Step 3 · Prepare
Migration plan
The contract is signed, the principles are set. Now they must be turned into a precise, realistic calendar aligned with your effective cessation date. This is the step that turns a convention into an operation.
Why a formal plan
A poorly sequenced migration loses data. Closing a SaaS account before extracting its history loses what is in it. Switching a site to static mode before migrating its database loses the latest publications. Cutting email before setting up inbound-only takeover means urgent messages arriving in the days following cessation get missed.
The migration plan exists precisely to avoid these sequencing errors. It lists, in the right order, every operation to execute, the responsible party on Archivum's side and on yours, the projected date, and the trigger condition for the next operation. It is reviewed and validated by you and, where relevant, by your IT provider before execution.
What the plan details
- Technical inventory. Exhaustive list of accounts, services and systems to handle: Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Dropbox, AWS, Scaleway, Stripe, Notion, ClickUp, Slack, historical email, internal NAS, external backups, editorial tools. For each entry, the administrator credentials, the estimated volume, the criticality.
- Execution order. Which data are extracted before the corresponding service is terminated, what is the dependency between extractions (for example: extract email BEFORE closing the domain, extract GitHub commits BEFORE closing the organisation).
- Client-side responsibilities. Who, at your end or your IT provider's, triggers each operation. Often the former CTO, the data protection officer, the accountant, or a current director.
- Archivum-side responsibilities. Who receives each flow, who validates integrity, who issues the named deposit register. A single point of contact for you, several specialists on Archivum's side.
- Communication plan. Notice to ongoing clients on the end of application service and the static-mode switch, notice to former staff on the archiving of professional accounts and their GDPR rights, notice to institutional partners if needed (public funders for associations, court-appointed administrator for liquidations).
- Critical milestones. Deadline for extracting accounting data, date of static-mode site switch, date of inbound-only email takeover, date of end-of-migration record signature. These milestones align on your effective cessation date or projected registry removal.
Typical six-week calendar
The detail varies between cases, but here is the typical breakdown for a mid-sized entity (~500 GB of archives, active website, two to five mailboxes):
- W1
Technical inventory and tests
Inventory validation, opening of administrator accesses on Archivum's side, first export tests on a small sample. Calendar adjustment in case of discovery (forgotten account, underestimated volume).
- W2-3
Mass extractions
Accounting, HR, client projects, email, media. Indexing as we go. Cryptographic fingerprint for each item. First provisional deposit register.
- W4
Static-mode site switch
HTML regeneration, deployment on Scaleway behind Cloudflare, domain and canonical URLs preserved. Clean disabling of active features.
- W5
Inbound-only email takeover
MX reconfiguration, consultation register set up, sender notice deployed.
- W6
End-of-migration record
Final deposit register, cross-checked volumes, signature of the end-of-migration record. Conservation then enters its contractual regime.
Prepare your migration
The migration plan is drafted after contract signature. If you want to talk it through before, initial scoping is free of charge and that is where to start.