Guide to Data Center Moving

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I’ve made most of the mistakes I warn you about in my book “What Everybody Ought to Know Before Moving a Data Center.”

I understand that you have no time to waste. I understand that you have a certain idea of what you want. An example work breakdown structure (WBS), a budget, a move playbook, or comprehensive checklists are the immediate things on your mind.

In short, the easy button.

Why do you need to understand the process when you could just modify an existing plan?

Perhaps there is a universe where understanding and deep experience is unimportant. Where recipes found online are good enough to complete complicated, sequenced events. I don’t live in that universe and that’s why I wrote this book.

Perhaps you have a singularly unique team. A team that shares a common sense of urgency, that makes decisions without running out the shot clock, or that communicates with accuracy and precision.

I’ve never encountered a team that didn’t need training, or a move where team members don’t join at inconvenient times, or an urgent event that doesn’t require a different approach to decision-making. That’s another reason I wrote this book.

Perhaps you have those rare executives who are experts in every undertaking or who make timely decisions without precise data.

They budget for timely and generous rewards for the deserving. They understand that the original budget was just a guess. They recognize that their staff has never moved a data center before and need training and maybe even outside help.

I’ve met only a handful of these people, so I wrote this book to encourage more of this behavior.

Data center moves range from complex to straightforward and everything in between. Deciding how to start the planning requires research. But researching online is time-consuming with conflicting information at every click.

For example, there are over 1.5 million results for “data center moving checklist.” Even if you could read and synthesize all those results, do you have the time?

Do you have the experience to know which advice to follow?

Data center move planning requires learning some fundamentals and deep experience to avoid costly mistakes. Have you discovered an easy button for experience?

Some project managers build a plan where everything has to go right and then expend extraordinary effort tracking in minute detail everything that goes wrong.

Why does this happen?

Read my book to learn the alternative – Break dependencies instead of tracking them.

Understand the basic phases of a data center move before you resume your online searching. Form a move narrative, establish governance, and make some decisions as practical first steps.

I understand the panic you may be experiencing, especially if this is your first data center move. I talk to professionals every day who ride that fear coaster. That’s why I give you a place to start, to make sense of the process, and to give you the context to sort the conflicting information you discover online.

This book covers each phase of moving a data center including governance, budgeting, site selection, pre-move, teardown, transit, arrival, re-assembly, and post-move.

What is your goal?

To move your data center without getting hurt?

Important concepts introduced in this guide include:
• The importance of a move narrative
• The utility of the uncertainty gauge
• The difference between a cost model and a budget
• Why governance matters
• How to counter confirmation bias
• The power of over communication
• Hazards of ignoring equipment acclimation
• Getting to a coherent vendor “needs briefing”

How Will You Put Humpty Dumpty Back Together Again?

Everyone asks this question. You dismantle your entire data center, move it to another location, and re-assemble the pieces. And like the nursery rhyme, there is always the fear that “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.”

It’s a valid concern, but it’s not the first question you should ask…

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