PHP hosting outage? Plan your move.
If the PHP2Shell disruption has left your business questioning its hosting, Intercube can help you move. Our engineers prepare the new environment, test the application with your team and handle the agreed transfer and cutover. Migration to Intercube managed hosting is included at no additional cost.
- Author
- Intercube
- Published
- Reading time
- 6 min read
01
What the PHP2Shell outage means for your business
On 22 October, Tweakers reported that websites at Yourhosting-owned hosting brands were still offline following precautions around PHP2Shell. In its 11:52 CEST update that day, Yourhosting said most servers had been patched and it was restoring remaining websites in stages.
Patch availability also depends on the hosting platform. CloudLinux’s package timeline records releases arriving in stages across its PHP packages. An upstream PHP release and a package ready for a particular platform are different milestones. That context matters when comparing responses.
For an affected business, the immediate priorities are access to current data, a credible recovery route and communication with customers. An outage can also prompt a longer-term decision: who should maintain the runtime and help keep the application available when the next urgent update arrives?
02
Intercube patched every server in 20 minutes
Intercube patched every server within 20 minutes of the PHP2Shell security patch becoming available on 21 October. Applications stayed online throughout our response, from the initial precautions before the release through the completed patch rollout. Customers continued using their applications while our engineers handled the runtime work.
Our PHP2Shell response describes that completed work. It illustrates the responsibility we take on with managed hosting: engineers maintain the runtime and services behind the application, investigate infrastructure issues and work with developers when an update needs compatibility testing.
If your current arrangement leaves urgent PHP maintenance with your developers, or repeated disruption is costing orders and enquiries, that is a concrete reason to consider Intercube. The move should give your team a maintained production environment and engineers who understand it.
03
Secure the data before changing hosting
Start with the latest database, application files and uploads, plus access to the repository, domain and DNS. Record the age of each backup and which orders, registrations or content changes have happened since. A working copy of yesterday’s website can still be missing today’s business.
If the old platform is unavailable, ask the provider for the latest export and the recovery status while we prepare the target environment. Agree which data is authoritative before transferring traffic. Keep the existing hosting available for verification and fallback rather than cancelling it as soon as the move begins.
Where there are signs of compromise, preserve logs and establish what needs cleaning before copying the application. Restoring availability and checking the integrity of the site belong in the same migration plan.
- Obtain current database and file exports, with their backup times.
- Confirm domain, DNS, repository and external-service access.
- Identify recent transactions that must survive the transfer.
- Keep a named contact at the existing host until cutover is complete.
04
Test the new environment before moving visitors
Intercube engineers prepare the target PHP runtime, database and application services. A separate preview or staging environment lets your developers test the application before production traffic moves. For Magento, that means checkout, payment integrations, search, queues and scheduled jobs; for WordPress, forms, uploads, plugins and administrative workflows matter alongside the homepage.
Use test payment credentials and controlled email delivery during the rehearsal. Review environment variables, access and external callbacks, then agree the final data sync, any pause in writes, DNS change and acceptance checks. Preserve existing URLs and necessary redirects so the hosting move also protects your search presence.
Our migration acceptance checklist gives your team a shared record of those checks and their owners. If email stays with the existing provider, retain its DNS records. After cutover, check live transactions, logs and background work before retiring the old environment.
05
Move the maintenance responsibility with the site
Migration to Intercube managed hosting is included at no additional cost. We agree the transfer, verification and cutover during onboarding, with engineers preparing the environment around your application and its dependencies.
Your team also gets deployment pipelines included in the managed hosting plan. That removes the need to set up a separate GitHub Actions deployment workflow or pay a separate CI runner bill for that pipeline. Preview environments provide a place to test future changes, and engineering support connects your developers with people who understand the infrastructure and release route.
The service continues after the transfer: our engineers operate the managed runtime and services, while your team owns the application and releases. We agree the support SLA around the business and its operating hours. Share the application, current hosting situation and latest available backup, and we can plan the move with you.
Prepare your move
- Secure current data and account access before changing DNS.
- Agree how recent orders and other writes will reach the new environment.
- Test checkout, forms and background jobs in a separate environment.
- Keep the previous host available until acceptance and fallback checks are complete.
- Move into a service where engineers own runtime maintenance and infrastructure operations.
- Migration to Intercube managed hosting is included at no additional cost.