The Long Distance Relocation

Another Special type of datacenter construction or facility relocation is the long distance relocation.  We define two factors that qualify a project as a long distance relocation

1. Where the distance involved is sufficiently large that a company does note even consider relocation of technology, but instead duplicates all systems in a new location and moves the function of systems and applications to the new platforms or environment or

2. Where the distance of a relocation is so large that the company will likely lose a major portion of the staff who are unwilling to relocate, or it is not feasible for the company to relocate them.

The long distance relocation requires super special planning at the IT level.  Here are some of the key land mines that we explore to ensure a successful relo:

• Replacing servers in mass will almost surely result in completely new server names for the new environment.  How will the applications function when all of the server names have changed?

• Management at most companies are shocked to learn how much of the business critical function is driven by spreadsheets that exist on peoples individual PCs or home drives.  If these spreadsheets are liked to other spreadsheets or databases across servers, how will they function when the server names have changed?

• When staff leaves as a result of a long-distance relocation, what happens to all of that data that they own?  Who inherits the data – new employees?  How do you identify what they own, who gets it and what the new staff person will be allowed to see?

Ahhh, now you can begin to see how NewVista Advisors differs from those other consulting firms that do a quick hit and run design.  We focus on the entire process, from the bolts that hold the cabinets down to the datacenter floor through the successful migration of data and applications.  This is not simple stuff, nor is it something that can be hand-waved off as a minor detail.  Where our clients have decided not to focus on these issues they were in a world of hurt when the relocated started.

We have experience with multiple long-distance relocations ranging from 40 miles to over 2000 miles, all encompassing 800 people or more.  We would be delighted to tell you about our experiences on those projects.