Data Center Migration {Plan for Success}

I felt for people who need a solution for something *more than just data transfer EVERWORKS does provide an industry leading Network Migration solution. EVERWORKS Network Migration Solution is more than mere copying and pasting data, it is a solution that ensures a full migration service. According to our specialist Wong and Jimmy here is what they would love to share with you!

Introduction

Data Center migration refers to moving data from one device to another. Simple as it may sound it proves to be a challenging task, though it is the most routine of tasks. Critical drivers that move data from one storage device to another on a regular basis are workload balancing, technology upgrade, server and storage consolidation, data center relocation, data classification, and mergers/acquisitions.

What drives the need for a migration?

There are many reasons that could lead to the need for a data center migration. Amongst some of the reasons are:

1. Growth; sudden need that exceeds current capacity
2. Performance; ability for the hosting provider to provide the solution you critically need
3. Real estate changes
4. Local data center economics
5. Density requirements
6. Staffing considerations
7. Green initiatives
8. etc.

How does migration strain you?

As with most things (migration included), there is prevalent restrictions that business, technical, and operational requirements impose on the migration process. There is a great need for resources (staff, bandwidth, CPU cycles) and inevitable risks (application downtime, performance impact, technical incompatibilities, and data corruption/loss).

{Plan for Success}

Data Center Migration is tough work, the margin for error is near zero and the timeline is almost always short, making migration projects very high risk and a large stress basket. To minimize risk (anticipate and prevent as much risk as possible) the migration project must be organized, planned, and flawlessly executed.

Creating a Migration Plan

A migration plan is a blueprint to what you want to deliver in the end. This should be your guide and it specifies customer expectations, defining project deliverables and identifying migration methodologies that can be used. There are four (4) major parts that make a migration plan:

1. Business and operational requirements
2. Data to be migrated with all associated attributes
3. Available Migration Tools
4. Storage and application best practices

Migration Project Phases

1. Gathering requirements

Business objectives, resources required, and specific details of the project should be organized and documented. The documentation serves as a valuable information resource to guide and develop the project plan, provide business communication, and backup material for budgetary justification.

2. Developing a plan

Migration Projects require advanced planning and consideration of every aspect of the move process. Data needs to be gathered, proper documentation is required, problem areas needs to be identified with the right contingencies developed, task completion checklists need to be compiled during the migration phase and end-to-end test plans need to be developed.

3. Implementation

Migration typically begins with the basic communication to the organization and pre-migration prep-work. An effective implementation includes; a smooth migration that is on schedule, a trial run has been scheduled to unearth any potential issues, efficient communication with the move team and resources backed up to ensure full resource availability, precisely following the plan to avoid missed steps and unwanted sequence of errors, documentation of every task that is completed.

4. Validation

The final phase of the migration project is as critical as the beginning and the middle. Finishing it right. Make sure that all tasks that have been completed and verified that it has been completed. Adequate recovery and contingency procedures have been documented and a smooth communication between all affected parties have been put into place.

Conclusion

The ultimate goal of migration is to move data, but it isn't just data. It requires a lot of prior planning prior to the movement to ensure a successful migration. There are a ton of cases that caused more catastrophe than it should have if, having in mind, the proper front-planning was done. Irrespective of the complexity, pre-planning reduces the strain and duration of the migration process by a fair amount. It also reduces business impact and risk.

- Downtime, performance degradation, data corruption/loss, etc. - are among the few problems that occur when performing migration. Consider consulting a pro to have your migration done, it could save a lot of headache and sleepless nights. EVERWORKS provides no-nonsense data migration. Eliminate your worries. Find out more about it here.

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1. What are your experiences with migration? 
2. Were there any complexities that was beyond the pre-plans?

Posted in: Data Center Migration, Internet, Network Migration, Tips