AccountsIQ is Moving to Microsoft Azure during April & May

During April and May 2021, in partnership with our hosting partner, NTT, AccountsIQ will be migrating all customer data from our current UK & US Data Centres to world class Microsoft Azure Data Centres in the US (US East – Virginia), UK (UK South – London) & EU (North Europe Region – Dublin).

Delivering a more scalable and robust hosting platform for the future

This significant investment is to accommodate AccountsIQ’s continued growth and expansion of users. The new platform will have additional resources, data storage capacity and we will be upgrading to the latest version of SQL Server database management software. This will ensure we provide our users with the most robust and high-performance product experience. The Azure platform also offers best in class backups, Disaster Recovery capabilities and a high-level of ISO and SOC compliance. We also expect significant performance enhancements over time, particularly to deal with unexpected spikes in usage.

In response to our EU based customers’ data privacy needs in relation to data residency post-Brexit and the Shrems II European Court of Justice decision, we will also have two new EU based hosts in Microsoft Azure’s North Europe Region in Dublin.

Who will be affected?

All AccountsIQ customers will benefit from this move including all partners, resellers and integrators with AccountsIQ.

Migration Phases

The migration will be done in two separate stages:

Customers that currently access the system from the US site and that need to be hosted in the US will be migrated to the new US site as per the Table below. To accommodate this a maintenance window will be scheduled from 21:00 (GMT) on Friday 16^th to 12:00 (GMT) on Sunday 18^th April 2021.
Customers data resident in the UK, EU & Rest of the world that currently access the system from will be migrated to the new Azure UK and EU Data centres. To accommodate this, a maintenance window will be scheduled from 21:00 (GMT) on Friday 7^th to 12:00 (GMT) on Sunday 9^th May 2021.

Where do I currently log in?	Data Residency	Where will I log in post migration?	From what date?
https://www.visorsoftware.com/visor/accountsiq/menu/index.asp	US Resident Customers Only	https://us1.accountsiq.com/system/menu/index.asp	17th April
https://www.hostacct.com/visor/accountsiq/menu/index.asp	UK Resident Customers	https://uk1.accountsiq.com/system/menu/index.asp	8th May
https://www.hostacct.com/visor/accountsiq/menu/index.asp	Europe Resident Customers	https://eu1.accountsiq.com/system/menu/index.asp	8th May
https://www.visorsoftware.com/visor/accountsiq/menu/index.asp	Europe Resident Customers	https://eu2.accountsiq.com/system/menu/index.asp	8th May

During these maintenance windows, to facilitate the transfer of data between the old and new data centres, the system will be taken offline and will not be accepting logins. Note that this will also impact on any 3rd party systems that are integrated with the system in terms of sending or retrieving data during the period of the maintenance window.

All API requests will be refused during the period of the maintenance window. A maintenance page will appear in place of the normal login page advising users of this during the maintenance window.

What to Expect After Migration?

There are two main changes to expect after migration:

Changes to Login URLs: Currently, users access the system from either the US (https://www.visorsoftware.com/visor/accountsiq/menu/index.asp) or UK (https://hostacct.com/system/menu/index.asp) Data Centres.
These URLs will be changing after the migration dates and table set out above. To make this as painless as possible, when you log in after the migration using your existing URL you will be shown a simple message instructing you to bookmark a new URL which will carry the relevant data host region within the URL. The URL you will be asked to bookmark will be based on your determined data residency. For example, UK resident clients will be asked to bookmark the UK access URL (https://uk1.accountsiq.com/system/menu/index.asp).
Changes to Excel Add-On Installation: If you currently use the Excel-add-in you will be required to reinstall it after the migrations have taken place. The reason is that the installer needs to point your version of Excel at the new server host to facilitate download of data. Any existing Excel reporting models you currently have will be unaffected by this change. You will receive a reminder to reinstall the Excel add-in within the system after the migration dates noted above. Note that you may need to request your IT Administrator to install the Excel add-in on your computer if you do not have the relevant permissions.

For System Integrators – Integration API Endpoint Changes

If you have an integration built with AccountsIQ, note that the existing API Endpoints for the US (https://visorsoftware.com/system/dashboard/integration/integration_1_1.asmx?wsdl) and UK (https://hostacct.com/system/dashboard/integration/integration_1_1.asmx?wsdl) will remain active after migration.

However, if you are EU resident and are therefore included in the cohort of EU customers being migrated to the new EU host sites in Dublin there will be a change required to the API endpoint for your integration.

We have already started notifying integration partners within this cohort of customers and will continue to do so up to the migration dates. It will be possible for all integrators to test their API access endpoints before the migrations take place.

Please pass this email on to your system integrator in the meantime and they can request further information by emailing Support.

Further information

We will be publishing further notifications and updates as we move closer to the migration dates. In the meantime, if you have any further questions about the migrations process please contact your local support representatives or email Support.