Your data is one of your most valuable assets, and migrating it isn’t easy. In fact, according to Gartner, 70% of data center migrations will incur significant time delays or unplanned downtime due to improper planning. 

Whether you’re looking to achieve virtualization via moving your data to the cloud, private cloud, multi-cloud, or even migrating to another data center, it’s essential that you plan your migration journey step-by-step to avoid any unwanted operational disruption or data loss. 

When considering that 67% of senior executives surveyed report their organization has accelerated its plans for cloud adoption, the pressure to migrate data to the cloud can be overwhelming, but taking the time to plan each phase of the move will help to ensure your modernization project becomes a success. 

This article will break down what a data center migration is, what the different types of migration are, the methodology to plan for a successful transition, best practices you should be aware of, use cases and more.

A data center migration is the process of moving assets and infrastructure, such as servers, apps, databases, routers, firewalls, and switches, from one physical location to another data center or cloud environment. It’s a process that can take months or even years, depending on the amount of infrastructure you need to migrate. 

While no two organizations have the same infrastructure, one Info-Tech survey estimates that it costs an average of $120,000 to migrate a data center or $10,000 per rack. 

However, for larger organizations with more equipment, the cost can be much higher. For instance, Facebook has invested over $2 billion into constructing its Prineville Data Center 

In any data center migration, there are four main steps: 

• Selecting a server in the old data center 
• Creating a clone of the server in the new data center 
• Moving applications that rely on the old server to the new copy 
• Decommissioning the old server 

Reasons, why an organization might choose to migrate its data center include increasing operational agility and automation in the cloud, reducing cost, moving physical locations, or even preparing to upscale the delivery of its services. 

No matter what reason an organization has for planning out a data center migration strategy or application migration, it’s essential to manage risk to ensure that there’s no damage to the business as a whole. 

Picking the right way to format the migration process will give you more control over the level of risk facing your critical infrastructure throughout the process and enable you to achieve greater business continuity throughout the move. 

There are four main ways you can migrate your data center: 

• Consolidation – Reduce the number of data centers you maintain into smaller but larger facilities, which are capable of managing your current workload and have the potential to upscale as your organization grows. Data center consolidation is ideal for reducing maintenance costs. 
• Relocation – Migrate your entire data center from one location to another. With this approach, you’ll usually opt for a better physical location with access to more equipment or a third-party collocated data center. Colocation allows you to prepare to upscale while sharing costs with a 3rd party. 
• Migration to the cloud – Migrate a physical or virtual data center to a cloud-based environment or move a preexisting cloud data center to another provider. To do this, you need to make sure your critical apps can run in the cloud. Cloud migration enables flexible provisioning of IT resources and virtualization and increases cost-efficiency. 
• Hybrid cloud migration – Under this approach, an organization can use a combination of a physical data center alongside multiple cloud-based services. While this approach is complex, it affords the greatest flexibility, enabling you to choose which apps are hosted on-premise and which are in the cloud. 

It’s important to remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. The deployment that you choose will depend not just on your current technology and your desired end state but also on your budget and on the regulatory requirements you need to comply with to store and manage your data. 

It’s a good idea to implement some core best practices to ensure your data center migration goes smoothly. These are as follows: 

• Create a plan 

Creating a plan for guiding the data center migration is essential for laying out the expectations for the transformation as a whole. This plan should include:

• An inventory of infrastructure and critical applications you want to migrate 
• Where you’re looking to migrate them (Cloud or physical location) 
• What type of migration process you’re using 
• Documenting what equipment and space you need in the new location 
• Identifying staff responsible for moving key equipment 
• A backup and disaster recovery plan  
• Your budget for the migration 
• Your desired schedule and timelines for migrating equipment

• Get buy-in from key stakeholders 

Before formally moving to a new data center environment, you’ll need to get buy-in from all key stakeholders. If the IT team wants to propose migrating to a new data center, meet with all key stakeholders and explain the reasons why a move would enhance current operations, and provide a detailed estimate for the cost of the project as a whole. 

• Appoint a project manager 

Appointing or hiring a project manager can add some accountability to the data center migration process. If no one within the organization has experience with migrating the data center and IT infrastructure, it is a good idea to work with an external consultant who can guide you through the process. 

The project manager should lead a team of IT professionals and assign unique roles and responsibilities to each so they can take on key tasks, including inventorying relevant equipment, backing up data storage, and installing equipment in the new location. 

• Create an inventory of data center assets 

Creating an inventory of infrastructure and data assets you will migrate is essential to success. If you fail to inventory key data, then you won’t be able to implement controls to prevent losing that information. 

A complete inventory should include data and apps you want to migrate, who the designated owner is, whether they’re tagged or untagged, and any other maintenance information (when were these assets last updated, etc.). 

• Don’t try to migrate everything at once 

Migrating any IT asset increases risk. As a result, you should migrate your data center within manageable segments. In practice, that means migrating one server at a time. While this may seem inefficient, it helps reduce the chance of losing data in transit that may cause operational or regulatory challenges. 

