of the existing server -- The audit of the existing server is designed to gather the necessary information what services the server provides. In other words, what is the server doing?
• Migration plan – We use the information from the audit to put together the migration plan. In this phase, if necessary, we would contact your line of business software vendor to discuss what is needed and the process to migrate your main application(s) to the new server.  Once a plan is in place, we review timelines and processes with your organization.
• Proposal – With the server audit and migration plan we match the server size necessary to the need and provide your organization with associated costs for the server hardware and migration time.
• The migration – Where the plan goes into action and we execute the migration through the agreed upon procedures and timelines. The new server is installed and configured, server services are migrated, the line of business applications are migrated, user data, printing, etc.  The users are configured to “point” and run off the new server.
• General troubleshooting – I would love to say we are perfect, but that isn’t the case.  After all the changes have been made issues will arise.  This is the phase where we work through all the kinks and iron out all the issues from the migration.  This phase could be a few days or a few weeks depending on the complexity.  You definitely should be functioning during this period it is not a system down phase.
• Update documentation – A very important often neglected step. It is important to document the changes and the new system.
• Decommission the old server – This is where we take the old server offline. We typically keep it at your place of business for several months, just in case we need to refer back to it for any reason.

So, what are the associated costs?  That depends on the complexity, which, can be translated into what the server is doing, how many lines of business applications need to be migrated, how complex the migration is for the line of business applications, and how many total users your network has.

This example is for a migration that included a single server, single line of business application, and less than 15 users.  The server hardware requirements are often a 4 on a 1-10 scale and the overall environment was not very complex.

• Server hardware -- $5,300
  • Intel Xeon E5-2609 v4 Processor with 8 Cores and 20M Cache
  • 32 GB Memory
  • PERC H730 RAID Controller Configured with RAID 5
  • 3 x 2 TB 7.2k RPM NLSAS 12Gbps Hard Drives
  • DVD ROM Optical Drive
  • Dual 495W Redundant Power Supply
  • Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition
  • 10x Windows Server 2016 User CALs
  • 5 Year NBD Hardware Warranty
• Server migration -- $3,200
  • Removal of existing server from the current environment and replace it with a 2016 Standard Windows Server. The project will include any necessary cleanup of AD, Scripts, printers, file shares, etc., and documentation of new server environment.
  • Configure new Server 2016 Standard
  • Migrate FSMO roles
  • Migrate DHCP
  • Configure DNS
  •  Migrate Data from SERVER-01
  •  Move line of business app to a new server (Sage)
  •  Migrate Printers
  •  Decommission of Server-01
  •  Configuration of Shadow Protect Backups
  •  Configuration of Managed Online Backups
  •  Document new server configuration

To get the help you need with your next server migration or to learn more about your on-site and cloud server options, start a conversation with the any of our senior engineers to help you meet your server and business objectives.

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