One of the biggest factors influencing data center migration timelines and costs for your customer is determining which applications can be forklifted and which require a "swing" move.
In a forklift move, application hardware is physically packed up and moved from one data center to another. Swing moves require that you duplicate the application hardware in a new data center and migrate application data to the new environment. There are advantages and risks associated with each kind of move, but knowing which is best for your company can save you a significant amount of time and money.
Take the quick quiz below to see where your customer's data center nets out. If you have a large data center, apply the questions to parts of your data center. Make sure to keep track of your answers so that you can determine your scoring on the following page.
- What kind of applications does your data center host?
- Production
- Engineering development
- Quality assurance
- How close is the old data center to the new one?
- More than 200 miles
- Between 50 and 200 miles
- Within 50 miles
- How much downtime can your production applications tolerate?
- Little to none
- Less than 24 hours
- More than 24 hours
- Do you have real-time application failover capabilities for your production applications?
- No
- Yes, but not at required performance levels
- Yes, at acceptable performance levels
- Are you planning to refresh hardware as part of the data center move?
- Yes, for at least 25% of hardware
- Only if absolutely necessary
- Not at all
Find out how you scored.
About the author
Shally Bansal Stanley is a managing director at Acumen Solutions Inc., a business and technology consulting firm with offices across the United States and in Europe. Shally is a recognized leader in data center solutions within the industry. She can be reached at sstanley@acumensolutions.com.
