Should You Virtualize Before or After Your Data Center Move?

Data center moves are often triggered when your facility has run out of space, power, or cooling. With the proliferation of virtualization, you may view the data center move as a catalyst for moving forward the virtualization agenda. In fact, many information technology projects often appear out of nowhere to hitch their ride to the data center move.

The common mistake made in a data center move is the failure to consider the impact that virtualization will have on the success of the data center move. This is particularly true when the same resources are used for both projects.

To include virtualization before your data center move, you’ll need to adopt a different approach to the typcial go-slow methodology that can take 18 to 24 months to realize any benefits.

Freezing changes in the data center several months before the actual move is a difficult principle to enforce. Many organizations say they’ll implement a freeze, but few have the discipline to impose a successful no-change period. Introducing new technology right before a data center move is a recipie for uncertainty. Your staff is typically not adequately trained, your project is rushed into production without adequate “soak” time, and the project itself can prove to be a distraction from important data center move tasks.

Our data center move plan assessments often reveal that too much risk is involved when virtualization is rushed into production prior to a data center move. In fact, more organizations are attempting to run virtualization for the very first time during the actual data center move.  This illustrates another common data center move mistake — constructing a plan where everything has to go right.

1 thought on “Should You Virtualize Before or After Your Data Center Move?”

  1. Pingback: How do you consolidate/virtualize : Blade Watch

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