The usage of data has quickly become one of the biggest assets for any modern-day business or organization. Most businesses nowadays, depend on precise data accumulation and analytics to analyze and perform important decisions. With the increasing need for data storage and growth in technology, migration of data center is becoming a possible choice among the business owners. For many, even the idea of shifting a data center is a daunting prospect, filled with risk and pitfalls. On the contrary, investing appropriate time and finance in its planning and execution process can easily outweigh its potential difficulties.
Benefits of Data Center Migration
Cost-effectiveness
Even though migrating a data center has a huge expense associated with it but, in the long-run, this process can help to curb down the costs of the company. Some of the costs involved with data center include the cost of trained employees, device maintenance, rent expenses and utility bills. Adapting a data center migration process will point out the redundant data and permit the removal of those unnecessary data. This will, in turn, mean that there is a much more accessible space on the servers. Thus, the space available for rent, servers for maintenance and the physical sites for the data centers, will considerably decrease.
Higher Rate of Efficiency
At a time when the company’s growth rate is faster than its storage capacity, temporary solutions are adopted that can further complexify the process, thereby decreasing its overall efficiency. Data center migration involves an effective planning formulation and a thorough evaluation of the process. Migration helps to wipe out the inefficiencies of a company that was previously neglected due to its complications or which went overlooked. It does so, by evaluating the IT systems, its necessities and the processes involved.
Refined Security System
It is no secret that protection of data is crucial for any business or organization. Data migrated into an efficient and updated system, enhances its security in the fastest way possible. When data is moved into an upgraded or modernized data center, whether it be physical or cloud-based, it guarantees the most advanced and relevant security measures for the data. Data center migration provides an opportunity to analyze the existing protocols. Identifying the loopholes in the current data center security can help in preventing any future breaches, thereby refining the security system.
Companies that manage to have a successful data center relocation, enjoy newfound efficiencies that more than makes up for the time and capital spent on it.
These companies tend to primarily focus on four key areas to ensure a smooth data center transition, they are as follows: –
Regaining Application Knowledge
While planning for data migration, it is of utmost importance to have a broad outlook and knowledge concerning the present computing environment. Sometimes, the applications may be aged or are in continuous usage since its inception. In such instances, there is no assurance whether the reports, documents or the instruction manuals have been kept up-to-date. This way, a company’s own knowledge regarding its data center will remain incomplete and inadequate, leading towards defects or failures in the system during the migration process. In order to rediscover the information and regain knowledge of those aged applications, network tracing tools can provide the ideal assistance.
Recognizing the Network Peculiarities
To migrate a data center successfully, there needs to be a predetermined space for each of the applications in the new network. It is essential for a company setting up this relocation, to consider all the aspects running within the system to ensure its optimum compatibility. Advanced planning is required to recognize and decide how to handle the applications that may not be compatible with the newer network security protocols and peculiarities.
Reducing the Risk Involved
While relocating data center, risks such as the potential loss of data and unplanned downtime need to be identified and mitigated. Minimizing such risks is essential as a company won’t be able to function without a vital business application for a long period of time. Migration procedure includes extensive backups, purchase of faultless equipment, and encryption of data. If the applications which are being relocated are critical or of immense importance to the business, a trial migration process is always advisable. Conducting this trial relocation in a test environment ensures the software to adapt to the new data center.
Ensuring Compatibility of Applications
In case a legacy application cannot adapt to the all-new data center after migration, a business has two options to deal with the situation. The first option requires a physical transfer from the present hardware to the new location. Whereas the second option involves the usage of an emulator to ease the transfer process but it cannot always be executed due to coding. Performing changes in coding are both expensive and time-consuming but it can benefit the company in the long-run. Before the migration process starts, companies should ensure that an allowance is put in place for the possibility of code changes.
A well-thought-out plan with an effective execution of the data center migration can influence positive changes in the operating environment of the business. All these changes can have a long-lasting effect on the daily activities and various business processes.
