“Friday night is often the kick-off for a data centre move. Everything is backed up, turned off, unplugged, and then carefully relocated, ready for methodical set up and testing over the weekend. By Sunday night, it’s all turned back on again ready for business as usual Monday,” explains Rod.
However, it’s what goes on before the move that is critical to success. “It might seem simple enough to just unplug everything, load a truck and drive down the road, but it just doesn’t happen like that,” says Rod. “The detail is in the planning.”
In physical terms, a data centre move involves the relocation of cabinets together with hundreds and thousands of cables that must be traced, tagged, then disconnected and carefully reconnected. Critical to the success of the moving process is the detailed planning and evaluation that takes place in advance.
Understanding and communication between all stakeholders is equally important. Customers concerns around business disruption, data integrity and data theft must be addressed and detailed within the plan. Furthermore, a move presents an opportunity to audit the current infrastructure and find opportunities for efficiency. “Understanding how to manage a move – swiftly, safely, efficiently and with minimal disruption – takes an experienced team and a well-considered plan“. Rod adds.
Alliance SI prides itself on their longstanding reputation and extensive project management skills. Having completed thousands of data centre relocations over their 40 years of operation, they have developed a rigorous process and a meticulous approach to planning.
“The actual move is the tip of the iceberg,” Rod explains. “Understanding why the customer is moving, and what benefits could be delivered to their business, is essential to the planning process. Migration to the cloud; changing network topology; managing a distributed workforce – these are the factors which overlay the physical relocation.”
With workplaces changing as a result of COVID-19 – especially the increased number of people working from home – there has been a dramatic rise in the number of businesses seeking the security and controlled environment that is offered by a data centre.
While not all data centres are created equal, the best of them will give companies access to infrastructure they wouldn’t otherwise have such as a Tier 4 rating (the highest level of availability available), 24/7 security and support, as well as facility management such as remote hands capability.
Reach out to Alliance SI to learn how we can support seamless data centre relocation for your business.