You Only Get One Shot at a Data Center Migration... Do it Right

Empowering Project Management

After speaking with numerous large organizations about their data center migrations, we’ve heard a recurring challenge appear in conversation, maintaining efficient project management. The sheer number of moving parts, combined with the seemingly endless stream of tasks, can quickly create an unmitigated mess.

The most experienced project managers tend to find themselves trying to navigate uncharted waters. This can paralyze the productivity of your project before delving into the complexity of the actual migration events. Transitional Data Services has experience with over 400 data center migration projects, and through this experience we came to understand these challenges, and developed a software solution to eliminate them.

Every Data Center Migration Is Unique

Data center migrations happen infrequently, and each one presents a unique set of obstacles. Asking different silos of your IT organization to suddenly work together, on the biggest project of their careers, can muddy the waters. Without a macro view on the project, the first sign of trouble is a breakdown in organization. With so many moving parts, it becomes easy for tasks and responsibilities to get lost in translation. Often, the result is the project timeline getting pushed back until the plan is concrete.

When extending the schedule is not an option, teams begin to explore compromises and trade-offs that introduce risk and in turn, higher costs. The last thing your executives want to hear, is that you need more time and more money before you’ve even developed a road map for your move. Yet, if you have a collaborative tool that provides transparency throughout your organization, the time and money you save could be exponential.

Your project is going to be time consuming enough to begin with. Large environments aren’t built in a day, they are constructed over time based on the growth and changing needs of an organization. This can lead to complex layers of technology, with multiple sets of hand prints on an environment. Think of the environment like a city that was designed before gridlock, winding roads and random patterns that make it difficult for even locals to navigate efficiently.

The same is true for mapping a current state of your data infrastructure. It’s been built piece by piece, based off your needs at the time. Dissecting it manually proves to be one of the most time consuming tasks of the migration process.

The project managers you trust are in their position because they have the skills and intelligence to coordinate the activities of your savvy IT teams. Their capabilities are best utilized when they have the necessary tools at their disposal. It’s a daunting task to come up with optimal migration plans when not having done so in the past.

The challenge of planning a migration can be diminished by setting up your smartest people with an easy to follow, online dashboard designed to facilitate their success. By giving them an expertly crafted road map to follow, you maximize production from some of your best company assets, rather than sacrificing it.

Errors & Delays Are Very Expensive

The margin for error during a data center relocation project is extremely thin. We spoke with one organization that aimed to consolidate their environment. With each year the project was delayed, they estimated losing around $14 million. Delayed projects aren’t even the biggest risk in dealing with a migration. It’s possible to lose millions of dollars in revenue during a migration if something goes awry.

You’re already dedicating a team of your best employees to do this project right, why wouldn’t you provide them with a tool designed to facilitate a successful migration? TransitionManager is not meant to replace your project managers, but rather enable them to complete your project with lower risk and maximum efficiency.

Reduce Or Eliminate Manual Processes & Inefficient Activities

TransitionManager is purpose built to reduce or eliminate manual processes and inefficient activities during all phases of a data center migration. Is it time to reconsider 5 and 10 year old practices and empower your team with the tools and methodologies they need to keep pace?