Most project managers tasked with their first data center relocation begin a search for a data center move checklist to get them started. Some even hope to find a completed work breakdown structure (WBS) that they can customize. A data center move, however, is unlike most projects you’ll encounter and consists of more than the mechanics of shutting down servers and moving them to another location.

You might be surprised to learn that you’ll need more that a checklist to move your data center. What are the main elements to consider?

1. Budget and Pre-Move Decisions - Nothing happens without money and you’ll need some fuel to complete your data center migration. Understand that these preliminary budgets are often inaccurate as key decisions have yet to be made.
2. Data Center Move Governance - Most Enterprise organizations have some form of IT Governance in place. However, these structures are often inadequate for a data center relocation. Getting governance right is one of the critical success factors for a well planned and executed data center move.
3. External Customer and Internal Staff Communication Plan – Make sure you allow plenty of time to communicate key messages about your relocation to your customers and to your employees. Sending out a last-minute e-mail is a prescription for resentment, lost business, and missed critical components.
4. Data Center Move Resource Plan – Who will be working on developing the data center move mechanics? Are you double-counting resources expected to do their normal jobs and overloading them with a data center move? Your resource plan should include your vendors, outside help, and the testing resources required.
5. Data Center Move Plan – Grab our Data Center Moving Guide to learn about planning your data center relocation.
6. Dry Run of major move elements - Rehearsing your data center move can illuminate weak points in a complex plan and test the ability of professionals to respond to scenario-driven events. These exercises should be standard operating procedure as a way of removing surprises and gaining practice for your data center relocation.
7. Post-Move considerations – Data center relocations often expose organizational issues catching management unprepared after completing a complex technical undertaking. Unexpected management and staff losses, forgotten clean-up items, and neglect of normal business processes are common.

Every data center relocation is different and grabbing a plan from the web is a great way to commit assumption errors and miss the critical elements that are unique to your move. Get the help you need early on to make your move successful.

About E-Oasis: E-Oasis moves data centers and provides the unbiased, independent expertise to make your data center relocation a success. Our pre-move assessment fits well with existing project managers needing a jump start with their planning. Use the contact information to your right to get started. 

Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Data Center Relocation Project Management

Even with all the information about proper hot and cold aisles, dueling CRAC (Computer Room Air Conditioners) units, and improper return air dynamics, IT (Information Technology) teams are still operating inefficient data centers with glaring problems.

Compounding this problem is the fact that facilities managers and IT mangers rarely collaborate to understand the data center as a system. Jon deRidder, a veteran of data center audits and CEO of Enabled Energy, provides some insights into critical data center improvements in this interview.

Jon brings experience in energy conservation, airflow management, due diligence, data center layout design, and remediation for data center environments.  He has served as a subject matter expert for the State of Colorado in the area of environmental contamination.

You work within many industries to improve their data centers. What do you find is the top misconception held by CIO’s with respect to their data center?

There are two common misconceptions that I see.  These misconceptions stem from how an organization views IT.

The most common misconception in an organization where IT is viewed as a cost center is that the data center is also a cost center only.  In this economy it is wise to consider turning the data center into your organization’s secret weapon.  Reducing the Cost of Goods Sold while improving speed and agility will give an organization a coveted advantage over the competition.

In organizations where IT is viewed as a critical component to the organization’s health and well-being, the misconception is that the data center manager knows everything that is going on in the data center.  There is a great need for improved visibility when managing these complex environments.  Pervasive monitoring systems along with the appropriate training and knowledge of industry trends will save any CIO’s data center significant amounts of time, money, and effort.

Can you elaborate on the first steps a CIO should take to get away from operating a data center as a pure cost center?

The first step to moving in this direction should be to form an understanding of the actual costs involved in running the data center, and then create an internal billing system that allows for IT to bill (internally) for their services.  This will set the stage for meaningful investments to be made not only in the infrastructure, but also the process and human resources managing the center.

Even in these organizations that view IT as a critical component, using outside help encounters resistance because the norm is to search for free information and implement point solutions. What kind of time and effort can you save these kinds of organizations?

Implementing point solutions has, in many cases, made the actual or original problem worse.  “On-boarding” key stake holders in the data center takes a tremendous amount of time along with constant, consistent and clear communication.  Most often times we (Enabled Energy) are brought in as the translator to help everyone understand the mission at hand and how everyone is going to receive benefit.

