Pros and Cons when switching ISP

[nehpets]

Hi all;

I'll start this by declaring an interest. I have been asked to investigate alternative broadband options for a school - they are currently with Link2ICT/Virgin but would like to sever ties with them if possible.

 

There isn't much of a technical presence in the school staff and some of the school office reporting functions are new to me, but hopefully there'll be some people able to share past experiences here that can help me to help them.

Apart from just appointing a provider, what else needs to be considered to make it a seamless move. I'm thinking about links to send info to BCC and content filtering (obviously). Is there anything that Link2ICT do to make it 'awkward' for school to leave them?

 

Or is it not worth it and better the devil you know?

 

thanks in advance.

[call911]

In the middle of switching now. Obvious pro is saving money: we are getting 6x the speeds for half the cost. Our previous contract was five years, and five years ago 50mb was great. Now we are bumping up to 300mb on a three year contract, and can readdress then if needed.

 

Cons are its a PITA to change all our public facing IPs. We have about 50 total IPs to change routing and firewall info for. Not hard, but time consuming. Email, website, sharepoint, VoIP, CCTV, alarms, etc all have to change.

 

But in our case it's worth it. Just document everything so your change is seamless.

[Sylv3r]

This is a list I put together before we moved.

 

Pro

 

Hopefully better IP management

Better stats to monitor performance across pipe

Better resilience on wider network

Cheaper Costs for Broadband

Cancellation of expensive Phone lines - moved to SIP

99.9% Promised Uptime

Active Monitoring via CISCO router

Possible additional bandwith

£30k saving over 5 year contract

 

Negative

 

Unsure on the level and SLA times?

Moving away from LA could have a negative impact on how we connect to schools in the future

Websites restricted to EDU purposes only

All staff will have to change their mail client IP at home

Remote Desktop details will change if they are using the IP

MX records for domain and mail to be transferred

Host domains elsewhere

Downtime

Need to workout all public facing IP's and map them to the new addresses accordingly

Video Conferencing facilities - no gatekeeper provided

[exa_damon]

I think the prior posts have covered most of the considerations. As for staying with the devil you know, as you can also see there is a desire from schools for a sense of self determination and have a connection unreliant on the LA. Each school will have it's own reasons for this I am sure ! But you have also put your finger on a vital element - the seamless transition. I won't air any views about the school's current provision here - but would be happy to provide a quotation for our services, and can provide references from schools in your area who have made the move. With Exa you don't need much of a technical presence at the school as our outstanding support team cater for any level of expertise. I will PM you also. All the best.