Finance software is usually a company’s most critical system, and in many companies it still runs on a server in a corner of the office, with all the risks of power outages, hardware failures and difficult access for branches and remote staff. Moving it to a cloud server in a data center solves these problems, but because accounting data is at stake, it must be done carefully and step by step.
Step 1: Coordinate with the software vendor
Before any technical work, talk to your finance software’s support team:
- Do they support installation on a cloud server and a virtual machine?
- How does the software’s license lock work? Many finance applications use a USB hardware dongle that can’t be connected to a cloud server. The vendor may offer a software or network-based license, or another solution will need to be found.
- What are the conditions for transferring the license to a new server, and do they handle the installation and configuration themselves?
- Which versions of Windows Server and SQL Server do they recommend?
Step 2: Choose a user access model
This is the most important technical decision:
- Running the software on the server with Remote Desktop or RemoteApp: Both the software and the database are on the cloud server, and users work remotely. Speed depends less on internet quality, and data never leaves the server. For multiple concurrent users, Remote Desktop Services licenses are required.
- Installing the software on users’ computers and connecting to the cloud database over VPN: With many client-server applications, this approach is slow and unstable over the internet. Be sure to test it in practice before choosing it.
Never expose the SQL Server port to the internet. The finance database should only be reachable from within the server or over VPN.
Step 3: Prepare the server
- Size resources to match the number of users and the database size; fast disk matters a great deal for the database.
- Secure the server before installation: updates, firewall and restricted remote access.
- Choose the SQL Server edition based on the vendor’s recommendation. The free Express edition has limits on database size and resources that must fit your data growth.
- Configure the Windows region and language settings as the software requires, so the local language, dates and numbers display correctly.
- Test printing and report exports in advance; users must be able to print reports to the office printer and export to Excel.
Step 4: Test migration and cutover day
- First, restore a database backup on the cloud server and have a few key users test the main tasks, from posting entries to running reports.
- Schedule the final cutover for a quiet period, such as a weekend, and away from period-end closing dates.
- On cutover day, stop user activity on the old server, take a final backup, restore it on the new server, and compare a few entries and account balances against the old server.
- Keep the old server powered off or read-only for a while so nobody accidentally posts entries to it.
Step 5: Backups in the new environment
Moving to a data center doesn’t remove the need for backups. Scheduled database backups with SQL Server tools or the software itself, a full VM backup, and a copy stored off the server are the minimum. Test restores periodically as well.
Checklist
- Support, licensing and license lock terms have been clarified with the vendor.
- The user access model has been tested and chosen.
- The database port is closed to the internet.
- Language, date and printing settings have been tested.
- A test migration has been carried out with key users.
- Database and VM backups in the new environment are active and tested.
With proper planning, your finance software can be moved without losing a single entry. ITPlus724 engineers can prepare the right cloud server and carry out the migration in coordination with your finance software’s support team.