This week we have some big things to do on the e-Rocks service.
We last went through this in September 2015 when we had much less traffic and data to store.
If things are going well 5 years is quite a long life-span for a system, and apart from routine uplifts in storage and processors we have done well.
However some of what we have is out of date, under capacity and due for an uplift.
We have spent the last 6 months on and off, preparing to pick up and move to a new platform. All the migration scripts are written, tested and tested on a beta service - so on Wednesday 10 February morning we will complete the full migration and it will be "Business as Usual" from there on.
To complete the changeover we will need to close/freeze database - complete transfer - then open again.
This could last a few hours, one of the unknown time factors will be a process called DNS update, where the Internet has to work out where to send our traffic.
When complete we will have shiny new servers; you won't see these of course but you should experience faster pages and searches, and a more responsive site overall.
Once we are in our new home we can then begin the task of adding new features to the site, starting with our mobile friendly site very soon.