• Test infrastructure post-migration 

Once you’ve migrated your assets and data from one site to another, test them to ensure they function correctly. Your IT team can test each piece of equipment’s performance and utilization to ensure they’re operational and not at risk of malfunctioning. This will help to avoid any unwanted outages or downtime. 

Planning how to migrate your data center is easier said than done. But with the right preparation, you can turn it into a manageable process and minimize the risk to your operations and your data. There are six core things you need to do to plan your data center migration: 

• Set goals and objectives for the move 

The first stage of your plan should set out a goal for the move. This includes migrating x resources and infrastructure to x location, what budget you have to complete this data center migration, and when you want the move to be completed. 

• Identify equipment to move 

Inventory your current infrastructure and data to identify what elements you need to move. You may also decide to phase out or decommission outdated infrastructure altogether. It’s worth noting that your current systems might not fit in your new environment, so feel free to lease or buy new equipment if necessary. 

• Conduct an inventory of current assets and state  

Before moving anything, take inventory of all infrastructure currently in use within the data center. This includes measuring performance, utilization, purchase date, and maintenance dates. 

Once your inventory is complete, you can mark or tag items you will transport to the new location, making sure to record key information such as warranty for high-value pieces of equipment. 

• Choose whether you’re going to do it yourself or with a third party 

Choose whether you’re going to attempt to move your infrastructure on your own or whether you want to work with an external provider, such as an IT company that will help you move the equipment. 

If you decide to work with a third party, check how much experience they have with managing these kinds of projects. Experienced data center migration services can help significantly decrease the data loss risk throughout the process.  

• Create a backup and disaster recovery plan  

Using your asset inventory, identify what infrastructure, apps, and data you need to back up, choose what solutions you will use, and where you will store the backup data. 

Backing up these assets will help reduce risk by ensuring that you’re able to recover critical data assets even if equipment gets damaged or lost in transit. 

• Assign roles and responsibilities 

Put together a team responsible for managing the data center migration. Appointing a team of IT professionals headed by an experienced data center migrator can help reduce the chance of damage. It can also add some accountability to the migration process. 

Out of all the challenges you will face when managing a data center migration, cost is the biggest one. If you damage equipment or underestimate the time it takes to move your equipment from one site to another, you’ll incur unexpected costs and downtime. 

That’s why proper planning is critical to making sure that you remain on schedule and reduce the chance of going over budget. 

The next greatest challenge is mitigating the risk of data loss. If you don’t maintain inventory and backup files and resources correctly, or if they get lost or damaged – you won’t be able to restore the underlying data. This could cause a devastating operational impact. 

Lastly, it’s important to avoid overestimating the space and server capacity you need, or you’ll end up paying for unnecessary capabilities. 

You can avoid this by planning how many resources you’ll need in the new location and factoring in how much you’re likely to grow in the next 1-5 years. Doing so can ensure your data center is right for your needs now and in the future.

The biggest drawback of a data center migration is operational risk. Even the most detailed data center migration plan can fall apart if it’s not implemented correctly.

Mistakes and accidents, such as damaging or losing equipment and failing to back up resources, can result in data loss and affect business operations. While risk comes with the territory – it’s important to recognize that you can’t guarantee a migration attempt will be 100% successful.

If you’re migrating to the cloud, it’s also worth considering there will be some additional downtime. Not only while you set up equipment but also as you download or retrofit apps and services in the new location.

In addition, if you decide to migrate data to the cloud, you’ll need to rethink the controls you’re using to prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to this information.

When migrating a database, it’s important to develop a checklist to measure your progress. This checklist should include the following stages: 

• Discovery  

Identify data assets and infrastructure within the existing data center and record details about what data is in use and where that data is stored (this includes any backup resources). 

• Planning 

Decide what data and infrastructure you will migrate and your target date, and set a budget. Then assign a team with clear roles and responsibilities to manage the transition and backup key data. 

• Execution  

Begin executing the move in increments to minimize the impact on your business operations. Before moving the infrastructure, ensure the new site has all the power and cooling capabilities needed to support the equipment. 

• Optimize  

Check the performance of devices within the new data center to check they function correctly with minimal latency. You should also start configuring new firewalls and security rules to protect data from unauthorized users.

Migrating apps and data to the cloud or a data center isn’t easy. That being said, you can use a range of tools to simplify the process of migrating apps.

AlgoSec can help you migrate your data center by enhancing the discovery, and automatically mapping applications and connectivity flows across your infrastructure via workflows.

After detecting a connectivity flow, the solution can automatically migrate them to a new on-premise or cloud platform, identifying and removing obsolete firewall rules and configurations. 

The solution also supports post-migration through a unified security policy management. It enables you to enforce data access controls, whether you’re operating in an on-premise or cloud environment. 

By automatically generating and executing security policy changes, the solution decreases the risk of breaches or compliance liabilities and helps mitigate key dependencies. 

If you’re looking to migrate databases to a particular cloud service, you can also use cloud service providers’ migration solutions. 

For instance, AWS, IBM, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud all offer their own migration tools; AWS Database Migration Service, IBM Lift, Azure Database Migration Service, and Google Cloud Database Migration Service. These tools can help to streamline the process of moving high-value databases with minimal risk.