The document discusses migrating a CMS from an on-premises environment to the cloud. It outlines some common arguments for and against on-premises systems. When migrating to the cloud, the key steps are to create a detailed migration plan with rollback procedures, thoroughly test all content types, figure out DNS changes, handle outlier content, communicate freeze periods, and have someone review the plan. Post-migration, old servers should be decommissioned and any remaining issues addressed. Careful planning is essential for a successful migration.

1. Migrating your CMS to the
Cloud
Vasken Hauri
VP of Engineering
10up Inc.

2. A bit about 10up
• ~125 employees; fully distributed
• Focus on making the web better by “finely crafting
websites & tools for content creators.”
• Cross-discipline (designers, UX engineers,
sysadmins, web & front-end engineers, PMs), with a
large concentration of engineering (75+)
• Lots of different use-cases for CMS migrations:
– Large publishers with lots of legacy content (old stories, galleries, etc)
– Sites with large user bases (discussion forums, heavily-commented sites)
– Publishers changing CMS platforms
• Migrations have totaled well over 1m posts with over 20 years of legacy
content
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3. Most of our clients are in the cloud
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4. But they used to be here…
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5. Arguments for on-premises systems
• Physical security
– “If the server is right down the hall, at least we know someone isn’t hacking it from the
server room”
• Sunk costs
– “We bought and paid for the shiny servers with the colorful firewall and email scanning
appliances so now they’re essentially free and we need to get our money’s worth”
• Lease vs Own
– “Monthly fees for the cloud will add up quickly and can be unpredictable, plus we can’t
depreciate anything”
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6. Arguments against On-Premises
• Robust access management in the cloud
• Better uptime and reliability potential at lower cost/effort
• Infrastructure spend matches needs
• Scalability and flexibility
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7. So how do we migrate?
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Source: http://wallpapersafari.com

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Creating a Migration Plan
• Make sure to document each and
every step with a high level of detail
– When will the task be performed?
– Who performs the task?
– How do we test if the task was
successful?
• Every step should have an
equivalent rollback plan
– How do we roll back if a step is
unsuccessful?
– What criteria do we have to determine if
we should roll back?
Don’t count on people to think clearly and make great decisions during
times of stress: give them simple instructions to follow.

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10. © 2017 Imperva, Inc. All rights reserved.10

11. Migration Effort by Phase
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Planning
Execution

12. A few things to consider
• Create a testing plan that covers all your content types, and all types of
content:
– Make sure all objects in the schema are accounted for (e.g
books and orders if you’re running an online bookstore)
– Test all types of content. Find a very short story, a very long
story, a story with images, one without.
– Test with various user roles to ensure everyone has access
to what they need
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13. A few things to consider
• Figure out who controls DNS
– What’s the current TTL?
– What does it take to request a change?
– Lead time?
• Where do you point your DNS in the cloud?
– Load balancer or HAProxy
– CDN Provider
– Web Server
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14. A few things to consider
• Use the right approach to handle outlier content
– Approach it with cost and ROI in mind—don’t fall into the
engineering trap
– Copy/paste is often best for a small amount of content
– Altering a migration script might make sense for a larger
subset of data
• Communicate the content plan
– Determine if a delta migration is worthwhile
– Make sure all stakeholders are aware of any necessary
content freeze
– Proactively communicate during any downtime or freeze
– Assume some people won’t listen
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15. A few things to consider
• Have someone cross-check your plan
– Find someone familiar with the technology but not the
specifics of the migration project
– Ask them to review the plan as if they had to perform
the migration
– Don’t ignore or explain any gaps—note the issues and
fix them in your plan!
– The actual migration is a high stress time. An engineer
unfamiliar with the project reviewing a plan is about as
effective as one familiar with the plan trying to troubleshoot
a site that’s down.
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16. Planning for the future
• Plan for disaster
– Where are we replicating data?
– What happens if our primary datacenter fails? (avoid DNS TTLs with a CDN)
– How can we minimize disruption to our business?
• Plan for scale
– Scaling horizontally is cool, but don’t ignore vertical scaling
– Push your content to the edge with a CDN
– Consider intelligent caching rules
– Monitor apps with tools like New Relic to foresee scaling needs
• Plan for security
– Put a Web Application Firewall (like Incapsula) in front of your site
– Consider a 3rd-party code review for large, open-source based projects
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17. Post-Migration Cleanup
• Make sure to decommission old servers—they pose a security risk and
turning them off can save money
– Old SSH accounts, etc. will become useless once you shut things down
– Unpatched servers become increasingly risky
– Power for the datacenter costs money
• Forgotten servers can cause unforeseen problems
– Cron jobs continue to run
– People forget they set a static IP for the site in their hosts file
• Create and address a post-migration backlog
– Fix any items discovered in your post-migration testing that were not considered blockers
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18. “The first step in any successful migration is
a bathroom break.”
Casey Bisson, Joyent
Sometime in 2012
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19. © 2017 Imperva, Inc. All rights reserved.19
Thank you!
Vasken Hauri
VP of Engineering
@vaskenhauri
vasken@10up.com