We have between 100 - 200 servers at two sites located in a 3rd party hosting provider.
(Not a company anyone would recognise.)
Various technical staff are proposing moving to another hosting providor (like Amazon).
The main reasons for this are:
- Improved service
- More reliable and consistent networks
- A more flexible service
- A cheaper service.
What are the key issues to be addressed in moving all servers from 1 provider to another.
The servers come in all sorts, with multiple OS's, a complex zoned network, and multiple virtualization software types used.
Updates:
They're all dedicated hosts, which are rented from the provider over a fixed period. (That's one of the problems, the inflexibility of the current arrangement.)
During the move, limited downtime is fine. (Weekends, late at night etc.)