Relocating a data center can be a complex and challenging process. Avoiding common mistakes is crucial to ensuring a smooth transition. Here are eight key mistakes to avoid, along with steps to help you prevent them:
- Infrastructure Assessment is Incomplete: Before moving your data center, conduct a thorough assessment of your current infrastructure. Know the number of physical and virtual workloads, as well as the storage requirements. This will help you accurately calculate new infrastructure purchases and costs.
- Lack of a Dedicated Project Manager: Assigning a dedicated data center migration project manager is essential. This person will oversee the move, make important decisions, and communicate with the staff. Having a single point of contact avoids confusion and prevents costly downtime.
- Ignoring Dependencies: Recognize all dependencies within your data center. This includes power supplies, databases, and applications that rely on each other. Mapping out these dependencies will help you plan a successful relocation without disrupting critical services.
- Absence of a Step-by-Step Procedure: Create a detailed procedure for every step of the data center move. Don’t assume anything or skip critical steps. Clearly define success criteria for each step and ensure both the staff and project manager sign off on completion. This will ensure a thorough and successful relocation.
- Underestimating Time Requirement: It’s common to underestimate the time required for a data center migration. To avoid delays, plan for unexpected issues by building extra time into your estimates. It’s better to have extra time than to rush the process and risk errors.
- Lack of a Test Plan: Implement a comprehensive test plan to validate the success of each step. Clearly define criteria for success and assign responsibility for approving each test. A well-executed test plan ensures accountability and confidence when the new data center goes live.
- No Plan to Back Out: Acknowledge the possibility of canceling or delaying the data center move. Include a back-out plan in your procedure to mitigate risks. Clearly outline the triggers for activating the back-out plan and designate the responsible person.
- Inadequate Server Rack Sizing: With increasing server densities, ensure that your new data center has racks that can accommodate them. Consider ceiling height, floor strength, power density, and cooling capacity. Failing to account for these factors may result in inefficient use of resources and unnecessary expenses.
By avoiding these common mistakes, you can streamline your data center relocation process and minimize disruptions. Proper planning and attention to detail are key to a successful transition. Data Slayer has decades of experience you can count on with your data center relocation.
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