Is it fair to say that despite all the “green” hype, many data centers are blind to how much power they are using? Where do you find the low-hanging fruit of power waste in the data center?

Absolutely, energy usage metrics like PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) and CUE (Carbon Usage Effectiveness) are now accepted as industry standard, however PUE and CUE are not fully understood and are therefore not as useful as they could be.

Where is the lowest hanging fruit in an existing data center?

• Most data centers are dramatically over-cooled
  • Raise the set point in the data center.
  • Seal cable cutouts, place perforated panels at computer intakes and implement aisle containment will help to get more aggressive with the temperature increase in the center.
    
  • Convert airflow supply (the fans on your CRAC units) from a static supply (and almost always under-rated at our altitude) to a dynamic supply such as an EC (Electronically Commutated) fan retro-fit to save ~30% and  improve reliability.
  • Implement a refrigerant economizer to a DX (Direct Expansion) system for a reduction of about 3,000 hours of compressor run time.

Colorado Data Center operators are leaving money on the table because of their ignorance of rebates. Can you elaborate on this program? Is there a deadline?

Xcel Energy has recently increased the rebates for participation in their data center program.  Xcel will fund up to 75% of a data center audit (capped at $25,000) and then rebate up to $600 per kW saved.

The program includes rebates for energy savings measures including: virtualization (of your server, network and storage environments), implementing airflow improvements (sealing cutouts and replacing or moving perforated panels), raising set point temperatures (these are almost always too low), improvements in the humidification cycle or methodology (steam vs. ultrasonic etc.), reducing electrical losses (replacing older UPS equipment, etc), and performing a lighting retrofit (or placing motion sensors in the space).  Nearly all data centers have done one or many of the above listed items and very few have taken advantage of the rebates available to them.

It seems that the big gap for data center improvements is the lack of visibility into facilities costs. How do your studies cross that chasm for customers? Are CIO’s surprised at the outcomes?

One of the things that I have learned over the years is to calculate the cost of doing nothing.  This can be very eye opening.  The holistic approach that we have developed helps the CIO to increase their visibility to the hidden costs (and vulnerabilities) that reside in their centers, and then bring out the benefits (and programs) that will bring value to the effort at hand.

Often, data center efficiency concerns begin with IT staff trying to get the attention of executive decision-makers. So, the cost of doing nothing includes all of these individual efforts instead of experts that can reach beyond specific technology concerns. Do you have advice for these professionals?

My advice is to identify the vulnerabilities first, how many single points of failure exist in the center, how much stranded capacity exists that has become unavailable, and then engage experts who can rapidly build a compelling business case for the C-Suite in a language they understand. Often, IT professionals need help to translate their concerns into something upon which the organization will willingly act.

Why go it alone when a catalyst like our firm can expertly contrast the cost of doing nothing with the savings of an effective plan?

What should every CIO know before they decide to move or consolidate their data center?

The facts – all of them…summarized to a fine point!  My concern has evolved over the years as I have seen too many centers wasting too much time, money, and effort solving the right problems, but without maximizing their return.  The problem to solve is a business decision.  After the organization decides where their investments will bear the most return, they need to abandon themselves to the strength of the team they have assembled.  Whether “in-sourced” or “out-sourced,” my job is to maximize that return for the owner of the data center.

Are you facing power, cooling, and efficiency problems in your data center? Contact Jon deRidder at Enabled Energy, a professional services firm focused on critical environments through its process of Discover – Optimize – Sustain.

About E-Oasis: E-Oasis moves data centers and provides the unbiased, independent expertise to make your data center relocation a success. Use the contact information to your right to get started.

Data Center Relocation, Executive's Guide

Someday soon, someone is going to challenge you to move your entire data center to the cloud. Enough case studies have emerged to entice CIO’s (Chief Information Officers) to explore the promised cloud economics. After all, who can resist the dangled carrot to reduce costs, simplify deployments, and improve business agility?

No one.

And marketing departments know that. The reason is simple: IT (Information Technology), despite all the claims to the contrary, remains a cost center.  Turning this cost center into a value generator often ignores the complexity and legacy that defines Enterprise Information Technology services.

It would be easy to discuss all of the reasons why you shouldn’t move to the cloud. But that’s not why you’re reading this. So let’s complete the thought experiment exercise and discuss what you need to do to move that data center into the cloud.

