Migration service
Fixed-Price IIS & Classic ASP Migration for Small Business
Legacy IIS, classic ASP, ASP.NET and SQL Server websites moved to modern cloud hosting — quoted at a fixed price before work starts, tested by you before go-live, and handed over with documentation you own.
Fixed price
IIS Rescue migrations are fixed-price — you get the number before work starts.
Zero downtime
Every migration is zero-downtime: the new site is built and tested before go-live, then switched over.
No lock-in
No monthly retainer or maintenance contract is required.
Fixed-price, zero-downtime migration: classic ASP to modern cloud hosting for small business
Most quotes for this work come back as an hourly rate and an estimate, which is another way of saying the final number is your problem. IIS Rescue does not work that way. After a free scoping call and a look at what you actually have, you get one number, in writing, for the whole project — and that number does not move for anything within the agreed scope.
The other half of the promise is the cutover. Your existing site keeps running, untouched, for the entire project. The new environment is built alongside it at a private staging address. You review it, click through it, and sign off. Only then does traffic move, by DNS cutover with a final data sync — so visitors never see a gap, and the old server is only retired once the new site is verified in production.
One number, in writing
Fixed-price quote before any work begins. No hourly meters, no change-order surprises within scope.
You approve before go-live
Nothing goes live and no DNS changes happen until you have tested the new site and signed off.
No downtime
The existing site serves customers throughout. Cutover is a DNS switch with a final data sync.
No retainer
Project-based by design. Full documentation handover so any competent IT provider can take over.
Classic ASP migration services for small business
Classic ASP is the hardest case in this category, and it is the one most providers quietly decline. The language has not been actively developed since the early 2000s, the applications are usually undocumented, and the person who wrote the code has typically been gone for years. That is precisely the work IIS Rescue is built around.
There are three routes off a legacy IIS server. Which one fits depends on where the actual problem lives — the server, the code, or neither. The full migration guide covers the decision in depth.
Path 01
Rehost
Same site, safer home
The existing IIS site and SQL Server database move as-is onto managed cloud hosting — typically Azure App Service and Azure SQL Database — with no application code changes.
Best fit: the site does its job well and just needs to get off dying hardware or an out-of-support server.
Path 02
Rebuild
Same job, modern engine
The site is rebuilt on a current, supported stack — ASP.NET Core, or a JavaScript frontend with PostgreSQL — preserving the content, data and URLs that work.
Best fit: the site matters to the business but the code has become unmaintainable.
Path 03
Replace
A clean start, nothing lost
The legacy software stops running altogether — retired to a fast static site with no servers to patch, or swapped for a currently supported off-the-shelf product.
Best fit: content-only sites where the database and server were always overkill.
IIS classic ASP cloud migration
"Move it to the cloud" is the easy part of the sentence. The work is in everything the old server accumulated that nobody wrote down.
- //The IIS configuration itself. Bindings, application pools running under a particular identity, URL rewrite rules, MIME types added years ago to fix one file, certificates installed by hand. None of it is in source control — it is on the server, and it has to be found before it can be moved.
- //Classic ASP dependencies. COM components registered on the machine, 32-bit application pools, legacy database drivers, and file-system paths hard-coded into pages. These are the things that make an in-place OS upgrade stall, and they get identified during scoping rather than discovered at cutover.
- //The database. A 2012-era server usually has a SQL Server instance of similar vintage. The schema and data are migrated and validated — not just copied — and the application is tested against the new database before anything goes live.
- //Where it lands. Azure App Service with Azure SQL Database, Netlify with PostgreSQL, or static hosting with no server at all, depending on what the site actually needs. Hosting is billed to you directly by the provider, so there is no markup and no ongoing dependency.
If the trigger for all this is an end-of-support deadline, what Windows Server 2012 R2 end of life means for your website covers the dates and the risk in plain language.
Who this is for
IIS Rescue is a solo, project-based operation working with small and medium businesses — not an agency with account managers between you and the person doing the work. Three situations account for most projects:
"My host says my server is losing support"
Someone — a hosting provider, an IT consultant, an insurance renewal form — has told you the server is out of support and something needs to happen. You do not need a lecture on patch management. You need to know what it costs, how long it takes, and whether the site can stay as it is.
