Upgrading, decommissioning or migrating a data centre is one of the most complex processes a business can undertake. This is not a decision to be taken lightly and entails months of detailed planning for key stakeholders. The pay off for a successful data centre migration can be significant, however, with new and secure infrastructure potentially providing your business with a vital competitive edge. Completing a successful data centre migration can ultimately help to transform your business, improving productivity, and increasing agility.

In this article, we take a look at some of the key steps involved in planning a successful data centre migration.

Decide What to Move and When

One of the key steps in the planning process is deciding precisely what you want to move. Will you buy all new equipment, just some new items, or migrate the entire data centre en masse?

Migrating your data centre provides a unique opportunity to upgrade a key component in your business, to phase out out-dated equipment, and upgrade your IT infrastructure. You will also want to make an inventory of the extent of your rental equipment, and determine whether you want to extend the lease on this equipment, rent higher spec IT assets, or invest in owning all the equipment in your data centre.

When you have come to a decision on what equipment is going to be migrated, you then need to think about how and when it will be moved. Consider who will be responsible for the move, if it’s possible to move the equipment all at once, or whether it will have to be undertaken in stages. If moving your equipment all at once, your company is going to experience at least some downtime, and this is something else that needs to be accounted for in the planning process.

Choosing the Right Data Centre Infrastructure

When undertaking a data centre migration, many businesses do so in order to upgrade their IT infrastructure. If this applies to your data centre migration, then you will need to make plans to choose the right data centre infrastructure for your business needs. Working in collaboration with your IT services partner, you need to consider which data centre solution you require. Will you migrate your data centre to the cloud, adopt a hybrid cloud approach, or opt for a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution?

This is not a decision to be made in isolation, and you will want to draw on the expertise of an IT service provider to help choose the right data centre infrastructure for your business, helping to reduce downtime, and to increase the efficiency of your IT operations in the long term.

Enlist Expert Assistance

There are many aspects to consider when planning a data centre migration, but perhaps the most important is in choosing an experienced vendor to assist with the migration itself. A data centre migration is a time of increased vulnerability for your business data, and, as such, a fully qualified IT asset disposal vendor should be engaged to carry out this complex and highly specialised process. Ensuring that all IT equipment and data bearing assets are handled sensitively and securely, with a fully auditable chain of custody, is imperative to planning for, and completing a successful data centre migration.

Whatever the nature or scale of your data centre migration, tier1 can assist you with the decommissioning of your previous solutions. With over 25 years of experience, the team of accredited engineers can safely and securely decommission, as well as dealing with any ITAD needs as part of the process.

Contact us today on 0161 777 1000 or visit tier1.com to find out how we can help you decommission your data centre safely and securely.