We are all very excited by the release of LinkTrust 6.0.  There are so many new and exciting features that the new version is significantly different from the LinkTrust 5.X platform.  With that in mind, we have be working to ensure the transition from 5.X to 6.0 is as smooth as possible for all our partners.  This document describes the steps involved in migrating as well as the different migration paths available.  There are several migration plans available so you can choose the one that works best for your business.  We have tried to make this document as clear as possible; however, it is a rather complex topic.  Therefore we will be contacting each partner individually to discuss the options and ensure everyone is comfortable with their individual upgrade plan.

So, how do you get started?

1.  We will begin contacting each Standard License partner Monday, Oct 13th to discuss their 6.0 plans and schedule a demo/training of 6.0 to walk through some of the new features and interface changes.

2. We will be discussing differences that should be considered prior to moving Live traffic from 5.X to 6.0. ie: Time Zone Selection, Affiliate Center Signups and Customizations, Security and Configuration Options and more.

3. We will request to know your desired migration method (See Below).

4. Your 6.0 account will be created.

5. We act upon your desired migration plan by copying information and settings from your 5.X to your 6.0 account.

6. We will switch traffic to your 6.0 account only upon your written authorization or according to a preauthorized date by you.

About Deploying the 6.0 Upgrade:
LinkTrust 6 is being deployed in a side-by-side model.  This means that it will run alongside or in tandem with our current version in its own isolated environment.  We’ve chosen to introduce a number of hardware upgrades at this time; so, LinkTrust 6 will be running on a new web farm.  See the Burstabit tech blog http://techblog.burstabit.com for more details on what this consists of.

We chose to do a side by side deployment for several reasons.  First, it allows us to upgrade each partner individually.  By doing so, we are able to focus our support and training resources and give each company their own individual attention.  We believe this will allow us to provide a better level of individualized support than if we upgraded everyone at once. 

Secondly, LinkTrust 6 will be running on a new version of the .NET Framework.  While technically we can run the prior version of LinkTrust on this newer version, we felt upgrading our existing web servers may cause unintended and unknown impacts.  To play it safe, we are leaving the current 5.X version running on the current version of the .NET Framework that it was originally designed for.

Thirdly, this side by side deployment gives us a fallback plan.  While great lengths have been taken to ensure LinkTrust 6 is as reliable and as bug free as possible, prudence requires we plan for all contingencies.  If there are problems, they will affect fewer customers at once and we will have more options with this deployment model.

Migration Steps:
The first step in moving to 6.0 is activating your 6.0 account.  Bret Grow will be coordinating this step for each partner.  It consists of setting up users for your 6.0 account.  We can either migrate all your existing users or set up just a few to start with.  At this point you will have the ability to log into your 6.0 Partner and Affiliate Centers.

The Affiliate Center will be accessible via YourCompanyName.Affiliate-Tracking.com.  We will of course continue to support complete white labeling and custom domains, but this will give you the ability to access your 6.0 Affiliate Center prior to moving your live affiliate access to it.  In this way you can set up your Affiliate Center prior to any affiliates actually seeing it.  We are offering a number of new customization options with the 6.0 release which will be shown to you by Bret.

Your 6.0 tracking link also be available through a similar domain, YourCompanyName.XXX.XXX.  This will allow you to try out the new inbound features without interfering with your current production traffic.  We want everyone to have the opportunity to play with and become comfortable with 6.0 before they are depending on it for their day to day operations if they wish to do so.

Once you are ready to put production traffic through 6.0, you then have a decision to make.  We will be supporting three different migration options.  The first option is to run traffic through both 5.X and 6.0 at the same time and gradually move over.  The second is to do a complete switch over from 5.X to 6.0 all at once.  The third option is a hybrid between the two.

OPTION 1 (Side-by-side Migration, Least Desirable):
In the first scenario, we will set up a second tracking domain for production traffic.  You can gradually move offers over to use this new domain.  We can copy your 5.X campaign settings and affiliate accounts at any time into 6.0 for you.  The advantage with this approach is that the transition will be gradual.  We are offering this option because it may be more comfortable for some partners.  In this case you would have two Partner Centers, two Affiliate Centers, etc.  That means you would have to keep affiliate information and campaign information in each and potentially make changes in both. That is the biggest con to going with this approach.  You would also need to provide us with a second set of domains though you can use the YourCompanyName.affiliate-tracking.com domain if you desire.   We feel there are some partners who may be willing to deal with these inconveniences to have the gradual switchover option so we are offering it.  At any point in time you can decide to finalize the switch and move completely to 6.0.

OPTION 2 (Instant Migration):
The second option involves us copying all your campaign,  affiliate and merchant accounts over and then pointing your IP address to our new 6.0 web farm at a coordinated time.  Once that occurs all your existing URLs and traffic will be going into 6.0.  Your existing tracking links, Affiliate Center domains etc would then instantly be switched over to 6.0.

You may have noticed we haven’t mentioned anything about stats and transaction details.  In analyzing things we realized the way stats and transactions are stored internally in 6.0 is fundamentally different than the way things were done in 5.X.  This is due to the new tracking and reporting functionality such as creative reporting and custom time zones.  We can’t move stats and transactional information into 6.0 from 5.X with a high degree of accuracy.  Therefore we decided the best course of action is to allow access to all pre-6.0 stats and data through the 5.X Partner Center.  You will be able to log into it for all reporting on pre 6.0 stats.  In the case of affiliates getting their stats, there is a new reporting page in the Affiliate Center to allow them to see their older stats.  It will not offer all the new 6.0 functionality but will allow them to see their historical stats without logging into two separate Affiliate Centers.  We felt this is important to make the impact less on affiliates.  The number of reports in the Partner Center however precludes us from having historical reporting in the new Partner Center, you will have to log into each separately. 

We realize the result of this is that most partners who choose the second option will want to do it at either the beginning or end of a month or exactly in the middle so as to make their need to look at and work with historical stats less inconvenient.  We will be scheduling those who desire this migration option to fit their schedules.

OPTION 3 (Hybrid Migration):
The third option is a sort of hybrid between in the two.  In it we provide you with a side by side inbound.  That is you will have a new tracking url and domain for 6.0 traffic while your 5.X domain continues to function like in option 1.  The difference is that we will move your Affiliate Center entirely to 6.0.  This means all your affiliates will be seeing the 6.0 Affiliate Center.  All new sign ups etc will occur in 6.0.  Affiliates will be able to access stats for their traffic that comes through the old tracking URLs through the historical reporting page in the Affiliate Center.  You will need to log into both the 5.X and 6.0 Partner Centers to see all your stats.  Hopefully traffic will be moved from the 5.X domain to the 6.0 domain fairly quickly.  The advantage of this approach is it gives you the benefit of a gradual migration without all the cons of option 1 as you will only have one Affiliate Center.  All affiliate information will be maintained in 6.0 only and all new affiliates will only be on 6.0.

Regardless of which option you choose, we will copy any campaign and affiliate information from 5.X to 6.0 whenever you desire.  Recommended migration dates should be the 15^th or last day of the month.

The first phase of upgrading to 6.0 is reserved for Standard License partners only who do not require API access.  API access partners and Corporate License partners will have the opportunity to migrate to 6.0 afterward.

If you have any question, please feel free to contact:  bret@burstabit.com