Philip Lydford, CEO at e-shelter UK, advises IT managers on how they should approach relocating critical infrastructure and explores how, when moving to a new data centre, the challenges faced are similar to those encountered when moving house

The first challenge is to find a suitable location for your new facility.  Ideally, the data centre should be located about 50 miles (80km) from the corporate (or national) headquarters or existing data centres to provide the synchronous communication that enables the replication of business critical databases within accepted latency times. 

That said; don’t write off areas that you may have not considered before. Be rational, think about how your staff would reach the facility in an emergency. This includes assessing the transport connections during the rush hour, just as you would check how far your new home would be from work (the commutable distance). In addition, it is essential that you conduct a proper risk assessment of the area, such as flood risks, airport routes, terrorist threats, etc.

Data Centre Information Pack (DCIP)
In recent years, examining the energy efficiency of a property has become a major consideration for home buyers. When purchasing or selling a property it is a legal requirement to produce an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) with the Home Information Pack. The EPC carries ratings that compare the current energy efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions with potential figures that the property could achieve. Likewise, it is essential that any IT manager who is moving to a new data centre demands a similar document to the EPC from the data centre developer. This will ensure they can utilise more of the available electricity for core IT functions, and of course reduce costs where applicable.

Fixtures and fittings
Assessing whether you should opt for an unfurnished or furnished property is also important. By choosing the latter you remove the headache of maintenance, repair and possibly replacement of necessary electrical and cooling equipment as this will be handled by the facility provider. This also ensures that kit is up-to-date and running at maximum efficiency.

Keep, bin or upgrade
When you move into a new home you should produce a full inventory of any fixtures and furniture which may be in need of repair, replacement or even discarding. The same principle applies when you are relocating your IT infrastructure. Make sure that you have an up-to-date inventory of all the applications running on your servers. There may be unnecessary applications processing that you were unaware of, which can be decommissioned or may require upgrading. Once this audit is complete, examine whether you still need an application or if there’s a better one available, considering new technology advances such as virtualisation and cloud computing.

Utility suppliers
While efficiency is important, any data centre is a non-starter unless it has an adequate supply of electricity with which to power it. Spare power for data centres is likely to be in short supply and even if you can get hold of spare capacity at short notice, it’s likely that the supply network won’t be up to the job.  In the event that the grid points need upgrading in order to be able to supply the capacity needed for a new data centre, you will need to negotiate the requirement with the power supplier which will add significant additional cost to a data centre development project.

You will also need to find out whether power is readily available from two grid points (ideally from two different supply companies) prior to selecting a site.  This will provide peace of mind in the event of a power outage at one source, because the other will continue to deliver power. A new data centre will need to ensure it can support the full power requirements of the anticipated capacity of its facility. 

Completion 
Whether you opt to outsource your capacity requirement to a third party developer or project manage the build of a new corporate facility, it is essential that it is approached strategically. Much like buying a house, you should compile a list of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and finalise on a realistic budget. Once all this has been agreed, stick to it – it is when you start making unwanted compromises that your relocation will fall through.