6 Things to consider before relocating your data center
The company’s most crucially significant stunt is relocating his data center from one location to another. The mission is not only to save information in data centers but also the investment of money, plenty of hours, planning & paperwork during relocation. It is so sensitive to proceed with such a task that sometimes It may end up not only costing your company millions but also offline of the datacenter for days, weeks, or months. But at the end of the day performing relocation has to be done, as it is a part of a huge success level for the company.
For smoother and successful relocation move company must keep an eye on every little detail such as on-time performance of tasks, scheduling of delivery transportation also do confirm thousand times that all people have knowledge and understanding of the on-going project. And lastly, recheck safety threats again and again. Not failing in DCR task and ensure to perform relocation successfully, see below 5 key features.
1. Things to consider before relocating your data center
- Define the scope of relocation in the planning process
- Choose experience partner that can help you with your data center relocation
- Choose the right location and right DCR partner
- Reliable power system
- Proper transportation will forbid from future damage
- The top-class infrastructure of IT and designs of data center
- People included in the DCR process must be highly educated, experts and experienced
- The facility of disaster recovery to handle worst-case scenario failures
- The new data center should meet factors of compliance
- Successful execution steps with setting equipment’s and testing functionality
- Insurance includes damage insurance, insurance of professional liability, and data recovery insurance.
Essential Prerequisites
Important prerequisites include delay of the delivery truck, pre-approval access of our vendors, less space, power failures, ignoring environmental factors like excessive heat or cold, and software and hardware requirements.
Check Environment, hardware, and software
Hardware support vendor with parts on-site
Space & ventilation for racking server
Adequate power exist and tested
Power at destination work properly and connect properly
Network connectivity is available
Software and hardware support to all equipment’s
Spare media for a worst-case scenario
Either you or vender should know cabling task
Equipment order, which moves first and last
Area of packaging and un-packaging
Availability of forklift and operator
Truck parking distance from the destination
Space of equipment’s in the lift
Requirements for moving equipment to the loading truck
Availability of loading dock. Sufficient height for moving equipment
2. Assign data center relocation task to worthy project manager
Assign a Project Manager (PM) who is experienced and had performed this task several times before. That person must be familiar with DCR risks and handling. He must know the proper usage of resources and can guide the team under him clearly and knowledgeably. Otherwise, the risk of failure is high stake money, losing valuable data and destruction of expensive equipment.
Many people already have experienced PM in their company, but sometimes the DCR project is not within the premises of company for that we need someone with more outdoor experiences, ask your DCR partner if he can provide some men with appropriate skillset.
3. Plan perfectly
For 100 percent success of DCR planning is very necessary. And for planning the company must have proper documentation before moving to the final step, all essential information should be inside those documents and approved by two teams; management and technical team.
It is estimated that the worldwide amount spent on relocating data centers is 208 billion U.S. dollars in the year 2020. The data center is filled with critical and essential data and in need of good quality DCR documents.
Those documents are:
The present method of Operation (PMO)
It has the detail of everything in the present environment as storage, backup strategy plans, location of users, service level agreements. It is our starting point for the DCR project.
The desired future state (DFS)
It has outcomes conditions after the successful relocation of the data center.
The design plan
The first two documents were part of the requirement gathering process. After this design phase begins, comprises of latest hardware and software requirements, timelines, communication plan to execute, and client changes on design.
The implementation plan
It has a proper move plan which documents hourly details of all events during the relocation of data centers. It also has an updated project schedule along with dates, steps, and responsible people for the accomplishment of the task.
4. DCR depends on logistics
Successful DCR depends on logistics so hiring experience people either from your internal team or your vendor’s team will be a good decision. We need a team of right skills at the right time, at the right place with the right equipment, a team that can successfully complete the project one-handedly. Basically, we require the packing team, transportation team, unpacking team and re-installation team. We also require technicians on the side who can help the DCR team. And everyone knows for every one minute what action to do.
5. Resources
Resources are key for the victory of the DCR project, correct resources are very important for the successful execution. Also, not all resources are fit for every DCR project, quite a few times you need customized resources, remember every DCR move is different and you need to wide open your eyes and brain before making a move.
6. Support of upper management
DCR team should be backed up by the management support. Their support will boost and remove hurdles of the project, as we all are well aware by costing of DCR projects hence management support will come in very handy.
