Essential Steps for Migrating to a New Data Center Facility

Considering a data center move? If your internal data center is showing signs of aging, your team may be contemplating a number of options — including a move to a colocation center that could minimize the costs of building out new capacities and capabilities.

If a colocation center or managed services solution is among your options, take a look at the steps that are required to keep mistakes minimal when migrating to another location.

According to Tad Davies of the Bick Group, you could be considering migration to an external facility for a any number of reasons. “Capacity is one of the drivers,” Davies said during a recent presentation at Data Center World Global Conference in Las Vegas. “Usually the main driver of colocation or managed services is the company’s asset is not functioning well. It’s at the end of life, such as power or cooling are insufficient, or it could be capacity.”

Whatever the reason behind your move to a colocation center, it’s important to make sure the transition goes as smooth as possible. Here are some tips to prevent costly mistakes, as well as minimize the headaches among your team of making a move.

Take these tips into consideration:

Select a colocation with a history. Perhaps you never had to migrate to an external facility. If so, by all means, go with a colocation center that has had plenty of experience helping companies in a wide variety of industries make the transition. Even better if the center has had experience with moving the IT operations of a company that is similar to yours in size and operates in a similar industry. Ask specific questions about any challenges along the way.

Inquire about customer relations highlights. It’s guaranteed … every colocation center you interview will say it gives a high level of attention to customer service. While that’s great, you need to know exactly what that means. Go deeper. Ask specific questions about how the company handles special requests or deals with situations that occur outside of normal hours. Ask for different examples of how company challenges were handled. By being persistent in asking for the details, you’ll get a better idea of what great customer service entails.

Ask about capacity for expansion. Perhaps your needs are at a certain level today. You could experience significant growth, however, in a year or two. Talk to the colocation center about its ability to handle the needs of your growing company.

Check ratings, experience and certifications. When making such a significant move, it’s important to check the qualifications of the colocation center. Ask about uptime and other indicators of reliability. Downtime can cost you significantly if the colocation center doesn’t have a great record. The colocation center not only should be able to give you those ratings, it should be able to explain the importance of each of those measures of quality.

Lifeline Data Centers is among the top colocation services in the Midwest. We proud to boast some of the highest uptime ratings and certifications in the industry. Contact us to talk about your specific needs. We’re looking to hearing from you.

Other resources:

• Infographic: The 22 Data Center Compliance Acronyms You Need to Know
• White Paper: Why Data Center Compartmentalization is Important
• Lifeline One Sheet: What You Need to Know About Lifeline Data Centers

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.