Moving the service we provide to Microsoft Azure

Overview

This article provides detail on the change to Ciphr's data centres that host our service, which may require some changes on your part.

We are moving to Microsoft Azure, which is a market leading infrastructure service provided by Microsoft. We are making this move to a state-of-the-art infrastructure to unlock future potential to improve our application architecture and adopt new technologies more rapidly.

Timings

The move itself will be seamless and will take place during extended evening maintenance hours between 19:00 and 00:00.

We have chosen to do the move outside of business hours because you will not have access to your Ciphr system during the move. When your users log into the system the following day, they will be unaware the move took place, as your system and data will look and feel the same.

• The date of the move will be communicated with you in advance   
• If a user tries to login, they will be presented with our maintenance notification

Note: We are moving systems (ie HR, payroll, iRecruit, LMS) one at a time, so if you have any other systems as part of the service we provide, the move of each of these will be handled separately. We will clearly communicate to you which of your systems is being moved and when, along with any actions you or your IT team will need to complete.

Action for you

Your IT team may need to add new IP addresses to your organisation's Allow-list.

If you run Paylink within your HR system and the dates of that run coincide with the date of the move that we will communicate to you, then you will need to contact your Customer Success Account Manager at Ciphr so we can organise an alternative date for you.

Add new IP addresses to your Allow-list

If your organisation uses IP address filtering, then your IT team will need to add some new IP addresses.

Why you need to make this change

Your organisation may restrict access to websites and as such will have previously allowed Ciphr IP addresses so that your users can access the system from within the company network.

How you can check if your organisation uses IP filtering

If you are not sure if this is applicable to your organisation, please follow the link below to a webpage which resides under our new IP addresses. 

ipcheck.app.ciphr.com

If you can access this webpage it will look like the screenshot below:

If you cannot access this webpage (it will not look like the screenshot above), it is likely that your organisation does use IP filtering and your IT team will need to add the new IP addresses. 

After your IT team have added the new IP addresses, you should visit the above link again to check that you can access the webpage – this will confirm, that once moved, you will be able to access your system. 

Adding IP addresses to your Allow-list 

Add our new IP addresses listed below to your organisation Allow-list: 

• 51.142.208.215  
• 20.49.230.125  
• 20.77.97.221  
• 20.117.100.96
• 20.50.105.157 
• 20.50.104.5 
• 172.187.200.207
• 51.132.55.19
• 172.187.210.16
• 20.0.82.141
• 20.117.100.96

Note: Keep any previous IP addresses on your Allow-list. We will notify you when the old addresses can be safely removed. 

Integrations with 3rd Party Software

If you have any custom integration processes between your Ciphr HR system and external 3rd party systems, they may also need to add our new IP addresses to their own Allow-list for data transfers.
• Please contact those organisations to check and provide them with our new IP addresses if necessary.

Scheduled reports

If you use our report scheduler and have any scheduled reports due to run within your move window, these may not run. We advise you adjust the schedule of these reports to send before or after the move window, or manually run them.

If you need any help completing this action, please refer to the Report Scheduler help guide in Ciphr Academy.

Database back-ups

If you receive a regular back-up of your database, the format in which this will be produced will change from a “.bak” file to a “.bacpac” file. If you’re importing the back-up into another SQL server then please refer to guidance online on how to import a bacpac file into a SQL server.

No immediate post-move actions required

There are no specific actions that should be carried out following the move, systems will run as normal, and users can access it straight away the morning following the move. 

In the unlikely event that you experience any issues, raise tickets via the Customer Care Portal, selecting the 'Customer Care' request and ensuring the 'product requested' is ‘Azure Data Centre Support’. Alternatively, call 01628 814040 to speak to an analyst.

Considerations

Please be aware that from one week before the move there needs to be a freeze on configuration amendments to the following:

• Bespoke notifications
• System branding
• Integrations
• Onboarding configuration
• Active Directory Connector workflows

If you run Paylink within your HR system, we need to avoid moving your HR system during the Paylink run period.

• Contact your Customer Success Account Manager at Ciphr should the Paylink run coincide with the date of the move, so we can organise an alternative date for you.

There will be a change to how you access your hosted Ciphr Accord Payroll system after it has moved to Azure. Please see the article explaining the changes here.

FAQ

Please see our FAQs on moving the service we provide to Microsoft Azure here.