Data Center Migration and Relocation Services
Data Center Migration & Relocation Services
The importance of data centers cannot be overemphasized. Data centers provide businesses with space for the storage of critical information and systems. They also increase organizational efficiency, productivity and return on investment. Read on to find out more about data center migration and relocation and how DC Encompass can be of help.
What is Data Center Migration?
Data center migration is a process where an existing data center is migrated or relocated from one operating environment to another one without loss of data.
Migration involves the movement of IT systems, applications, workloads, and infrastructure to another operational environment like edge location, colocation facilities, private/public cloud. Processes such as relocations, hybrid migrations, consolidations or cloud migrations are often also referred to as migration.
The migration of data centers is a high-risk project and there is no avenue for errors. When embarking on this process, it is vital to understand and differentiate between the different types of data migrations. They include hybrid, cloud, consolidation, and relocation.
Hybrid
Cloud migration can be used to move applications, systems, infrastructure, and workloads from a physical/virtual environment to either a public or private cloud provider. It could also move these systems in between the different cloud environments. Cloud infrastructure can help you to increase the agility and scalability of your system, and this can be achieved via on-demand self-services, broader network access, higher elasticity, and measured services. However, cloud services are not necessarily cheaper than physical services.
Consolidations
With data center consolidations, you can reduce the number of physical data centers and servers used by repurposing servers or decommissioning legacy servers. The aim is to reduce the footprints and increase the density level. The benefits of this enterprise include reduced hardware, reduced network, lower cost of the facility, savings on power, reduced loads on cooling, reduced manpower, and fewer software licenses.
Colocation/Relocation
With data center relocation, an enterprise can move infrastructure from its present location to a new one. The data centers involved in this process are the source and target location; this can be done in manners such as physical to physical, physical to virtual, virtual to virtual, physical to cloud, and virtual to cloud. There is an increase in the number of enterprises that are choosing colocation over building new data center facilities. The success of this enterprise begins with the identification of the target location and this makes the selection of site to be very important.
Reasons for Data Center Migration
Poor service from a provider
Data center providers must aid IT teams in data storage and allow them to focus on other objectives connected to the company’s core goal. Therefore, businesses with providers who offer poor services might consider migrating to a new data center.
Flexibility
When it comes to dealing with interconnectivity services, data center providers should offer varied options and ensure you get a solution that meets the specific needs of your enterprise.
Expansion
Data migration can also be done as a result of business growth and expansion. With migration, you can create a duplicate of your data center in a new facility.
Consolidation
Acquisition and Consolidation can also result in Data Migration and relocation to make their IT infrastructure more efficient for their organization.
Data Center Migration Best Practices
When carrying out data center migration, there are some best practices that must be observed to ensure industry standards and requirements are met. They include:
Creating a migration strategy to work with during the migration process is essential. The plan should be detailed and also suits the business needs.
It is vital to create a data backup strategy and replication as data could be damaged or lost during the process.
The configurations of the applications, the power specs, and requirements should be made clear. In addition, risks that might be encountered during the data center migration process must be clearly stated.
Proper budgeting must be done to ensure funds are available all through the process. The working of the applications before the migration or after it should not be affected by the budget.
Data Center Migration Process
Data center migration involves lots of steps and processes that must be taken to avoid data loss. They include the following:
1. Project Initiation
In order to launch a successful project, you need to start out the process with this step which helps by laying out some important goals. In addition, it sets up the business case and project charter organizes the project teams and helps establish a high-level plan for migrating from an old system to a new one.
2. Discover
In order for us to be able to help the process start, we need to know everything there is to know about your current situation. the Discovery phase helps identify key data by identifying where it exists across different systems and applications.
3. Analyse
Before any equipment is removed from the premises, take note of the log files and inventory records for each piece of equipment. Make sure everything is there and record anything that was added since last time.
4. Plan
During this stage, we focus on communicating across departments so everyone understands their part in the project. Stakeholders will decide the full scope of the migration, set deadlines for removing old systems and preparing the new one, and start planning the new data environment.
5. Execute
Run the migration according to the migration plan and make sure there’s a clearly defined chain of command and responsibility for each team member. Capture and manage any issues that arise during the project.
6. Test
Use pre-migration testing to determine whether there are any existing bugs in the application before migrating to production and ensuring effectivity.
7. Handover
Initiate a meeting for approval and enjoy a hassle-free data centre migration and relocation process.
Benefits of Data Center Migration
Data Centre migration and relocation come with lots of benefits. They include:
Data Security
Data center migration also leads to increased security of data and other organizational systems or applications.
Cost-effective
Data center migration services are cost-effective. For instance, at DC Encompass, we provide data center migration services that suit your budgets and needs.
Increased Storage Capacity
When there is an increase in your data storage needs and the current data center can no longer meet up with organization needs, data migration to a new facility can help increase storage capability and improve organizational efficiency.
Why Choose DC Encompass?
Data Center migration offers lots of benefits to every organization. It does not only provides the right storage capacity that suits your business needs, it also increases efficiency among employees. This is why at DC encompass, we provide professional data center and relocation services to help you process, plan, and migrate your systems to a new location seamlessly.
We also help reduce the risks of data loss and provide customized support. Get in touch today and our team of experts will be available to provide the right data center migration and relocation services in line with your budget.
Looking to Migrate or Relocate an existing data center? Contact the team at DC Encompass today.