Relocating your data center is a major undertaking that presents many possible complications as well as large expenses. The single most important thing that you can do to make the relocation of your data center go smoothly is to prepare extensively. Extensive and detailed planning are essential for data center relocation success.
Method of Data Center Relocation
Relocating your data center presents multiple challenges. The move can be financially costly as well as risky. The down time involved can have a serious negative impact on the operation of the company, so streamlining the project is essential. Some of the aspects of preparation for a data center move are obvious – you have to schedule application down time, schedule technology refreshes, and label all of the equipment. In addition, the following components of preparation are key to the success of your relocation.
- Outline a detailed methodology for your data center relocation and stick with it. This plan should state clearly and in detail all of the steps that need to occur before, during, and after the data center relocation.
- A data center relocation needs strong support from the management in order to be successful. The IT team needs corporate backing in order to overcome financial and operational challenges.
- Filling your team with the right people is essential for a successful data center relocation. In order for the move to go smoothly, you need an experienced data center manager and a strong supporting team. You also need to connect key players in the move, including vendors, infrastructure teams, application owners, and end users.
Application Planning for Data Center Relocation
The actual, physical move of the data center involves many important details, like the actual hardware, the cabling, and the floor and rack design of the new facility. It can be easy to get caught up in these elements and forget about the application side of the relocation. In order for the data center relocation to have minimal impact on users, you must first examine how the move will impact applications that are in use and how they rely on their environment.
In terms of application planning for your data center relocation, there are two key points to consider.
- Devote plenty of time for planning to discover applications and their environments. You should employ both quantitative and qualitative work. Quantitative work involves using third-party tools for discovery, while qualitative work involves speaking directly to end users and application owners. These strategies will allow you to discover how dependent the system is on applications and their environments.
- Identify interdependent elements and bundle them. In your planning process, you will find that applications, databases, and infrastructure elements are interdependent. Usually, the move will go most smoothly if you bundle these elements together. We suggest using a bundling algorithm in order to track the individual elements and schedule them together.
Choosing a Migration Method
There are various methods to choose from when it comes to migrating your data and applications to the new data center facility. The options include virtual migration, which is the least disruptive; pick up and ship, which is the most disruptive; shut down and restore, which is best suited to physical servers with longer windows of down time; and application failover, which is used as an adjunct to another method.
Do you need help streamlining your data center relocation? Talk to the experts at SEGI Sales Pros. We provide all of the network cabling solutions that you need in order to make your data center relocation a success. Call the experts at SEGI Sales Pros for more information today.