Data Center Migration from CentricsIT

Data Center Migration

Is your company looking to go through the data center migration process? Any business that has gone through a data center migration knows it can be very complex and consumes significant time and resources. As a costly, high-risk IT project, the decision to plan and execute a data center move is not one to be taken lightly or made hastily.

Even if you’re moving a small number of servers down the road, there are logistics that need to be considered. In contrast, if you are moving across the country—the questions that need to be asked and answered before you get started can seem endless.

Downtime is a major risk of a data center migration, and it can be costly. With a well-executed data center, the move won’t impact operations and won’t cause significant downtime. Two key factors are preparation and experience—extensive planning can take months or years, and if your organization lacks personnel with the requisite experience to lay out a solid data center migration plan, you need to find a partner who can assist.

CentricsIT can help you plan and execute a move anywhere in the world while minimizing downtime or even keeping your data center operational the entire time. Our flexible data center migration plans enable you to seamlessly optimize and complete the transition in the manner that best suits your company’s needs, regardless of how large or small your move is.

53% of all companies expect to move or expand their data centers in the next five years. As much as a third of all companies have data centers that have not been moved or upgraded in seven years. - CIO.com

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About the Data Center Migration Plan

Traditional Options

Consult with an expert to determine the resources needed for the move
Schedule an outage window that will affect the least number of users
Take down, pack, migrate, and reassemble your entire data center, even in the middle of the night.

Asset Swap / Swing Gear Option:

Rent identical equipment to temporarily recreate your data center.
Migrate your data to swing gear and take down your data center.
Ship your equipment to the new location and rebuild.
Take back like assets and specify upgrade opportunities where applicable.

Data Center Migration: Our Process

Site Audits

After a thorough review, our experts will recommend which technologies need to be upgraded, decommissioned, or replaced. Once a plan has been devised, your power requirements will be assessed to ensure all the necessary cabling, racking mounting hardware, and additional items are in place.

Analysis

Our data center consulting team will work with you to evaluate your current environment, the new environment, and the logistics of the move.

Logistics

Our logistics team has extensive experience packing, shipping, and moving IT equipment. Because we troubleshoot equipment every day, we understand the issues that might arise during a move and have the technical expertise to address them and often times prevent them.

CentricsIT can help you plan and execute your data center migration. Our data center migration services are designed to turn this intricate process into a worry-free project for your team. Once a plan is in place, we will assess your power requirements and ensure that all the necessary cabling, rack mounting hardware, and additional items are available. Throughout the entire process, we will ensure that data center downtime is at a minimum so you can resume your business as expected.

READ HOW CENTRICSIT HELPED A SAAS ORGANIZATION TURN A COMPLICATED MIGRATION INTO A STREAMLINED SOLUTION.

Expert Tips for Data Center Migration

Taking on an IT project of this caliber without the necessary planning and resources can be catastrophic in terms of costs, data loss, security risks, and business downtime. Here are some tips on executing a smooth data center move from our migration expert, Patrick Keuller, Executive Vice President of Global Services.

1. Compile an Equipment Inventory List

The first step a company considering a data center migration should take is to perform a thorough site audit and review the equipment in the current infrastructure. Based on that data, you can identify the mission critical machines that might need to be moved first. After, a decision should be made around which machines should be upgraded, decommissioned, or replaced. Our data center experts recommend hiring experienced professionals who will audit your site in detail and make recommendations for the data that handling equipment contains.

2. Determine What Must Move and When

After compiling an equipment inventory list, the next step in the hardware migration process is to review all current contracts with hardware and software providers. It is important to consider the new location’s restrictions and possible compatibility issues. Additionally, it might be a good time to replace a vendor you haven’t had a great experience with or negotiate a better deal.

3. Select a Migration Method

After determining what equipment is relocating, decide whether or not it will all be moved at once. This method is also known as “Big Bang” or in phases. Executing the hardware migration in phases enables you to get parts of the data center back up and running before the entire system is moved, which can help to reduce downtime for your company.

4. Build an Internal Team or Hire an Expert

If you have the capabilities and experience to handle a data center migration in-house, group your employees into teams and assign a project manager to keep everyone on task. Consider assigning a person or team to perform the qualitative tasks that are part of the discovery process. A large portion of the planning revolves around consulting with users and employees to determine dependencies between databases and applications.

Even if your organization is equipped with the right talent and experience, these complex equipment migrations can take up too many internal resources. If the project calls for specialized help, choose a partner that has experienced different types of data center migrations and can assist with the entire project.

5. Document the Migration

It is extremely important to document the entire data center migration process due to the complexity of the project. You should place tags on all equipment and clearly identify what’s headed for migration.

If a piece of equipment is migrating, look up the warranty information and serial number to ensure that the warranty isn’t at risk for becoming void during the equipment migration. If you have service contracts, make sure to give notice to vendors and coordinate the migration. Some equipment may even require special licensing.

6. Test the Migration

After everything is installed in your new location, begin testing right away. Check the equipment in the new location against your inventory list to ensure that nothing was misplaced along the migration. Finally, test all systems and applications to ensure that they are running correctly.

Biggest Takeaway—start with a strong plan and document every step along the way.

“It’s always nice to get more than what you want AND save money!

“We discussed with our CentricsIT rep exactly what we needed, and they came back to us with more than we initially were looking at buying and saved us over 60%. We were amazed!”– IT Manager, Large Southeast Manufacturing Company

“CentricsIT stood out immediately because of their pricing. They blew the other companies out of the water. Furthermore, their customer service and attention to detail was fantastic. Our rep is available to us 24/7. You could even say that he’s an extension of our IT team.”

IT Director, Global Company in Software Vertical

“Price was definitely the biggest factor, but I have to say that I am always impressed with how quickly I get a response when requesting a quote from CentricsIT. With CentricsIT, I usually get a quote back within 30 minutes or at the very least, by end of business day. That’s a great way to do business.”

Enterprise Network Engineer, Global Company in Healthcare Industry