Prepare a Budget

Nothing happens without money and you’ll need some fuel to complete your data center migration to the cloud. Unfortunately, the cloud has no mature economic models that you can simply plug in your information and arrive at a number to pitch to your CFO (Chief Financial Officer). If you are moving to the cloud, you are by definition, entrusting your working applications to others. Your budget needs to reflect the labor required to engineer an application migration and in some cases a re-architecture prior to that migration.

Application migrations are not new events in the lifecycle of most Enterprises. Therefore, moving these applications to the cloud requires the same discipline, the same use-case testing and certification, and the same skilled project management that was required in the past. The Cloud has not yet suspended the laws of how complex engineering projects are completed successfully. Don’t overlook the cost of educating and re-tooling your internal staff and users for the changes the Cloud will bring. Budget for the security testing required to be confident that your data is secure in its new home.

Dedicate a Team

IT (Information Technology)  projects fail for lots of reasons. Sadly, most of those reasons are well known lessons learned but not lessons remembered. Expecting your IT staff to do their normal jobs while at the same time moving your operation to the cloud is a mistake you can avoid.  A dedicated team will focus on the challenges, overcome them, and provide you with the best chance of success.

Clearly Define the Scope and Milestones

Like every exciting project, a move to the cloud will ignite the demand for other projects to ride along. Some of these will be compelling, some will be silly. Discipline up front with clearly defined scope and expectations for completing the move will be rewarded. Trying to please everyone also has it’s own reward…likely a new job.

Identify the Alternatives

If you haven’t considered alternative solutions to moving to the cloud, you are missing the opportunity to understand what you are doing. The Cloud hype is loud and proud. Believe all of it at your own peril. Being grounded in the alternatives allows you to effectively manage a move to the cloud with a realistic expectation of what you are buying before you buy it. The cloud is not magic and by understanding the alternatives, you will learn what cloud components make sense for your organization.

Performance Matters, Disaster Recovery Matters

Understand the end user performance before you begin the migration. Do you know what performance you are experiencing now per application you want to move? What additional costs are required to maintain or improve that performance? Have you dedicated an experienced architect to review your disaster recovery in a cloud environment? Carefully re-read those cloud case studies and you’ll realize that heavy lifting is involved.

Your IT Staff suffers from Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is the practice of enhancing information that supports a preconception and rejecting information that opposes it. CIOs need to understand that their staff suffers from confirmation bias.  And when it comes to the Cloud,  that confirmation bias can keep a CIO out of the Cloud with misinformation collected through the lens of confirmation bias. How many of these do you recognize?

• We already are our own cloud.
• There is no security in the cloud.
• There are no use cases for us to use the cloud.
• It’s too expensive.
• It’s unproven.

Clearly, you’ll need to overcome your staff’s confirmation bias against the cloud if you want to explore its benefits.  Moving your data center to the cloud should begin with you solving this problem first.

Data Center Relocation, Executive's Guide

Most Enterprise organizations have some form of IT Governance in place. However, these structures are often inadequate for a data center relocation. Getting governance right is one of the critical success factors for a well planned and executed data center move.

What is governance?

Governance is about who makes the decisions and how they are made. It is about explicitly declaring the decision rights and the accountability for the project. It is about adhering to a disciplined monitoring process for the project. Conversely, involve every single person in the data center move decision process and the price for all that consensus is the opposite of agility and efficiency.

How do you start?

• Identify the stakeholders and their decision rights.
• Add an External Advisor for a catalyst and unbiased viewpoint.
• Publish the decision framework for vetting.
• Dedicate the resources to allow regular governance meetings.

What mistakes should be avoided?

• No agenda – ad hoc, free-wheeling meetings are huge time-wasters. Establish a precise agenda for governance meetings

• No urgency – governance meetings should not be an excuse to slow down a project. With real-time collaboration tools, there is no excuse for organizational coefficient of drag.

• Politics – a data center move project is not the time to grind old political axes. It takes a strong leader to minimize the politics so that the resources can be focused on the complexity.

Get Back on Track with Oversight

A stalled or problematic data center relocation can benefit from introducing or revamping the existing data center move governance. Adding an unbiased, external adviser can give you the kind of reality check needed to move the project forward.

E-Oasis moves data centers and provides the unbiased, independent expertise to make your data center relocation a success. Use the contact information to your right to get started.

Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Project Management, Executive's Guide

After budgeting, the most frequent question about a data center move is about the timeline. Every move is different and there is no typical timeline and yet project managers continue to search for the magic data center relocation template. Executives want to know how much the data center move will cost and when it can be completed.

