Data Center Migration Tips for Success

With many growing businesses, your data center needs will at some point need to grow with your information and business capacity. Servers will need to be upgraded, whether due to size constraints or age. If this occurs, the migration process becomes a very serious factor in upgrading your data center. How can you get your information from Point A to Point B without loss and security issues? This process must be carried out seamlessly with minimal downtime and hopefully with cost savings moving forward.

Here are some tips to help your business or organization improve the bottom line, while improving efficiency during a secure data center migration.

Recognize the Scope of Work

Fully understanding the scope of work from the beginning of a data center migration can reduce expenses and keep the project within the estimated timeframe. Have a complete inventory of all needs and create a detailed execution plan for the actual data center migration including services and applications, not just physical equipment.

Consider Stability

Is your data center near “kicking the bucket”. This can be a major concern during a migration as some information can be lost during migration if some physical servers are not supported. Be sure to consider temperature during transport as well.

Prioritize Data

Review all stored data and determine how critical each portion of data is to the functionality of the business. Critical data will need to be given more attention as well as up and functioning quicker than other unneeded data.

Understand Downtime During the Migration

Yes there is likely to be downtime during this transition. If you understand the scope of the project, you can determine the likely downtime total and work with other team members and alert employees to this downtime to create minimal disruption to daily workings.

Test Your Plan

All great plans have been tested. Use “dummy” information to test your migration plan ahead of time to ensure that the plan in feasible, efficient and minimizes the potential for lost data.

Have An Uptime Plan

Many machines in a data center are interlinked and depend on one another to function. If one machine is brought live before one that it is dependent on to work this can cause a major disruption and hurt the migration process.

Work with Professionals

Although your internal team may be experts, it is always good to bring in outside experience during any type of migration for a 3rd party perspective and assistance during this critical process.

DCS Data Centers is headquartered in Annapolis Maryland, with presence in California, Florida and Utah. Our purpose is to assist clients with the planning, design, building and maintaining of critical facilities, mainly data centers. All data centers present their own unique set of challenges. DCS has years of experience in the marketplace and is exceptionally qualified to provide these construction services.