Common Misconceptions Regarding Moving Data Centers

Today, many big enterprises may have concentrated their core business activities around a data center. So it is inevitable that the location of such a critical resource must be made secure by all means. If a particular site where the current data center resides proves to be unsafe, then arises the huge challenge of moving or shifting the data center to a new geographical location. Top-level management executives and directors need to understand the complexity involved in such a procedure. Some common misconceptions that top-level managements have about moving data centers geographically are:

It is Easy

Most top-level executives believe that data center shifting is easy because it involves only a transfer of a couple of computer equipments and hardware.

The IT staff are superheroes

Managements believe that their own IT staff will have all the required infrastructure and expertise needed to make the shift and there is no need for external help.

No disruption of business because of downtime

It is a common belief that data center downtime is not a big problem as it will not disrupt key business models because there will be some sort of solution and Plan B for it.

Date and Time

They believe that the best time to carry out the procedure would be on weekends and possibly during the night because they feel usage of data center resources may be limited during that course of time.

Underestimation of transfer budget

With all these misconceptions, managements always fail to calculate the exact budget required for moving the data center.

Unless toplevel managements are made aware of the risks and expenses involved in the procedure, and their misconceptions rectified, moving of data centers will be a highly risky venture.

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.