Move off the server in the cupboard.
There is usually a server somewhere, and a piece of software nobody supports any more. Both work, right up until they do not, and the cost of that day is rarely the cost of the hardware.
What normally forces the decision
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Hardware age
A server past its warranty is a business continuity risk carried on the balance sheet as an asset.
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Unsupported software
Software the vendor has stopped patching is a security problem that grows quietly, and increasingly a question on insurance forms.
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An office move
Physical infrastructure is never cheaper to move than to retire, and a move is a natural moment to stop owning it.
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People working from anywhere
Remote access bolted onto an on-premise system is usually the most fragile part of the whole arrangement.
How we plan it
Not everything should move, and almost nothing should move at once. We work out what goes, what stays, what gets retired outright, and the order that keeps the business running throughout.
The order matters more than the destination. Most migrations that go badly do so because dependencies were discovered during the move rather than before it.
Where data residency matters to you or to your customers, that is a question we ask at the start, because it constrains the options rather than being a detail to settle later.
What you end up with
Systems that are someone else's job to patch, accessible from wherever your team works, and a documented picture of what runs where. No enterprise retainer and no year-long programme attached to it.
Common questions
Do we have to move everything?
No, and you probably should not. Some systems have good reasons to stay where they are. The work is deciding which, in what order, and what can simply be retired.
Will the business have to stop while it happens?
Planning the order is precisely how that is avoided. Migrations are scoped as projects with a fixed date, and the sequencing is designed around the times your business can least afford disruption.
Is cloud actually cheaper?
Sometimes, and it is the wrong first question. Moving from an owned asset to a monthly subscription changes the shape of the cost as much as the size of it. The honest comparison includes the replacement cost and the risk of the hardware you already have.
Can our data stay in Canada?
For many services that is a configuration choice, and where it matters we establish the requirement before choosing anything, because it rules some options out. If you have a contractual or regulatory obligation on this, bring it up early rather than late.
What if a system is too old to move?
Then the question becomes whether it is replaced or isolated, and that belongs in the roadmap rather than in the middle of a migration.
How long does a migration take?
It is scoped as a project with a fixed price and a fixed date. The assessment establishes the scope first, which is what makes a fixed date possible.
Find out what should move.
It starts with a 15-minute call. If we are a fit, the free assessment that follows produces a written roadmap: what to fix, what to replace, what to leave alone, and what each costs. Yours to keep either way.