We are changing hosting providers for our customers whose data is hosted in the UK, which means Hireserve ATS is going to be moved from one set of servers to another. Our current hosting provider is an organisation called Rackspace. We are going to be migrating across to Oracle Cloud and using our service partners, DSP (www.dsp.co.uk), to provide expertise and ongoing service management.

The process will be as follows:

• We will copy all data held on the Rackspace servers.
• We will then move the copied data across to Oracle Cloud.
• Once we are certain the move to Oracle Cloud has been successful, we will safely and securely remove the data held on the Rackspace servers.
• Hireserve ATS will then be hosted solely on Oracle Cloud.

This process is called ‘migration’.

Migrating to a new hosting provider is a complex and significant project for us and we have been working on identifying our needs, ensuring the new platform can support them and planning the work involved. We would not undertake such a process if we knew it would not deliver benefits for you, our customers.

Flexibility – As a true cloud service, Oracle Cloud provides flexibility as more (or fewer) resources are required; for example if we needed to increase the number of processors this can be achieved within 30 minutes, as opposed to having to migrate to new hardware. Part of our evaluation of Oracle Cloud has included testing if just such a scenario and measuring performance before and after.

Reliability – Because we want to provide you with faster, more secure and more efficient system performance and some elements of the existing infrastructure have become unsupported which has caused occasional, albeit brief, service interruptions. With Oracle Cloud we will be in a truly cloud environment where all platform components are provided and managed by Oracle who provide the SLAs to Hireserve around availability, security and so on.

Platform Security – with the ever changing security landscape of the internet, having a platform where the core security is managed by multiple, high availability components globally means that best in class security can be provided at all times.

Data Security – we have always ensured that all customer data is encrypted in transit (which means as it traverses the internet between you or your candidates and our service platform). With Oracle Cloud we are going a step further and introducing full data encryption at rest which further protects all your data.

Disaster Recovery – with Rackspace we have a DR facility which is kept synchronised with the primary (active) system and there is monitoring in place to verify that this is up to date. With Oracle Cloud the synchronisation between the primary and DR sites is more sophisticated and we will be able to easily exercise the DR plan by routinely “failing over” to the DR service and then “failing back” (which reinstates service on the primary).

We will be taking every precaution to ensure your data is kept safe during the migration process. The migration will take place over a secure network connection and a team of specialists will be available throughout the process, both from Hireserve and DSP.

It’s unlikely that you as a user will be aware of any difference in your day-to-day use of Hireserve ATS. However, the occasional brief service interruptions that some customers have experienced in recent months will be eliminated.

The maintenance window to complete the migration is Friday 20th November, 22:00 (GMT) – Saturday 21st November, 18:00 (GMT).

During the maintenance window, Hireserve ATS will be unavailable. If a user tries to log in, they will see an ‘out of service’ announcement.

We have tried hard to minimise disruption for our customers as much as possible. Please be assured that any downtime is necessary in order to complete the migration effectively and safely.

Our aim is to minimise the impact on your candidates as much as possible during the maintenance window. We will confirm the exact times of the maintenance window closer to the date of the migration.

Please be aware that, during the maintenance window, candidates will be unable to access your candidate portal.

No. After the migration maintenance window has lifted and Hireserve ATS is available once more, you will log in exactly the same way you normally would. You should use your same login details and password.

No. Your login details and password for Hireserve ATS will remain unchanged by the migration to Oracle Cloud.

The Test environment will also be migrated to Oracle Cloud, however you shouldn’t expect any changes in your day-to-day use of your Test site.

Yes. You should have received an email from Jeremy asking you to reply to confirm receipt of the email, and asking your technical team to make a change to your email-related DNS records.

No. None of your system configuration will be affected by the migration. It should look the same after the migration as it did the last time you used it.

No, you will not need to make any changes to your careers site or jobs list after the migration. Your careers site will not change.