June 2026
Keep the server or go to the cloud? The honest answer for a small business
Sometimes the right move is the one nobody is selling you.
By Nate Weigel, Protection Director
Every vendor has an opinion about your server, and most of the opinions are for sale. Here is how we actually decide with clients.
Keep it when the software that runs your business needs it, it has years of life left, or you recently bought it. Sunk cost is real. We talked a firm out of retiring a backup server they had just purchased because a building move made it convenient; the right answer was to plan the transition and use what they had paid for.Move to the cloud when the server is due for replacement anyway, the applications have a supported cloud version, the team works from more than one place, or the capital expense is better spent elsewhere.Do it in stages, not on moving day. Files first, usually to SharePoint. Then applications as their vendors support it. Then the server retires once everything on it has a proven replacement. Retiring it first because the move made it convenient is how businesses lose a month.Either way, the backup, the security and the recovery plan have to cover wherever the data lives. Cloud data is not backed up by the cloud provider in the way people assume.If someone tells you the answer before they have looked at your software, they are selling something.
Order the internet circuit the week the lease is signed. Carriers take six to twelve weeks. Nothing else on a move fails as often.
The relocation checklist From the shopEvery piece of gear we ship was configured and tested on a bench in Pell Lake first. Problems found here cost an afternoon. Problems found in your server room cost production.
The second-host story
"Tyler was very helpful today. Saved our day!"
Kerri, Koko OrthodonticsMeet Tyler- A technician who knows your setup takes every request. Not a dispatcher, not a queue.
- Every closed ticket is surveyed and a partner reads every response.
- 99.5% of surveys come back positive.
- Family-owned since 2005. 21 years in the same corner of Wisconsin, not going anywhere.
"Tyler got to my request very quickly and resolved the issue within minutes."
Nichole, insurance brokerageTalk to a partner, not a sales script.
Tell us what is going on. A partner will call you back the same business day, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. No pricing pressure, no pitch deck.