Tracy -
At least on the CMS issue, you are in luck! Joomla, which you have, is now pretty widely used, so, as Michelle says, you only need move all your files over to the new web host, when, you select it. However, that's the last step. Here are the steps you need to take and the order that I suggest you take them in:
1. Make sure you own your domain names and move them to a stand-aloneregistrar, if they're not already on one. (A stand-alone registrar is one that is not tied to your web-site hosting. Many web hosts will provide this service apart from the actual hosting.) This separates domain registration from the web-site ownership. Also, set up one account that controls all of the domain names; this will make administration easier. The registrar should also control the name servers for your domains. The name servers are what tells everyone where your web-sites and your mail servers are and it's important that you administer them.
2. If you don't have a local copy of all of your sites, get it now. It should be set up on an in-house computer system so that you can actually run the web-site locally. You need this for testing and development so that you're not making changes directly on your site. (I know this seems obvious, but I have seen cases where the only copy of a web-site was the one on the provider and all changes were made directly.)
3. Consider moving your email in-house. You refer needing a lot of storage and support for mobile staff. You should consider Exchange as an option - this is one thing that Microsoft has, in fact, nailed! However, if you are using Linux or Unix internally there are some Exchange-like options, including Open Xchange, MailStudio, SuSE Openexchange, Zimbra, Bynari, PHPGroupWare, and ExchangeIT!, to name only a few of the suites on the market, that you will want to consider.
4. If you have a certificate, make sure you own it. You can then move it wherever your want. If you don't own it, get a new one.
5. Make a list of the specific Unix tools you refer to in the point on supporting your on-line advocacy and off-line databases.
6. Decide how much storage you mean by "reasonably large storage
capacity." This will depend on how big each of your web-sites are
(including the online store) and how much you expect them to grow.
(Remember, storage is attached to individual web-sites by provider - not to the customer.)
7. At this point you are in a position to look at providers. Go to each and present them with
a. Required storage size for each of the sites
b. The list from step 4
c. The ability to support an on-line store
d. Your streaming requirements (you may want to use a different host just for your streaming needs, since this tends to be a bit specialized.)
e. Support for Joomla
Those that can't meet the requirements are dropped from the list. Get
pricing from the rest.
7. Ask for references and check them out. Specifically ask for
customers that have the support needs (e.g., for on-line and off-line apps) similar to yours. Also, ask them for and check out some of the sites they are hosting that are similar to yours, especially in terms of the on-line store and streaming capacity.
8. Once you have selected a provider, set up the web-sites on the new vendor's system. Test them based on an IP address until you are certain that everything is working properly. (Do this one site at a time.)
9. When you are sure that everything is working properly for each site, change the www and the mail server (mx) addresses on the name servers (see step 1). (Again, do this one site at a time.)
10. At this point (and not before), you can cancel your contract with the original provider. (If you hint about what you are doing beforehand, some providers will simply shut down your site or cut off your ftp access. You don't want that.)
This should get you where you want to go with the least interruption to your web services. One last thing: You might consider bringing on a project manager on a short-term basis to work you through this. Your staff will have enough to do.
Gary
Gary W. Nickerson
gwntec, Inc.
210 W. 94th St., Ste. 7C
New York, NY 10025
office 212.866.1312
fax 212 215 9337
cell 917.450.2687
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