At some point in your IT career, you’re inevitably going to be called on to migrate equipment or business software systems. It can be a complicated and stressful process, and if you get it wrong, it could disrupt your company’s operations. In my career as an operational IT manager, I’ve led several migrations, and I’ve seen many more in my role at Equinix supporting customers as they build their future-looking IT systems in our interconnected, cloud adjacent Equinix IBX® colocation data centers.
Moving critical IT assets and equipment quickly and smoothly requires detailed planning. In many cases, there’s not one simple solution to meet all your migration goals; you may need a combination of strategies. To decide what you need, you must examine how your business operates and what workloads and functions support that operation. Based on that analysis, you can plan your migration while minimizing risk and disruption.
Understanding the different types of data center migrations
As you plan your migration, almost all your workloads and systems will fall into one of two categories:
- Things that must be moved as is due to specific hardware requirements or software dependencies
- Things that can be migrated to newly built systems at the destination
Virtualization and high-speed networks have certainly made the second one easier, but there are still a surprising number of migrations that require a forklift and a truck.
At Equinix, we’ve seen countless customer migrations, both physical and virtual, into and out of colocation data centers. Let’s look at some of the considerations that should go into your strategy for both varieties of migration.
How to relocate physical equipment into colocation data centers
Physical relocation is generally as simple as it sounds: It’s physically moving equipment from one location to another. This involves backing up the system, powering it down, removing it from the rack, transporting it, re-racking it and powering it on again.
You’ll likely choose physical relocation when you have specific equipment that can’t be replaced or business-critical systems that can’t be re-platformed. Your goal may be to move into a colocation facility that offers energy-efficiency innovations; a stable and renewable energy supply; and easy access to dense ecosystems of clouds, networks and other service providers.
A physical relocation might be simple in theory, but it’s also the most nail-biting way to complete a migration. Many things will be out of your control during the move. Hardware is typically fragile because it wasn’t designed with mobility in mind, and accidents with trucks or material handling can be disastrous. The fact that you’re moving it at all signifies that the equipment is unique and valuable to your organization, so you’ll need to take special steps to protect it.
I once had a mainframe move where the moving company’s forklift failed due to a broken hydraulic hose. Needless to say, the equipment experienced an unexpected gravity-assisted rapid disassembly. This is a good time to point out that finding an experienced, professional moving partner should be among your top priorities. You’ll also want to insure your equipment before you move it, but keep in mind that your policy may not fully compensate you for any damage that occurs during the move.
System outages during physical relocations are generally unavoidable, but you can plan to ensure the shortest, least disruptive outage possible:
- Verify that you’re moving into a colocation environment that can support your unique equipment—everything from its power and cooling needs to its physical size and weight.
- Install and configure your network in advance, so that the system can connect immediately once it reaches the new facility.
- Make sure you have a backup and disaster recovery plan, and test those plans thoroughly before you even begin to plan your move.
How to move virtual workloads into colocation data centers
In a virtual move, you deploy new equipment in a new facility and migrate virtual workloads to that equipment. You might plan a virtual migration into a colocation data center as a precursor to accessing cloud or SaaS services from a third-party provider.
You may also choose to “stretch” your existing equipment—that is, perform a partial physical move to spread your equipment between the new facility and the old facility. For equipment that you don’t intend to move, you can decommission it and dispose of it responsibly. Either way, there’s less risk involved, because there’s less need to load equipment on to and off of trucks. If something goes wrong as you’re moving virtual workloads, you can simply fail back and try again later.
Unlike physical relocation, a virtual migration doesn’t always require downtime. You can perform a hot migration, where virtual workloads move directly from one physical server to another, with both machines powered on the whole time. For situations where this isn’t possible, you can still utilize the advanced capabilities of your storage arrays to perform a warm migration. Technologies such as snapshots and synchronous or asynchronous replication can help to greatly shorten the outage windows that are required when you cannot live migrate a workload using virtualization techniques.
Robust network infrastructure is important for physical relocations and production usage, but it’s absolutely essential for virtual migrations. If you move into a facility with a dense ecosystem of network service providers, it opens up a much wider range of options for what you can do with your workloads after they reach the new facility.
Flexibility is also important. You’ll likely want high-bandwidth connectivity so that you can complete the migration as quickly as possible, but you’ll also want the ability to dial back to a smaller connection once the migration is complete. With that said, you can’t assume that the network will always be the bottleneck during the migration. You need to make sure your equipment is configured to serve up data as fast as the network can move it.
Finally, you’ll want to choose the right service providers to assist you in your migration. They’ll be the ones assisting and advising on your move plans, so they’ll play a big role in whether or not the migration goes smoothly. It’s wise to have staff who can assist with installing the new equipment and with pre-installing or configuring services, or even having digital platforms that you can use as temporary infrastructure. Make sure you choose a partner that’s experienced with these kinds of migrations.
Streamline your next migration
Moving is inherently stressful: It’s true for moving houses but even more so for moving your key business systems. Partnering with an experienced colocation provider can help reduce that stress.
Equinix has been helping customers move IT assets from one place to another for more than 25 years. We have 260 Equinix IBX data centers spread across 70+ global markets, so you can start in one of our facilities and go anywhere your business needs take you.
Our partner ecosystem includes 3,000+ cloud and IT service providers and 2,000+ network providers. This means you can easily find the services you need in all the right places, giving you one less thing to stress about.
Also, we’ve prioritized efficiency and invested heavily in renewable energy development. In 2023, we achieved 96% renewable energy coverage across our global portfolio, including 230+ data centers with 100% renewable energy coverage.
The IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Datacenter Services 2023 Vendor Assessment named Equinix a Leader in the market, saying:
“Equinix has demonstrated that it’s a safe and reliable bet as a strategic partner for your future digital infrastructure journey. The company has delivered excellent service for the past 25 years and is an essential platform for interconnecting with network operators, cloud operators, and other digital service providers.”
– Courtney Munroe, Research VP, & Avinash Naga, Research Manager, Worldwide Telecommunications Research, IDC[1]
Read this competitive assessment to learn more about our platform capabilities and strategy.
[1] IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Datacenter Services 2023 Vendor Assessment, Courtney Munroe and Avinash Naga, October 2023, IDC #US49435022e
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