Data Center Migration Project Plan: A Complete Guide

So, you want to migrate your data center. You may be asking yourself: “how important is thorough planning, anyways?”

Data center migration is the process of deploying and transferring existing data center assets to another location Learn how to migrate with these easy steps.

What is Data Center Migration?
A data center migration is the transfer of certain assets from one data center location to another. It’s also known as a data center relocation. Data Center Migration

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Continue reading for the data center migration project plan checklist, steps, and guide needed for a successful migration.

There are a variety of reasons why an organization might need to relocate a data center, including corporate growth, company merger, legal demands, or simply changing offices or moving to the cloud.

If you ask companies like Samsung and AT&T that lost literal billions as a result of easily preventable data center mistakes, the answer is “very.”

Even if nothing goes wrong, many data center projects also run behind schedule.

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After all, it’s no small feat to move 350 tons of equipment. The Titan project took 40 people months and that was just for the decommissioning project.

Thankfully, we’ve been around the block a few times to help you avoid some of the problems we’ve seen. In this article we’ll discuss the discovery, decommissioning, and migration process, principles, and steps to follow when formulating your project plan.

The Data Center Big Picture:

The fact of the matter is, every data center project is going to be different, and so will require a different plan. You may have to migrate half and decommission the rest of the servers. You may need several subcontractors to handle the scale of material. For this reason, this article will not attempt to give you a catch-all project plan, but will instead provide guiding questions and a general framework for building your own data center migration project plan.

Generally, there are a few phases involved:

Executive-level project initiation
Network discovery and assessment
Data center decom planning
Data center migration planning
Finalized master plan and day of implementation checklist

We will go through each phase in sequence and at the end of the article, we will provide a template and sample checklist for your project plan.

Executive Level Project Initiation:

Obviously, the decision to migrate a data center has to come from on high at stakeholder level before it’s handed down to the applicable service manager or project manager.

Everybody knows that buy-in is critical, but in terms of the tangibles:

One of the most common problems with a data center migration is a disconnect between stakeholder expectations and how a migration progresses.

To avoid this, getting a third-party estimate for total costs and timetables early on can be invaluable. Additionally, discussing common points of tension to manage expectations can help avoid a lose-lose situation. The last thing anybody wants is to start a gargantuan project that gets canceled halfway.

How Do I Know My Data Center Migration Strategy Is Going to Be Successful?

If you want to ensure success, a solid data center migration checklist is an essential part of your strategy. The more comprehensive and well-thought your plan is, you will reduce the likelihood of any gaps that could run your project off course.

Before your migration day, test all the parts of your plan and look for any areas where potential problems could occur, and be sure to give those parts of the checklist extra attention on the day off to reduce any additional downtime.