Countdown to a Move

Most data center moves start under extreme duress. A deadline is imposed and staff is sent scrambling in all directions to meet the deadline. Far from the ideal, almost naive, recommendation to invest the majority of time in planning, the norm is an urgent flurry with a crisis mentality.

Is there a better way? Of course, but it’s too late for your organization as your executives have already started the clock on you. All of the lessons learned about systematic project management with careful and deliberate planning windows have been erased and replaced by urgency and panic. That’s quite a recipe for trouble but the real world is full of those kind of realities. In a perfect world, a data center relocation plan for a complex move can take between 12 to 18 months of composition, vetting, rehearsal, and iteration to mitigate the inherent risks.

You can continue to search the web for the elusive generic data center move project plan and convince yourself that your move is not unique or important enough to do the heavy lifting required to build a relocation plan.

Alternatively, you can seek experienced outside help to navigate through your important data center move.

Time is your Enemy

With the clock already running, the schedule compression is real and accelerating. If you are the data center relocation project manager it’s time for less searching and more action. Consider these suggestions for attacking your data center move:

1. Establish a Common Sense of Urgency – Start at the top. You must engage the entire business, not just the Information Technology (IT) staff. If business executives don’t know what is at stake or the complexity and urgency of your move, how do you expect to enlist the support you need to make tough decisions that will help you combat the ticking clock?
2. Make Some Decisions - Endless options are time killers. You can let these options run out your valuable time, or you can make some of these decisions to free up resources. Nothing wears thinner for IT staff than boiling the ocean of options and leaders who fear making the decisions they get paid to make. A data center move project manager has to be a catalyst for killing off the options and focusing the resources on a plan.
3. Face Reality - You were dealt this hand, how are you going to play it? If this is your first data center move, then get outside help. Figure out how to keep your executives informed and involved and deliver bad news with urgency and options.

E-Oasis moves data centers and provides Urgent Care for a data center relocation. Use the contact information to your right to get started.

Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Executive's Guide

A table top exercise can illuminate weak points in a complex plan or test the ability of professionals to respond to scenario-driven events. These exercises should be standard operating procedure in an Enterprise as a way of removing surprises from complex events and gaining practice with disaster recovery testing, data center relocations, and critical response processes.

But how do you avoid the common mistakes when conducting a table top exercise? It’s true that most IT staff can not differentiate between a well choreographed table top exercise and just another technical meeting in the conference room.

Use an outside facilitator – The problem with using in-house staff comes down to personal and technical bias. For example, an in-house facilitator typically does not challenge strong-minded technical experts in a productive way and can easily overlook key weaknesses because the expert claimed superiority on the topic. Technical bias manifests when areas are given little exploration because the facilitator lacked the technical breadth to dig deeper into an issue.

Prepare the scenarios to be tested in advance – Too many exercises end up being a free-for-all which irritates the more senior technical staff. For every hour of an exercise, there should be about 6 hours of preparation.

Carefully select the participants –  Inviting everyone is like trying to bring the ocean to a boil. Another problem is inviting only technical resources who often miss the business impacts that the scenario is supposed to cover. This is where an outside facilitator can properly balance the backgrounds of the participants for a successful exercise.

Split up the table top exercise into manageable sessions – Trying to do too much leaves the participants feeling like nothing was accomplished. A complex scenario can be split into several sessions so that you can apply lessons learned to each successive exercise. Remember that your participants are likely to be interrupted with their real job functions and capturing them for uninterrupted and extended periods of time is not practical.

Documenting the table top exercise is more than just taking notes –  Too often these exercises do not properly document the revelations in a meaningful way. Instead, notes are distributed as if a court reporter dutifully captured every word. This is where a facilitator again adds value as internal staff are often loathe to follow up with coherent documentation of the exercise.

Do it over – A common mistake is to declare success just because the exercise was held once. Most internal staff do not want to repeat an exercise and have a built-in bias for representing the event as a success. An outsider knows when the complexities are not properly addressed as well as the difficult work of identifying the required action items. Often, a do-over is required. After all, do you practice hitting a baseball just once?

Well-run table top exercises are a lost art for most organizations even though their value has been proven for testing complex interactions of people, process, and technology.  Practicing disaster fail-over and fail-back, data center relocations, and critical incident responses are just a few of the uses of this proven technique.

E-Oasis moves data centers and facilitates table-top exercises for data center relocations, disaster recovery scenarios, and critical incident response processes. Use the contact information to your right to get started.

Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Executive's Guide

Is it surprising that a data center relocation can uncover organizational issues in addition to the technical challenges encountered? Yet, many are unprepared for this painful reality.

From a budget perspective, post-move tasks are rarely forecast which results in ad-hoc responses. From a personnel standpoint, staff losses during the post-move period are common.

Retention bonuses, while popular, can often backfire. Staff resentment of Management can be particularly acute during the post-move period especially when Management does not properly recognize the individual contributions that made the data center move successful. Worse, blanket recognition whereby everyone is congratulated for a move well-done offends the true heroes of the move. This kind of management laziness that fails to keep track of the key contributors during the move is often the catalyst for the under-appreciated to seek new opportunities.

Management is also not immune to the pressures that a relocation uncovers as they shop their new-found experience moving a data center as leverage for a better position.

Here are a few post-move checklist items to consider:

1. Is there a budget for post-move tasks including recognition events and key contributor bonuses or raises?

2. Are Managers tasked with identifying the true key contributors with specific examples so their performance does not go unrewarded?

3. Is the staff properly augmented with skilled resources to avoid staff burnout and resentment?

4. Is the proper attention given to post-move custodial items such as decommissioning circuits, equipment, and facilities?

Neglecting data center relocation post-move tasks both organizational and technical can taint an otherwise successful data center move.  With the proper attention, you can avoid the common mistakes.

E-Oasis provides data center relocation project managers to keep your data center move on track. Contact us to learn more.

Corporate Relocations, Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Executive's Guide

In a perfect world, a data center migration would be planned and executed for a fixed budget amount with no surprises or overruns. For data center moves, however, it seems the complicated problems show up at the end when the budget has been depleted and the stakes are high to get the problems resolved.

How does this keep happening?

IT (Information Technology) departments know these problems can get complex, yet no budget seems to get reserved for contingencies.  In the early stages of data center move planning, a comprehensive budget is rarely prepared because the project typically suffers from a lack of information for a variety of legitimate reasons. Some of those reasons include decisions that have not been made on what is moving, when it is moving, and where it is moving. As a result, the budget can not accurately reflect a project that is undefined.

The other extreme are budgets that start out trying to forecast these uncertain conditions only to be purposely lowered in order to get the project approved.

Is there a better way?

Perhaps not. Organizations are imperfect and each data center move project comes with this challenge.  You need a budget to make a decision about the project. That decision needs to be made in a timely manner with imperfect data.  That’s the reality. You’ll find conflicting advice on this topic. On one extreme is the idea that every minute detail must be pre-planned and the move will go perfectly. At the other end is an ad-hoc relocation where you kill snakes as you encounter them.

Both of these extremes will be costly.

The paradox is you will spend much time and resources pre-planning while your environment changes because this activity takes a long time. The result is an elongated schedule and more resources dedicated to crafting the perfect plan even while it rapidly accelerates into obsolescence. And if you do very little planning, you will spend top dollar in a crisis mode fixing the problems you created during the relocation, perhaps in a very visible and damaging way to your organization.

It’s just not reasonable to expect an organization to change its entire culture while undergoing a major data center migration. Pitching a prescription that depends on this wholesale change ignores the reality most companies face during this difficult task. That is why you often see massive project management teams constructed to complete a data center move. It’s the only way they know how to do it.

Face Reality.

The reality is that the data center move project has a deadline, many unknowns, and high stakes to completing it with the minimum disruption to your business. If you’re open to outside assistance, then we will help you navigate your project given the realities that you have, rather than prescribing a massive project management superstructure. We understand you’re not after the perfect data center move, just a successful one. Every move is important to us, so give us a call to discuss your unique challenges.

You can contact Paul Ely, Technical Operations Director, toll free at 1-877-485-1115 X101 to discuss your data center relocation planning requirements.

Corporate Relocations, Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Executive's Guide

Every data center move is unique and every move is important to us. We’ve updated our popular data center moving guide for 2011. Enter your e-mail address in the form on your right to receive this 28 page guide.

E-Oasis Wants to Earn Your Business

While many white papers are written carefully to disclose very little information, ours are different. Make no mistake – we do want to earn your business  by planning your data center move. However, we think the best way to do that is to explain the anatomy of a data center move including common mistakes to avoid.

