In the modern world, information can be transmitted in the blink of an eye and there is no longer a need for all facets of a business to be geographically linked, allowing you to base operations in differing areas depending on the local talent profile. As your business grows, you may consider IT relocation to different areas to allow for a better talent pool to draw upon, or for reasons of cost. There are areas which are preferred for IT relocation, where a high proportion of IT firms have chosen to base their business and others have chosen to base their data centres, giving a very large skilled local talent pool to recruit from, as those already employed seek greater challenges and others relocate to the area in search of employment.
Once you have decided to go ahead with your server moves, you’ll need to secure suitable premises and begin recruitment of new staff needed for the new location. Suitable premises for IT relocation should have particular attention paid to the capability and stability of the internet connection at the premises, ensuring that it is sufficient for your current needs and any medium term growth you may envisage. You will undoubtedly need to recruit additional staff as a result of the server moves, and should factor in the cost of redundancies, recruitment and additional training into the initial cost analysis of the server moves. If possible, conduct some market research on possible locations to identify if your existing system is in use by other companies in your proposed location, as this will greatly increase the chance of recruitment of individuals with minimal training needs to bring them up to speed on your system and ways of working.
Once the IT relocation is confirmed and the new personnel are in place and ready to take over, ensure that you have sufficient down time to perform the physical server moves. If you are investing in new equipment then the downtime can be minimal as both data centres operate simultaneously for a short period, allowing seamless transfer of operations to the new centre. Even if some of your physical equipment needs to be moved a reduced service can be maintained while your servers are in transit. If all of your equipment needs to be moved then plan for sufficient downtime to pack the existing data centre, transport your equipment and reconnect it in the new location – if your business does not operate 24/7 then consider doing the server moves over the weekend to minimised impacted downtime, and if incursion into office hours is needed then consider whether those impacted could be usefully deployed elsewhere – this is an ideal time for large scale training and corporate bonding events for teams strongly impacted by the loss of service.
Ensure that you plan time for the new employees to properly integrate into the company, and remember that the move may have caused resentment among existing staff as they see established co-workers made redundant or sent to the new location. Plan time for the new employees to meet and mingle socially, and help them integrate into the wider team, especially as they are working at a remote location.
