Benefits of Data Center Migration
Many forward-thinking businesses are asking questions such as “What is data center migration?” and “What are its chief benefits?” With promises of cost savings, better efficiency and the elimination of data redundancies, it’s understandable that a significant number of organizations have data center migration top of mind.
What Is Data Center Migration?
In the simplest terms, data center migration is the transfer and deployment of a current data center’s infrastructure to a new operating environment. This process can include the physical movement within an organization of an existing data center to a new location — oftentimes with new equipment involved. But since the rise of cloud-based and platform-as-a-service — or PaaS — technologies, it can also include the migration of an on-premise data center to the cloud and/or a managed data center platform.
What Are the Chief Benefits of Data Center Migration?
Whatever the size of your company, migrating your data center — whether to a new on-premise, hybrid cloud or fully managed service solution — involves a great deal of thought and effort. Yet however daunting it sounds, the following benefits make data center migration worth the effort.
Research and Plan
While they may sound more like requirements of the process, the thorough researching and careful planning that go into a successful migration are benefits in themselves. Because a data center migration forces a business to review both its current and future technologies and data structures, it results in an awareness of the opportunities new forms of data management offer — opportunities that might otherwise be missed or overlooked.
In addition, as a vision becomes clear of where a business wants to be based on its data center migration, it’s critical to establish a plan to get there — as well as a team to coordinate the process. Such a team typically goes beyond IT staff and — for proper buy-in — can even involve project managers and senior management. The result is that a well thought out migration compels a business to both research and plan the best method of data management.
It’s also important to remember that since data center migrations have the potential to greatly improve companies’ data management, solid research and planning are as much benefits as signs of effective migrations.
Cost Savings
Although there are costs involved in data center migrations, the fact remains that once they’re completed, they often result in ongoing — and sometimes substantial — cost savings. From renting space and training personnel to maintaining equipment and paying energy bills, data centers aren’t cheap. By some estimates, the average data center consumes 100 times more energy than a typical office space of equal size.
During a data center migration, everything from data redundancies to wasteful processes can be spotted and addressed. Depending on the solution a business chooses, savings can range from a reduction in servers to the elimination of on-premise equipment — and the associated maintenance costs.
Increased Efficiency
When companies grow faster than their planned data centers’ capacities, the result can be what’s known as data sprawl — a series of temporary fixes that can act as patchwork for inefficient processes. The opposite of data sprawl is the consolidation of data management systems that migrations work hard to implement. Along with reductions in energy usage, data canter migrations promote the most efficient storage and handling of companies’ data.
Since a well-implemented migration can vastly improve a company’s operating environment, the efficiencies that are gained can have a positive impact on its day-to-day productivity.
DataSpan — Streamlined Data Migration
At DataSpan, we provide vendor-agnostic advice and support for streamlined, cost-effective data migration. With more than half of the Fortune 1000 on our pleased client list, our knowledgeable consultants have the expertise to help your business select the solution that meets your needs. For more information, contact us today.
