When it comes to relocating a data center, the most important steps take place before a single piece of equipment is moved or byte of data transferred. The key to success is careful, thorough, and strategic planning. With a solid data center migration plan in place—one that includes detailed consideration of the physical infrastructure, IT infrastructure, budget, project management, and follow-up guidelines—the process has exponentially greater chances of flowing smoothly and avoiding costly business disruptions.
Data center relocation checklist
Data center relocations involve physically moving data center equipment to a new location. That can mean fully relocating to a new physical address or shifting areas within a building. Along with evaluating your budget and existing assets, you will need to evaluate the future location’s immediate and long-term fit for size, spacing, power load capabilities, and safety features like ventilation and temperature control. Consider this checklist of data center migration best practices to kick off your relocation process:
- Outline the overall data center relocation project goals and objectives
- Determine the priority elements of your move: these should be the most manageable and bring immediate value
- Create a project plan that includes an assigned project manager, key dates and status evaluation benchmarks for each step, and a back-out plan
- Identify prerequisites: these should include software and hardware needs as well as power, temperature, and cabling at the destination site
- Develop a detailed hardware move checklist
- Assign relocation tasks and set a project end-date
- Execute and test backups
- Coordinate proper shutdown and de-installation, shipping preparation, and re-installation
- Establish a plan for post-migration testing and management
The physical aspect of data center migration planning requires special consideration. It may be most cost-effective and time-saving to partner with skilled and experienced data center relocation specialists, gaining access to expertise as well as reliable services that ensure the business is supported throughout the process.
Data center relocation project plan template
Once you’ve crafted your project plan and assigned key roles, it’s time to create a shared planning document to maintain visibility and accountability. Your teams may have a preferred software or shared document system in place, and anything from Excel to Google Docs can be used to craft an effective data center relocation project plan template.
This data center relocation project plan template sample demonstrates a basic outline that can be followed and tailored to your needs:
Regardless of the format chosen, ensure that task owners, task details, time estimates, and deadlines are included to create a robust tracking document that will achieve the goal of keeping your data center relocation on time and on budget.