What a managed agency migration looks like at Nexcess

The questions usually start around the time you’ve decided to move your sites to a new host.

Who’s coordinating the move? How much of your team’s time will it take? What happens if a site has an issue during cutover? What does support look like after go-live?

Our migrations are designed to help answer those questions way before the move begins, so you can reassure clients that the environments and processes you’ve built are coming with you.

You’re not doing it alone

Even when you’re managing sites across WordPress, WooCommerce, Magento, and custom stacks, you’re working with one team that knows those platforms and how they actually work.

Your migration is handled by a dedicated team of specialists who manage the move directly, from gathering requirements to restoring sites in their new environment.

Migrations are included free with fully managed support plans, with few exceptions. We’ll discuss scope and any special considerations upfront, so you know exactly what to expect.

Our five-step process

Nexcess migrations follow a documented process across five stages.

Step 1: Migration prep. Before anything moves, we work with your team to make sure the source environment is ready and all migration requirements are covered.

Step 2: Data move. A migration specialist begins the initial sync, accessing your source server, comparing software versions, extracting data, and restoring sites on the destination server.

Step 3: Validation. We check that sites are loading as they should be before moving to the next step.

Step 4: Quality assurance. The specialist hands the environment to you for thorough testing. You know your clients’ sites better than anyone. Any issues flagged at this stage get resolved before anything goes live.

Step 5: DNS update. For existing Nexcess customers who host their domains with Nexcess, we can help with DNS configuration if needed. New customers handle the DNS update themselves, with help from our team throughout the process.

Who owns what

We handle migration planning, data transfer, validation, and technical troubleshooting throughout the process.

Your team confirms the scope, tests sites and functionality during quality assurance, verifies the need for assistance if applicable, and signs off before go-live.

What happens after go-live

Once you’re on Nexcess, you get 24/7 support from one team regardless of which client environment needs attention. 

Billing is simple too: one invoice across the environments you manage.

The first 30 days are structured. You’ll have named support contacts, a clear account structure, and defined escalation paths from day one. If you want a full picture of what onboarding looks like, ask our agency team for the first-30-days guide.

We can also help frame the migration around what your clients gain rather than what changed on the backend.

What your team needs before migration starts

Nexcess walks you through everything, but here’s what to do beforehand:

• Clearly define the scope: single sites, full servers, and databases.
• Identify external providers that will need updating, including DNS and the domain registrar.
• Confirm whether email migration is needed.
• Provide the migration specialist with SSH access (preferred).
• Update your operating system, CMS, plugins, and databases on the source before migrating.
• Avoid creating new accounts or sites during the migration window.

Our migration specialists scope the process based on what you’re actually moving, not a standard template.