Data center consolidation services
Bring scattered equipment and regional data centers together into one facility. MIGRA plans the consolidation, moves what's going, decommissions what isn't, and helps you close the old site.
Quick answer
What is data center consolidation?
Data center consolidation brings equipment from scattered server rooms or regional data centers together into fewer sites, to cut space, power and operating cost. It combines relocating the equipment that stays, decommissioning what doesn't, and destroying retired hard drives. MIGRA plans and carries out all three. For one bank, MIGRA consolidated 200 devices into a new data center in 8 hours.
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What a data center consolidation involves
A consolidation combines equipment from several rooms, buildings or sites into one data center. It's the right time to retire what you no longer need and refresh what you keep, but it carries every risk of a relocation plus the work of merging environments.
It starts with inventories: hardware, applications, and every component that will be relocated or consolidated, with model and serial numbers, configurations, replacement value, vendor contacts, and how each system is de-installed and re-installed.
The destination must be ready, with fire suppression, cooling adequate for projected growth, utilities and network in place. And while you're focused on the destination, equipment that won't move must be decommissioned and the old facility closed. MIGRA's decommissioning follows the rules that govern sensitive data, supporting FACTA, HIPAA, HITECH and GLBA compliance. The federal reference for wiping or destroying retired drives is NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2, Guidelines for Media Sanitization.
Our consolidation services
- Inventory, dependency mapping and consolidation planning
- Design of the consolidated future state, including net new equipment
- De-racking, packing, secure transport and re-racking
- Decommissioning, hard drive destruction and equipment disposal
- Disaster recovery planning to protect operations during the move
Data center consolidation projects
Two consolidations MIGRA completed ahead of schedule. Across the two moves MIGRA has published in full, the physical work took 38 of 60 planned hours, finishing 37% faster than planned. See the move-window record.
Scattered equipment consolidated into one new data center
Space limits had left most of this bank's equipment scattered throughout the building. MIGRA led eight months of planning and moved 200 devices into a new state-of-the-art data center over a holiday weekend, finishing the physical move in 8 hours.
Read the case study
A regional data center consolidated into headquarters
MIGRA moved 400 servers and devices 1,600 miles by chartered DC-9 so they could be integrated into the existing data center at headquarters, completing the move within 30 hours against a 48-hour estimate.
Read the case studyWhat clients say about MIGRA
“On behalf of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, I’d like to thank the entire MIGRA team which played a pivotal role in the successful movement of our Data Center this past weekend. It was not a trivial undertaking.”
Data center consolidation questions
What is data center consolidation?
Data center consolidation combines equipment from several rooms, buildings or sites into one data center. It is often paired with retiring equipment you no longer need and refreshing what you keep.
What happens to equipment that isn't being moved?
MIGRA decommissions it: hard drive destruction and disposal of electronic equipment, cooling systems and infrastructure, handled by technicians who know the precautions and regulations involved.
How do you plan a data center consolidation?
Planning starts with a detailed inventory of every component to be relocated or consolidated, then a design of the consolidated future state and an implementation plan with move groups, rack layouts and a day-of-move plan.
Have you consolidated data centers before?
Yes. MIGRA consolidated a bank's scattered equipment into one new data center, moving 200 devices in 8 hours, and consolidated a regional data center into a company's headquarters by moving 400 devices 1,600 miles in 30 hours.
Why consolidate data centers?
To reduce space, power, cooling and operating costs, or to combine sites after a merger. Consolidation often pairs with a hardware refresh, as with MIGRA's banking client, which consolidated scattered equipment into one new data center.
Can you consolidate multiple sites in one project?
Yes. MIGRA sequences multiple move groups and sites under one project plan and one project manager.
Planning a data center consolidation?
Call or email us today for your free, no-obligation consultation.