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Dec 01
2009
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The whole prospect of relocating a data centers to professional vendors. This is because, a lot of forward planning has to go into this seemingly intimidating task and it requires specialized tools and equipments which most enterprises would not possess. However, it is also important to entrust this responsibility to a vendor with the best track record. Data centers are by default extremely fragile and vulnerable systems and any loss of data or loopholes may result in a loss of hundred thousands, perhaps millions of dollars.
One can look up data center relocation companies in the Yellow Pages but how to make sure that they are qualified enough to handle the job? One good way to finding the right company for your organization is to ask collegues or acquaintances of different companies but operating within the same industrial field for suggestions and references. There is an adage that says: The bigger the company a vendor has worked for, the better the credentials but that may not always be the case.
Before going ahead with the move, it is imperative to perform a readiness assessment. The focus areas of this readiness assessment should include support structure, service level agreements (if they exist), documentation of the whole move including configuration, start up, shut down, back up and recovery, asset management- if the company has a financial portfolio, maintenance contracts and whether they are proactively managed, change control, architecture, capacity planning etc. The whole move should be envisioned as a project that has to be designed, validated and meticulously planned. Once the plan is in place, there comes the implementation part.
Management of the environment of post-relocation comes next. The benefits of well planned and well executed data center relocation will go beyond what meets the eye of the end user or the customer. If done correctly, it should be nothing but a seamless transition of the enterprise. It has significant and lasting effects on a company’s disaster recovery readiness as well as on its day-to-day operations.