Last week’s question focused on conveying applications. Specifically:

When it comes to cutting applications over to the new entity, what kinds of activities can the new entity do on its own, and what kinds would require collaboration when a TSA is in effect?

While this very much depends on the situation, the key for this week is coordination. Providing a thumb drive of your customer data will minimize the need for fancy TSAs let alone anything else, and can be fairly straightforward.

When it comes to migrating applications, some additional thought will be required. If you have just the code or images and it is a matter of installation, then we’re back in the nice and easy scenario where the work required is easily split between the two parties.

Where the coordination will be required is in the following scenarios:

  1. In a divestiture scenario, the app being conveyed will continue to be used by the parent company. Here, app and data updates will require coordination between both parties.

  2. In the case the app being migrated is user facing and exposed on the public Internet. Not only will the networking pieces require coordination, but so will the DNS entries (the name we see and enter in the address bar of our browsers). Think of ensuring that the bookmarks to Big Co.’s portal continue to work even though it was acquired by Acme Inc. Here the acquired company will be responsible for ensuring the temporary redirects are in place and the domain name is fully transferred to the acquiring company.

  3. When the data being conveyed is hosted by a third-party. You will not only be heavily dependent upon the acquired company’s resources for access, but also for mapping the data while you work with the vendor to facilitate the the data transfer.

This is just a drop in the bucket.

What do you think?

cab

PS: The reference to a light gun is a signaling device used in aviation in the event the pilot loses communication with the tower. The tower has a light gun that flashes 3 colors: red, white, green (the FAA uses only red/green). Depending on where the plane is, the light and light patterns will mean different things. This highlights the pre-established communication protocol between pilots and air traffic controllers.