Relocating Your Data Center Without Losing Your Hair

If you thought relocating your entire life to a new place was stress-inducing and a pain, think about the effort that will go into relocating a data center. Relocating a data center means moving the data center from its prime point of control to a new place and it should be done without any downtime. This is an important factor as losing essential data can single-handedly bring down your business, not to mention you reputation, along with it.

Most people plan on relocating because of the need to upgrade their infrastructure. Other reasons include lacking sufficient power upgrades, out-of-date cooling systems which just cannot be replaced. Lack of space also becomes an issue when you have a growing business but there isn’t enough space to accommodate the required equipments.

Finally after deciding to relocate your data center (investing in necessary resources included), you should make sure that the plan is implemented perfectly. This is absolutely crucial because you don’t want your precious data to vanish into thin air during the move. Here are some simple but effective steps to help you with the move and guarantee data security and not to mention peace of mind.

• Be a Nosy Rosy–What I am implying here is ask questions and a lot of them. Questions like,
  • Will the budget cover the move?
  • What about the cooling and power requirements, convenience of the location etc?

These will help you find out important clues about the entire plan. They will also bring forward glitches which if left alone could turn disastrous in the long run.

• Select the Site– After answering all your initial questions, start hunting for sites. Relocating depends on what suits you the best. You could be building yourself a bigger and better data center or you could just be moving in an already built one; but whatever may be your requirements, consider doing a thorough analysis of the site you are going to be moving in.
  • The analysis should be based on geography, which means flood prone, earthquake prone and basically any natural disaster prone region should not be considered for obvious reasons. Your preferred site should be on high ground and protected.
  • Communication is another important aspect. The place should be so well rigged up that even if Spock wants to communicate with your data center, he should not have a problem. Lastly, choose a place with abundance of power from multiple sources of electricity, taking advantage of low cost providers.

•  Inventory–Yes, it is exhaustive, but it is crucial. This analysis of all your equipment will help you do a smooth transition once you have relocated. Make sure you include all physical, logical and other aspects under consideration which will help you keep track of your resources and assets.

• Plan Smartly– As they say, behind every successful business or work, there is an exhaustive but effective plan which is carefully implemented. A successful plan involves keeping a target for all your data applications. This will take care of the verifications of those applications once the move is complete.

• Find Out Your Downtime– Calculating the estimated downtime as to when the data center will be offline and when it can come back online after the move is very important. These will ensure the continuity of the business once the move takes place.

During such a time make sure that all the critical applications are protected from useless cables and power sources. It is advisable because even if someone disconnects the wrong wire, your running applications won’t be affected.

Data Center Talk updates its resources everyday. Visit us to know of the latest technology and standards from the data center world.

Please leave your views and comments on DCT Forum.