Shafe Shifter Just another guy on the internet.

Layeredtech Datacenter Migration Followup

Just wanted to follow up on my recent post "Layeredtech - The worst migration plan ever".  After a bit of thought I decided to call up and go the upgrade route.  I searched through my email to find my account manager's contact information and called up and got right through.  My account manager Hallie, was awesome and very helpful.  Unfortunately, Layeredtech was sold out of so many servers, pretty much everything in my price range.  The nearest upgrade was significantly more, and it still seemed as if I would be paying for two servers for at least a month each.

I was okay with that, so long as I could make the migration as smooth as possible.   I had a ticket open that was awaiting me to specify what date would be best to physically move my hardware if I decided not to go the upgrade route and I had until the end of September (2 weeks) to respond.    I decided to wait until the last minute to see if any of the servers in my price range would become available, at the end, none did.  It seemed awfully convenient to me that all the the mid priced servers where sold out during this 'migration'.    I felt a bit like if I wanted to avoid downtime, I'd have to commit to a significantly higher priced server, instead of upgrading to something more in my current price range.

Regardless, the move went smooth.  I had to spend a good part of the afternoon updating DNS tables and manually reconfiguring a handful of apps to use the new IP addresses, but for the most part everything went smooth, the server came back online at it's new IP address when I was told it would (Actually a bit earlier than I was told).   Latency at the new datacenter seems to be significantly improved.  All and all downtime was about 4 hours for the move, and a bit longer for DNS to update.  Not terribly stressful aside from the downtime.   Luckily, I don't have anything too mission critical hosted on there.

Layered Tech – The Worst Migration Plan Ever

I've used Layered Tech for my dedicated server needs for the past 3 years, moving from ThePlanet when their service just turned into a mess (I hear they have since improved).

Mind you, as I write this, I have had very little problem with LT, in fact I've always recommended them.  Their support has been stellar, their billing dept was amazingly responsive with some billing issues a year or two ago and their service has been excellent.  In fact the ONLY problem I've experienced has been with their upstream provider Saavis, and not even in the data center where my servers reside.

A few days ago I got this email informing me of their plans to migrate from one data center to another.   Moving from Saavis to Dallas Databank.  I don't know much about Databank, I hear good things.   I can only guess it's a significantly cheaper deal to house servers there.

Anyhow, there are several items which really rubbed me the wrong way in this migration process they have outlined.  Here is the notification I got:

What is my issue with this? First, I feel lucky that I'm not running a web hosting business from a server located in Saavis.  The DNS issues alone even with a handful of sites are a nightmare.  Luckily I do not run my nameservers on the same network, otherwise it could be up to 72 hours for DNS to propagate.  Second, downtime is the only option UNLESS, you want to upgrade your service.  Third, if your hardware doesn't meet the "new network standards" (which aren't defined) then you also HAVE TO UPGRADE.   If you do not submit a ticket to have your server taken offline your service will be DISCONNECTED.  10 days later your server(s) will be canceled altogether.   This doesn't seem like a way to retain customers.     Finally, the DO  NOT RESPOND TO THIS EMAIL always irks me, but thats a whole different post, just don't send me an email you don't want me to respond to, it's just rude -- you obviously are wanting a response -- Tie your support desk into your email.

I understand that I'm not one of their highest paying customers, but those options seem really unacceptable and truly makes me feel like I'm not an important customer, despite my 3 year tenure with them.  This wouldn't be how I'd expect my workplace to handle an issue involving so many customers, nor would it be how I would handle it.  I'd bite the cost to avoid downtime and keep everyone happy, and I WOULDN'T threaten cancellation.

But in conclusion, I'm going to stick it out.  My hardware is a bit dated now and they offer a lot better hardware for the same price (or cheaper in some cases), and I think it makes sense for me to setup a new server and move everything manually, running both the old and the new simultaneously to avoid downtime.  Either way it's a lot of extra work that I wasn't planning for in my schedule.  I will be calling them to see what my options are, at the moment I'm really put off, but we'll see what they say when I call them for some other options than those provided in the email.  I'll update here with the results.

Wish me luck...