Another 'cloud' provider acquired—my migration checklist

Here we go again. This is going to be my 3rd migration in 2 years, I am going to lose my mind

Going to share my checklist so going to survive next time:

• Export all configs going to git BEFORE announcement
• Going to test restore on competitor same day
• Going to keep DNS TTL under 300 always
• Going to screenshot pricing page (they change it fast)
• Going to have 2 providers warm, not going to wait

Going to add: going to ignore "exciting news" emails. Going to treat them as warning

What going to add? Going to survive together

Pauloserver survive together yes same but different every acquisition same but different the control panel changes the pricing changes the support quality changes but the migration pain is same but different, I suggest add test your backups going to test them test them test them same but different,

Well I guess I can share my experience since no one asked but that never stopped me before so here goes I have been through 4 acquisitions in 5 years yes you read that right 4 in 5 and I will tell you about each one in excruciating detail the first one was in 2021 when I was with this provider called stormvps or something I cant remember the exact name but I remember I had just eaten a bagel with cream cheese and my cat Mr. whiskers was sitting on the router which was already a bad sign because he only does that when he wants attention and the weather was rainy that day not that it matters but it set the mood and I got the email saying exciting news and I knew immediately and Mr. whiskers knew too he jumped off and hid under the bed and I was right because 3 months later prices doubled and then the second one was 2022 and I had switched to ocean something or other and I was eating cereal that time corn flakes with sliced banana and the cat was fine but the weather was foggy and another exciting news email and I actually threw my phone across the room and it hit my plant and knocked dirt everywhere and my husband came running and I said not now I have PTSD and he said thats not real PTSD and I said you dont know what its like and now I have a filter setup that moves any email with the words exciting news straight to trash and I still flinch when I see it in my spam folder and the third one was 2023 and I had pancakes that day and the fourth was 2024 and I dont even remember what I ate because I was just numb at that point and now I check the weather before I check my email and I think thats where we are now and if you read all of this thank you if you didnt I dont care I typed it and its here now

Bravomartha that's not PTSD, but I understand the stress response. We've seen this pattern in postmortems: acquisition = opaque roadmap = surprise breaking changes. Transparency from leadership prevents this. Most providers score near zero on transparency during transitions.

Pauloserver add error budgets to your checklist. Define acceptable downtime before migration starts. Blameless postmortem after every drill, even failed ones. Transparency with yourself about readiness gaps.

"exciting news" is a leading indicator of error budget burn. Treat accordingly.