A successful data center migration ensures that your data, business, and infrastructure is secure and up to date. Businesses today are increasingly choosing data center colocation services to enhance data center security, and decrease overhead costs of in-house data centers.
Although migration seems to be a simple choice, it is important to know how and what measures to take before opting for it. In this article, we discuss the different ways in which you can create an effective data center migration project plan.
Types of Data Center Migration Solutions
Depending on the needs of your business, there are five data center platforms that you can migrate to, namely:
- Cloud migration
The cloud enables you to have streamlined management processes. - Converged migration
A converged migration speeds up the process of replacement of parts and also simplifies the scaling process. - Hyperconverged migration
A hyper-converged infrastructure is highly efficient because it integrates all the components into one single pre-configured unit. - Traditional migration
A traditional migration means that you can easily control your assets because your data is always on-site.
What is the best time to migrate a data center?
Although most organizations start out with an in-house data center, migration becomes inevitable as they upscale. Let’s look at some of the factors that indicate a migration:
Security – Apart from physical security measures such as surveillance cameras, biometric entry points, and security guards, your data center should be prepared for natural disasters. Are you ensuring that your data center colocation is protected from such calamities? Do you have a backup management system at the data center colocation in case of a natural disaster like an earthquake or a hurricane?
Technology – Is your edge computing service up to date? Is IoT being fully utilized? Are your users experiencing any caching or latency issues? These are some of the critical questions you should ask to check if your technology is up to date before migrating.
Cost overheads – Are your onsite data center costs fitting within your budget? If the costs increase and become unmanageable, then migration to a data center colocation would be a good option to consider because it considerably reduces the cost overheads.
Regulations and compliances – You need to ensure that your colocation service provider adheres to compliances and regulations like those of HIPAA and HITECH as a best practice, especially if you accept any kind of personal data, such as debit card information.
Best Practices for Data Center Migration
It is particularly challenging to maintain and manage data during the migration because it requires that critical applications should be functional and usable during the course of the migration process. That’s why following certain best practices is essential to make the migration process more effective, namely:
- Audit your current data center and identify all the current components. Duplicate necessary items for service continuity during the migration and allow for a planned downtime.
- Calculate the budget and success criteria.
- Develop a timeline to achieve all your goals.
- Ensure that someone is in charge of uninstalling equipment as well as transporting the equipment.
- Identify all the hardware and applications that need to be upgraded, and check with your colocation center for any kind of system requirements.
It is important to have a clear and definite vision for your new data center. A reliable colocation service provider must be able to provide you with all the required amenities that can help fulfill your data center requirements. In order to understand those requirements, you need to explore various avenues and ensure that you are choosing the best service for your data center migration project.