You may not always get the right hosting solution for your requirements unless you have done enough research. Other than that, you may even find that the lack of scalability of your hosting provider could hinder your business’ progress. You need a solution that grows with your business requirements. You can find quite a few apt web hosting providers in Dubai.

However, in a scenario where your hosting plan just won’t cut it, and scalability is not an option given to you, you can simply migrate to a different hosting solution that meets your requirements and is scalable. But transferring your website to a different host can be quite tedious.

You can consider the transfer successful if your fully operational website is transferred to a different host without any downtime.

Here’s what you need to know about web hosting migration.

Finding a new host

Migration requires you to do a bit of research. You need to find a more suitable host that meets your requirements, is scalable, reasonably priced, offers impressive uptime and great technical support. Once that is taken care, do not go ahead and end your deal with the present host. Your old web hosting account should be cancelled only after you have successfully migrated.

Backing up the files from your website

When you shift to a new residence, you will be packing up everything necessary from your old one. When you are migrating to a new host, you have to some packing up as well i.e. you need to back up all the files and databases from the hosting server. 

You can find good FTP applications to help you with this. Store the files in a safe location, and double check to make sure you have every file necessary to have your website run in the new server with all its functionalities intact.

Upload the backed up files to the new server

Once you get the server information from your new host, you can start uploading all your files to the new server. Make sure the server is ready to receive and accommodate your files and databases after installing the necessary web applications you used in the old server.

Set up your email accounts

Before you switch the DNS, add and configure your email accounts in the new server. In case you forget to add an email account, make sure the mails don’t bounce (a ‘catchall’ address should help, just in case). 

Test the website on the new host

Test every attribute of your website on the server, including links, text, positions of images, and other multimedia content. Make sure the overall performance satisfies you. 

You can use a mirror site and a temporary URL to test the website performance. This step is to identify issues (if any) and rectify them before your website goes online.

Completing the migration

To finally complete the website migration, you will have to alter the DNS records accordingly. Update the new location in the directories so that your customers will be aware of the shift. You can then move on to changing the DNS records from your control panel.

After the change, it might take up to 48 hours to successfully complete the migration. Once the migration is complete, you can cancel your old hosting account.