This 2011 edition of the data center move guide contains:

• Is Your Move Feasible?
• Anatomy of a Move
  • How Much Is This Move Going to Cost?
  • Assumption Errors Cost Money
  • Example Data Center Move Categories
  • Site Selection
  • Pre-Move Planning
  • Teardown
  • Transit
  • Arrival
  • Re-Assembly
  • Post-Move
• Top Mistakes to Avoid
• Virtualization and Data Center Moving
• Next Steps

Get your guide by providing your e-mail address in the sidebar on your right.

Why do we require a valid E-Mail address?

We want to communicate with you about your data center moving project.  You can browse our site to learn about data center moving without providing your e-mail. We encourage you to do that now. When you are ready, request our Free Data Center Moving Guide by providing a valid e-mail address.

Your e-mail address always remains private.

Survive or Thrive?

Data center relocations are major projects. But just surviving the relocation may prove to be the wrong strategy. Our relocation planning will save you money, help you avoid costly and potentially embarrassing mistakes, and minimize the disruption to your business.

Take a tour if you are a first-time visitor to learn more about data center moving.

We move data centers.

Put our systematic methodology for planning and moving a data center to work for you. We  make you the Superhero of your move.

• Planning – Helping you avoid costly mistakes with our data center move playbook.
• Execution – Keeping the data center move on-track.
• Post-Move Support – Critically important post-move services ensures success.

Give us a call. We’re ready when you are.

You can contact Paul Ely, Technical Operations Director, toll free at 1-877-485-1115 X101 with your data center moving requirements.

Corporate Relocations, Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Data Center Site Selection, Executive's Guide

Make no mistake, we’d like to earn your data center relocation business. However, not all data center moves are alike. They can range from complex to straight-forward and everything in-between.

When you research a data center relocation on the web, it’s easy to find conflicting information about the task.  Some data center moving project managers first build a plan where everything has to go right and then expend extraordinary effort tracking in minute detail everything that goes wrong. Is there a better way?

Maybe.  It might depend on your own built-in biases for using or refusing outside help. It could depend on your schedule pressure to move when you know inadequate attention was given to the planning phase. Another variable in your success is the budget pressure to minimize cost which could expose your organization to unexpected risks.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re faced with a data center consolidation or relocation:

• Data Center Move Planning is more important than getting a quick cost estimate. Before you send your staff off to search the Internet for the elusive data center move project plan, step back and do some planning yourself and understand the basic process to get a data center moved. Our data center moving guide (see the right sidebar) is a good beginning.
• Keeping the move confidential preserves many options including the ability to assemble advance teams to check out data center locations without jeopardizing your negotiating leverage. Many organizations also trim some staff as a result of consolidation. It’s important to keep your key contributors informed without prematurely announcing something before you’ve built and vetted a comprehensive data center move plan for both the move and the post-move phases of your project. It’s critical that your entire internal team is given strict and specific guidelines regarding relocation disclosures.
• Expecting your Information Technology (IT) staff to know how to move a Data Center properly is unrealistic as most have never completed the task and they still have full-time jobs to complete even during the transition. Many organizations lose their key IT staff during a data center move because they underestimate the pressure their key contributors experience during a relocation.
• Understand that your Data Center Relocation is unique and requires more than a generic data center move checklist you found on the web. If you’re going to move without outside assistance, don’t underestimate the value of dedicated resources to this important task.
• Be realistic about time-frames. Data Center Moves of size and complexity can take 12 months or more to plan and execute properly. Hastily planned moves can turn what could be a trouble-free relocation into a death spiral of mistakes and expensive crisis responses. A realistic time-line with the right services at the right time is essential to a successful move.

You reason that Google has rescued you before and you search harder to locate elements of your relocation plan. But when you come up short, then what?

• What are four reasons not to move your data center?
• Where do you find the elusive data center move checklist?
• How do you calculate moving expenses for data center relocations?
• How do you write a data center relocation statement of work (SOW)?
• What do you need to know about data center site selection?
• What are the common factors that undermine almost every data center move?

Whether your data center move is simple or complex, consider selecting some outside resources to ensure that the move is successful. Here are three things we can help you with during your data center relocation:

1. We can review your existing data center move plan
2. We can help you build your data center move plan
3. We can plan and execute your data center or company relocation from start to finish

Start with a conversation. Call 1-877-485-1115 to discuss your unique move. Or e-mail urgent@e-oasis.com . We’re ready when you are.

Corporate Relocations, Data Center Relocation, Data Center Relocation Checklist, Executive's Guide