"The developer who built it is gone"
The site works, but nobody left in the business knows how. There may be no source code, no documentation, and no one to ask. This is common, and it is usually recoverable — the scoping call establishes what actually exists before any number is quoted.
"It still works, but I know it's a risk"
Nothing is on fire. The site runs, the orders come in, and the server has been humming along for a decade. You would simply rather deal with it as a planned project, at a known price, than as an emergency at three in the morning.
How it works
Three phases, seven steps. Your existing site keeps running, untouched, through all of them.
- 01ConsultationA free 30-minute conversation about the site, the server, and what you need.
- 02Fixed QuoteOne number for the whole project, in writing. That number doesn't move.
- 03Access & Data PullCredentials gathered, site and database copied. Your live site is never modified.
- 04Build & MigrateCloud environment stood up; site and data moved and wired together, in parallel with the live site.
- 05Check-InsShort, scheduled progress updates. You always know where things stand.
- 06Test & ReviewYou click through the staging site and sign off. Nothing goes live until you do.
- 07Zero-Downtime Go LiveDNS cutover with a final data sync. Visitors never see a gap. Documentation handed over.
What it costs
Every project is quoted at a fixed price after a free scoping call. There is no published rate card, and that is deliberate — a classic ASP site with an undocumented COM dependency and a rehost of a tidy ASP.NET application are not the same job, and pretending otherwise produces a number that has to be revised later.
What is fixed is how the pricing works:
- //One number, before work starts. The quote is the price. No hourly billing, and no change orders for anything within the agreed scope.
- //Scoping is free. The consultation and the quote cost nothing, and there is no obligation attached to either.
- //Hosting is yours, at cost. Ongoing cloud hosting is laid out separately and paid by you directly to the provider. No markup, no reselling, no dependency.
- //Rough ordering. Rehosts are typically the least expensive of the three paths since no application code changes. Rebuilds cost more in proportion to how much of the application has to be reconstructed. Replacements are usually the cheapest to run afterward, since there is no server or database left to pay for.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to migrate a classic ASP website?
Every project is quoted at a fixed price after a free scoping call and a look at the existing site, so you have the number before any work starts. The quote is the price — no hourly meters and no change-order surprises for anything within the agreed scope. Ongoing cloud hosting is billed separately and paid by you directly to the provider, so there is no markup and no dependency on IIS Rescue afterward.
Can you migrate my site without rewriting it?
Often, yes. That is a rehost: the existing IIS site and SQL Server database move as-is onto managed cloud hosting with no application code changes, so the site keeps the same pages, the same login screen, and the same behaviour. A rewrite is only recommended when the code itself is the liability rather than the server, and in that case you get both options priced before deciding.
Can I test the new site before switching over?
Yes, always. The new environment is built and populated in parallel with your existing site, at a private staging address, while the old site keeps running untouched. You click through it and sign off. Nothing goes live, and no DNS changes happen, until you approve it.
Do I need to migrate IIS and SQL Server at the same time?
Not necessarily, but it is usually simpler to. If the application and database are tightly coupled — most are — migrating them together avoids running a bridge configuration where a modernized app talks back to an aging on-premises database, which reintroduces the exact problems the migration is meant to fix. In some cases, particularly rehosts, it can make sense to stage the database first.
What if my original developer is gone?
This is one of the most common reasons people get in touch, and it is usually solvable. Depending on what still exists, the site can be recovered from the server itself, from hosting-provider backups, or reconstructed from the live site and its database. The scoping call establishes what access and source actually exist before any quote is given, so recovery work is priced honestly rather than discovered halfway through.
Is a monthly retainer required after the migration?
No. No monthly retainer or maintenance contract is required. IIS Rescue is project-based by design, and every project ends with a full documentation handover — hosting details, where credentials live, architecture notes, and how-to steps — so any competent IT provider can maintain the site afterward.
40 yrs
Microsoft infrastructure experience
Migration advice from someone who still does this for a living.
- //Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) — credentialed to teach other engineers this exact material, not just apply it.
- //Cloud Systems Engineer — manages enterprise Microsoft infrastructure as an actual day job, not only for client projects.
- //In IT since 1986 — has personally deployed, patched, and eventually retired the exact kind of servers being migrated here.
- //Solo, project-based — no account managers, no handoffs. The person who scopes the project is the one who runs it.
Get the number before you commit to anything.
Thirty minutes, free, no obligation — then a fixed written quote for the whole project.