Website Hosting Migration Project
Project Overview
The Web Support Team is leading a project to move our website hosting from the current on-premise solution to a cloud-hosted service. This will apply to all websites and content published via the Web CMS to the subdomain https://www.qub.ac.uk. This also includes any websites published from the Web CMS to bespoke domain names.
The new cloud hosting service will be provided by Terminalfour, with delivery anticipated in March 2026.
There will be no change to how users log in to or use the Web CMS as part of this migration. This project will align the hosting of the Web CMS and published websites in the cloud. The diagram and information below will outline how this change will work.
At present, our websites use a mix of cloud services and on-campus servers. When content is published in the Web CMS, it is first processed in the cloud and then transferred at intervals to QUB-managed servers, where it becomes visible on https://www.qub.ac.uk.
Under the new cloud hosting arrangement, this extra transfer step will no longer be needed. Once content is published in the Web CMS, it will be delivered directly from cloud infrastructure and made available on https://www.qub.ac.uk.
From a user perspective, there will be no visible change to how our websites look or how they are accessed. The web address will remain the same only the behind-the-scenes hosting location will change.
Impact of the Change
There are a few things that staff will need to be aware of in relation to this change. They are as follows:
Websites Outside the Web CMS
Any websites or content not published via the Web CMS but currently hosted under the https://www.qub.ac.uk subdomain will not be accessible following the switchover.
We are already working with colleagues across the University as part of the planning and preparation phase to identify websites and resources that may be affected.
If you have not yet been contacted, or if you have any queries about a website or resource hosted under https://www.qub.ac.uk, please contact the Web Support Team via the IT Service Desk.
Planned Downtime
To accommodate the move to cloud hosting, we may require a short period of downtime on the day of migration. The migration will take place in March 2026, and we will work with Terminalfour in the months beforehand to agree a confirmed date.
Once a date for the migration has been agreed, the Web Support Team will provide as much advance notice as possible via email, the Status of Key Services webpage, the Web CMS Welcome Screen, and other communication channels available to us.
Project Benefits
There are a number of benefits that will be realised either as part of the migration project or in the period after. Some of those benefits are as follows:
Access to Additional System Features
Moving to cloud website hosting will mean that we can avail of some additional system features such as CDN/PXL. This feature will improve the delivery of our media assets in two ways:
- Content Delivery Network (CDN): Globally distributed CDN servers will improve latency and ensure assets will be served from a location close to website visitors, improving the speed of our website.
- Image Optimisation (PXL): With PXL we will be able to improve the optimisation of images for delivery across devices. A single image can be output in multiple dimensions and file formats and compression applied.
Faster Publishing Model
The move to cloud website hosting will streamline the publish process and mean that content is live quicker. Once a Channel Publish has completed, the updated content will be synced to the live website, so there will be no delay waiting on scheduled transfers to happen.
Sanitising and Servicing Redirects
Over the years there has been a large number of redirects collated. The Web Support Team have been reviewing and refining this long list and we have managed to reduce this number by around 70%. We will also be in a position after the migration project to maintain the life-cycle of new and existing redirects within the Web CMS.
Support and Queries
If you have any questions about the Website Hosting Migration Project, please log a call via the IT Service Desk and a member of the team will get back to you.