A recent trend in today’s modern data center is companies abandoning outdated rented and leased space in favor of multiple state-of-the-art data centers that offer redundancy. This growing trend is a result of companies exceeding their current capacity due to the explosion of electronic content management. Data center relocation is also part of a larger strategic effort by IT departments to deliver value to the business, reduce costs and optimize network infrastructure such as structured cabling.
Let’s take a closer look at the important factors to consider that ensure your data center relocation is a smooth transition.
Develop a Detailed Assessment and Design Plan
Relocating data centers requires knowledgeable experts and an immense amount of detailed planning. Data center relocations require an assessment to ensure critical infrastructure is leveraged effectively.
A thorough assessment will look at:
- Proposed location and security
- Availability of space
- Current monitoring tools and services
- Available bandwidth
- Redundancy
- Current IT infrastructure
- Data center staff
- Any additional services available
- Quality of network (structured cabling, servers, network devices, etc.)
Once the assessment is complete a key component is the development of a comprehensive network infrastructure and data center cabling plan. Accountability for all servers, storage, network devices and interdependencies is critical to ensure data center relocation is seamless.
A well thought out plan takes into consideration current network demands while being mindful of future growth. Scalability is a critical component to ensure your network is optimized to handle growth expectations.
Data Center Cabling
Constructing new buildings or moving to larger facilities that house your data centers provide significant benefits in regards to implementing a structured cabling solution. Cabling infrastructure is the foundation of your company’s network infrastructure and connects databases, servers, applications, desktops, and hardware.
Three benefits of structured cabling for data center relocation are:
- Higher Return on Investment: Cabling lowers network maintenance costs and reduces the frequency in which cabling infrastructure updates need to be performed.
- Network Reliability: Delivers a resilient network that provides maximum uptime and high availability functionality for today’s demanding business needs.
- Network Scalability: Provides a robust infrastructure that efficiently supports the rising storage, retrieval, and maintenance of electronic data.
Data center relocations are immense undertakings that require intricate knowledge of IT infrastructure, as well as the strategic vision of the business. A sound understanding of the businesses’ vision will allow IT departments to deliver and execute a data center relocation that meets organizational goals and objectives.
So whether your company is relocating one data center or multiple data centers in order to provide redundancy, it is critical to address the factors mentioned above.
Has your company relocated data centers? If so, let us know how it went and whether or not factors like structured cabling motivated you to relocate your data centers.
Learn How Structured Cabling Can Ensure a Smooth Data Center Relocation was posted at Optimize IT. | http://www.datatrend.com/optimize-it